ORIGINAL STORY
Are you sad that the Overwatch League might be gone soon? What are your favorite memories of it? Let us know below!
UPDATE
As nearly any entertainment entity will tell you, there are times when a “good idea” seems right in front of them, and they jump on it to see what happens and how far they can “ride the wave.” Sometimes, it goes really far, and everyone is happy. Other times, it falls flat almost immediately, and it’s just as quickly scrapped. Then, there are things like the Overwatch League, which started red hot and was one of the biggest things in gaming, and then a series of unfortunate events both inside and outside the league led to it falling from grace and clinging to life.
That “clinging to life” phase is where Activision Blizzard is with its eSports league currently. A new report from insider Jacob Wolf has stated that the company has gone to the 20 remaining teams in its league and gave them some options on how they were to go forward. They could try and continue on with Overwatch 2, or they could simply dissolve the league. Most agree that the teams are likely to dissolve the whole thing, and that will lead to a unique result, given recent events.
What do we mean by that? Well, the Activision Blizzard merger with Xbox/Microsoft has been approved and finalized. So, technically, anything “bad” that happens with things under the Activision Blizzard banner would now fall at the feat of Xbox and its parent company.
We speak of the “termination fees” that the Overwatch League agreed to pay should they shut everything down. The various league teams hired a law firm to help them should the worst come to pass, and the payout will be huge. As the report details, the various teams and their owners paid about $7.5 million to get in, and then there were the “operating fees” to train the team, get uniforms, house them, etc. By the end of the negotiations, Activision Blizzard agreed to pay each team $6 million should the league shut down.
But now, because of the merger/buyout, Microsoft would be paying that fee. Oops.
As many have detailed in past reports, the Overwatch League has been doomed since the pandemic hit and shut events like theirs down. Plus, while there was lots of initial buzz about the “future of eSports” through the league, it had many internal problems that held it back, including many issues with players and team composition. Even if the pandemic didn’t happen, there was no guarantee it would last.
Plus, when you look at the current state of Overwatch 2, the league is definitely doomed.
