The Overwatch League (OWL) will officially kick off on May 6, and the game version will also enter Overwatch 2 starting this year. But to this day, no sponsor is willing to sponsor OWL. In order to solve this problem, the official is also actively communicating with previous sponsors such as Coca-Cola, hoping to re-establish cooperation.
To be honest, as a loyal OWL viewer, I couldn't believe it myself when I heard the news. Even if it is no longer the era of "Blizzard production, must be a boutique", but "Overwatch", as one of the ace IP in Blizzard's hands, its official event has fallen into the dilemma of no sponsor, and the strong sense of gap is really a bit regrettable. But after reviewing the series of operations of Blizzard during this time, such a situation does not seem to be so difficult to accept, and it can even be said to be inevitable to some extent.
Judging from Blizzard's several long-term online games, "Storm Heroes" and "Overwatch" these online games have been "half dead" for a long time, "Storm wants fire" has also changed from an illusion of storm players to a self-deprecating self-deprecation of such a dilemma as "Storm Hero", if you want to be realistic, I think "Storm wants fire (chemical)" may be more suitable. After all, such a game that even the official event was cancelled early, it is difficult to say that Blizzard still has some enthusiasm for it.
Is Overwatch better than Heroes of the Storm? The answer is yes, after all, the official OWL competition has always been going on, and at the moment when "Overwatch" is about to iterate, the Shanghai Dragon Team has also drawn a perfect end to the 1.0 era with a championship. Not long ago, the champion skin "Xuantian Candle Dragon" has just been launched. It can be said that the official event is still held normally, and the game content can be updated and rotated occasionally, which is definitely better than "Heroes of the Storm", but the gap is not too big.
In fact, since the production team chose to lock in the "222" lineup in order to limit the "303" rampage, it has fallen into the strange circle of "I teach players to play games", which is obviously very wrong, and the deterioration of the Overwatch environment is not difficult to predict, and the balance of some characters is even more difficult to say. "Echo", as the new hero of Overwatch 1.0, has been weakened one after another since its release: the sticky bomb damage of the right button has been reduced, the E skill focus light as a skill with a slashing effect has also been weakened due to too strong, the range has changed from 20 meters to 15 meters, and the recharge consumption of Echo's big move has also increased by 15%...
But even so, echoes are still one of the most popular outputs in passers-by and in games, making it hard to believe that designers have done a balance test. After the hero lands in the official suit, the skill intensity is adjusted, which will obviously have a serious impact on the player's game experience. Such a game balance, it is inevitable that players will spit out a sentence of "I can do it on me".
However, although the very bad balance is worth the player's complaint, what really affects the game experience is the update frequency of the past two years like a pool of backwater: nearly two years have passed since the release of the last hero of the Echo, and the most recent map update is also the Spring Festival event in 2021, not to mention that the so-called map update is only a "iron plate" such a deathmatch map. With such an update frequency and content, it is difficult to retain too many players.
However, there has also been news that "Overwatch" has basically stopped updating now because the production team has fully focused on the development of Overwatch 2. If the official is to give Overwatch 2 a "big move", which has led to "Overwatch" not being updated for such a long time, at least I myself accept it. After all, many people, including me, must still have a glimmer of hope that when Overwatch 2 is launched, we can relive the joy of the summer of 2016.
Is there a chance that this idea will come to fruition? In my opinion, it is more difficult, after all, "Overwatch" has gradually evolved from the beginning of the acclaim and popularity to a half-dead online game. In the upcoming Overwatch 2 beta, new content includes a new mode of "Maneuver Propulsion" and four new maps, as well as a new hero, "Sogyen". Even though the beta release is just the tip of the iceberg for Overwatch 2, it still looks a bit stretched.
In addition, the design of the mandatory "222" lineup in Overwatch has not changed much even in Overwatch 2. Although the game mode became 5v5, it still chose to limit the game lineup in a "122" way. Faced with a production team that still wants to "teach players to play the game," it's hard not to doubt that they'll do other outrageous operations in the future.
Even if we don't mention the quality of the game, just from the Blizzard itself and the Overwatch League, they are not a good target for these sponsors. Some time ago, a series of sex scandals within Blizzard led to the departure of many executives. More than 2,500 employees have chosen to protest sexual harassment by means of strikes. Among the many employees who denounced, including Jesse McRae, the chief designer of Diablo, in the end, "McRae" chose to leave, and the cowboy holding the revolver in "Overwatch" also became Cassidy...
Blizzard itself is also seriously injured by this rhythm, if the earliest "Blizzard production, must be a boutique" era is almost full of white, then after the "Diablo" mobile game and "Diablo 2 remake", the reputation has plummeted. Fueled by scandals such as sexual harassment, blackness has become a kind of "zzzq".
Although the time bomb of the sex scandal has been detonated once within Blizzard, it is obviously difficult for outsiders to judge whether there are other hidden "bombs" within this company, and if the sponsor chooses to enter the market to provide sponsorship, it means that the "Schrödinger bomb" will be carried on the body, and it is entirely up to luck to see whether it will explode.
In addition, the popularity of "Overwatch" in the past two years has been declining, and the number of people who pay attention to OWL is even fewer, even if "Overwatch 2" can save some players after the announcement, and even the popularity of the event can rise, but now this is only a guess. Compared with the real negative news, it is still not enough to see, and it is not a wise move for sponsors who focus on brand effects and positive images to choose to end the cooperation.
Of course, the upcoming start of the tournament but still no sponsor is somewhat embarrassing, but under the premise that the schedule has been announced, there is a high probability that it can still be held as scheduled. After all, as mentioned in the title of the article, Activision Blizzard after having "Father" is different from the past, and if we still can't find a sponsor in the remaining months, then we are likely to see a big "Microsoft" logo on the sponsor page at the beginning of the OWL.