Overwatch was once the future of esports. It was. It really was the world's premier, esport league, where teams and players can thrive for years to come. Wait leave my hands nah, you can say it wasn't all you want um.

You guys always forget the beginning of the game and how great it was still like, with the first big tournaments, like um, like uh atlantic showdown and like esl, and i think the big tournament that we had like 70k 80k viewers. It was madness, like the hype was on the new game, it was just both feet and it just kind of crashed and burned. You know that's kind of how it is, and fans are made for life. Well, i'm talking to you, i'm taking your trap, esports fans and even casual players.

Everyone was hyped. This is awesome. This is incredible. I said oh hold on hold on beast that manly voice.

He grabbed the broken arm. Okay, i like her that was shot. Who was that awesome? This is incredible, but just a few years later the hype is gone and the game, like me dying, i would rather do push-ups. I would rather lose weight.

I would rather run a mile things like that. Those are some things. I'd rather do than play overwatch right now, because it is boring as f. Well dude, there's there's also a big change that the os league just gon na die completely.

How about you balance your game instead? Next time? Oh, my god, i hate this game, so we had to ask: where did overwatch go so wrong? I'm just letting the fans give their uh the fans here in the studio give their opinion. The overwatch league was supposed to change esports forever between the alleged multi-million dollar buy-ins local game days for city-based teams and the involvement of some of the biggest organizations in professional sports. It really did seem like the overwatch league was going to be the future of esports right and then it all collapsed. Poor decisions, neglect and just plain bad luck, torched what should have been one of the biggest esports in the world, leaving everyone disappointed.

But how did we get here because all the way back in 2014, when overwatch was announced, it looked like one of the most exciting games, we've seen in a long time, overwatch promised a different take on fps. It was, it was more colorful drew some mechanics from mobas and just generally seemed like a new approach to a genre that was often intimidating to new players and at first it seemed like blizzard's bet, paid off nine point: seven million players logged on to overwatch's open Beta in 2016, and just what do you, but it doesn't count because covet cooked that kobe, dug everything, stop singling things out and making an excuse for something failing because it covered it could have everything up. What are you on about a few months after launch the game had 20 million registered players overwatch quickly developed a small, mostly unofficial, esports scene, but blizzard had something bigger in mind. Blizzard entertainment is proud to announce the overwatch league, a global, world-class esport league, designed from the ground up to celebrate the best of the best on their path to victory.

The overwatch league promised to revolutionize the future of oh, my god. I can't wait to base franchise format like the nba or nfl. This was unheard of in esports, but what was even crazier was the alleged buy-in. According to former espn reporter jacob wolf, blizzard was allegedly asking for 20 million dollars for each franchise spot in the overwatch league, backed by major esports teams and huge investors from traditional sports like the craft family who own the new england patriots among other sports teams.

We see it as a great opportunity and, and what i like about it more than anything, is that it's a way to connect globally. At first, the confidence seemed earned, people were genuinely excited for the owl, viewership was solid, the venue was always packed and people seem to like cheering for their home teams, guys guys, listen, i've said a story, man, it adds to the story a lot of times before. Okay, don't get mad at me for saying it. Okay, the venue was not packed.

Okay, i wan na. I don't wan na ruin it. Okay. I've said it before i'll, say it again: okay, okay, guys! I don't i don't.

I don't wan na film under the bus for this okay, but this is how it works. Okay, this is the arena. Okay, this is the arena like this, and people perform on stage over here right and the stands. Um were like this right.

These are the the the stands where you will watch the show right so basically um. The first gimmick the first day of the day. Every day, the first, the first getting first match um the people wouldn't come down. The middle aisle like this under in the tunnel right and go to their sides.

That's not how it went the first end of the day. Um you would go behind uh behind the the curtains and you would walk like this and like that and like this, and then you would go right. So every team would go from the back uh behind the curtains and would walk to the side of the of the entrance. And that's, i would yeah that's how you would walk to go perform on stage and the reason why that is is because whenever you look at it from a 30 perspective, okay, the stands were empty.

No, there was a lot of people that would go to the games early in the day, so the stands uh naturally um they. Basically, they put the camera on the ground right and it would only look at the bottom floor, which was the people that were seated all right and you weren't people would not. You couldn't sit up top or in the stands you couldn't, they maybe will sit um at the bottom on the ground floor. So people had this on the ground floor and they made it.

So the cameras would pan out like this and only look at the ground floor as people would walk this stage because they make the stage look full right, because all the seats are all the seats are full and everybody's everybody everybody's there. But in fact, when you, when, when you would when you would go to sit down over here right, let's see this was, if there's nobody, it was zero. This is actually nice single person sitting there. It was just kind of it was just kind of uh right and, as as a day filled up and you get it, you get more people that would spit out a little bit right and then the team in the middle of the day, it would go through The middle aisle - and you know that that's gon na how it was that's that did it, that's how it was confident seemed earned.

People were genuinely excited for the owl. Viewership was solid. The venue was always packed - it's normal, i think, but and people seem to like cheering for their home teams. Over 300 000 people watch, the london spitfire become the first ever overwatch league champions, with 20 000 more fans in attendance.

There's one thing in the story: i guess i guess i i won't be weird. Okay, last pause; okay, i i want to make it weird and be like, and then she don't want and should i watch like too much okay, i don't want to be weird about it. The other reason i'm saying this story - hey it's just to give you perspective on how it felt as a player um, how it felt um, sometimes that things were hyped up a lot and a lot of cheers a lot, a lot of grandiose right and here's a Player, you see what is projected in people, you see what our people are meant to see. You see what is being pushed as what's going on and you're sitting there at the desk looking over and you that you see the opposite and it just.

It felt. Sometimes a little sad, almost almost a little depressing just like when they show the pictures of all the other people wear like jerseys or shirts. Now all the oh, my god, look at all those shirts and then you would walk to the practice arena or the practice. Um backstage right and you would go through the alleyway and it would open the door to where they had all the stocks.

Uh, all the other clothing and and they had like hundreds of thousands of shirts. A lot of people would actually go and buy that. I don't know the duality was always kind of weird for me: um, seeing all the like really like expensive items, expensive so very like rich, almost like luxurious things, but like not a lot of input. It just felt kind of sad juno can't get there for resin.

They only need one tick, they are so close, philly's desperate, but there goes poco and london spitfire have done it. They will fly high, as seemed like. The overwatch league was poised for massive success, but then everything went wrong. So how exactly i i left.

That's what happened and then it is what it is to hate it so quickly. Well, first blizzard seemed to have no idea how to balance their game what's up everyone. This is jeff here with another developer, update to tell you about something. Super awesome, which is big changes coming for mercy, for example, when blizzard tried to rework mercy's resurrect ultimate, they unintentionally buffed her to must pick or throwing status the mercy meta took over the game.

Oh yeah, it's not hard to see why just look at muselk rez three times in 15 seconds, uh ready to go, i'm not seeing a kill, yet hey, hey and he's back again, okay and then you're back again boys. Thank you! Infinite resuscitation! Jesus okay and give me just one second and we're back again: boys blizzard nerfed mercy into the ground after that, but then they made things worse. Goats. Can you explain what goats is? We've talked about goats plenty of times before, but basically blizzard accidentally balanced the game in such a way that the optimal comp at a high level was three tanks: three healers and no dps the death ball of beefy health bars, big shields and endless healing, ran over Or wombo comboed any other comp crabs, both ready shattering the corner, not gon na, be able to find anything, though the shield is up now super's gon na have one of his own.

In just a moment, sinatra grabs gon na be online answering shatter, managed to find something suit into the front. The three step is gon na be coming down for twilight but sinatra still holding on to the grab answering grab coming through from vancouver locks him in the sound barrier. Oh my god, he does it again. We sold from him yesterday to get the victory over the charge.

Now he does it to take the win on king's row. One of the big problems with this is that goats was what i love about. This is that the commentators would stop and do play-by-play and and analyze right right. So what happened here is that they put the shield here they did, that they put the beat there the disney and they timed the the bomb right with the gravity and charged out, and it did this this and that and then they thought we need to use B and they shattered this dude that end right and then they go okay.

Well, let's see the comms guys guys guys. Where are you i'm? I think you're dead, i'm guessing guys what's happening guys are you dead? You have shatter? I don't know you guys. Nobody knows whenever we know what the is going on like he does it again yesterday to get the victory over the charge. Now he does it to take the win on king's row.

One of the big problems with this is that goats was boring as hell to want this to happen. Barely any of the goat's heroes required to use beyond timing back in the beta, you had mechanically demanding heroes, i.e, you have to click on heads to get kills. You still had that with mccree. You still had that with um.

You know widowmaker tracer, these sorts of heroes right where mechanically gifted players could shine, but then they kept adding in heroes that could displace they had it in heroes that had barriers. Needless to say, the overwatch league suffered as a result of goats. It wasn't just boring to watch it also sucked to play and the player base got bored and pissed. I would rather push ups.

I would rather lose weight. I would rather run a mile things like that. Those are some things. I'd rather do than play overwatch right now, because it is boring as f.

We do see the outlaws are going to pull out dante's tracer. This has been some. Some of the things that outlaws fans have been waiting for is a good tracer player on houston. It's jake on the far this combos worked well for them before, but as soon as they see the defensive setup, they will just simply swap it away crucial time lost here for the outlaws, i'm just letting the fans give their uh.

The fans here in the studio give their opinion. Well, you know you want your team to win right. They're gon na have to play what's better pro dps players were left out of goats and found themselves out of a job, and so you're going to have guys. Like you know, tavik, i need a qd like all these.

These are these like pure damage deals. This guy had one of the best aim and he played on a uh on a really wrist sized glass mouse, guys they're, just gon na fall off because you're you're going to instead lean into the guys who can play the may or you know who can play Those kinds of multi multi-role heroes they get lumped into damage and then all of a sudden. Well there you are you're not going to see the damage. Dealers you're going to see the maze and nobody wants to see the maze.

Sorry, it's just not exciting. Remember overwatch was supposed to be a fresh take on fps games, but with goats it wasn't even really a shooter anymore. The game lost the spammer, but that's not all it lost. In 2020, blizzard cut a 160 million dollar deal with youtube.

Moving overwatch league streams exclusively to that platform instead of broadcasting on twitch fans hated. This decision and overwatch league's peak twitch was never gon na play that much not not even close. I don't know how the they got that deal in the first one guys, as i don't know about why by the scenes, but i know for a fact: twitch would have never pretty close to that amount. Viewership dropped significantly, and so, when you're, not on twitch.

All of us you're going to lose that click-through traffic of just people, kind of who are idling or doing something else working you know and then all of a sudden, it's like! Oh you know, it's live it's not quite the same thing with youtube. It's harder to find the channel you're, not just going to you know, click into youtube. I don't even know like what about logic. I mean they're people that stream on youtube.

I never see them, but, and so that's gon na be a frustrating thing. It's like when um facebook was a thing right. Facebook streaming thing: you know: numbers went off a cliff same thing, so when you're not on twitch, it's going to be you're choosing a much more difficult path, so the meta sucked viewership was in the toilet logic. Well, remember how the overwatch league was supposed to be a city-based league by 2020 that still hadn't happened.

Blizzard had plans to have teams flying internationally for home and away games, but that just seemed too ambitious for well everyone. Well, according to a report from upcomer, the london spitfire will apparently have to travel an estimated 76 923 miles during season three, and according to that same report, the boston uprising will have to travel an estimated 71 460 miles as well flying all over the world. All season long is stressful and most pros preferred the idea of just staying home all day and streaming on twitch. Instead, after all, they'd probably pick up more views than the overwatch league would on youtube.

Okay players began retiring ahead of the planned home and away game format, many of them moving to valorant riot's newly announced tactical shooter that looked like it was angling for overwatch's player base. I think if anything overwatch was just like a stepping stone to get here where i am now, because now i'm at my shift man, i'm playing a game. That's like a hybrid of like cs and overwatch. It's easy to say that valerie is so funny.

Overwatch is coughing guys, guys guys this guy always felt like a high school typical chat. Dude that i did itself is to blame for the game's downfall. When overwatch came out in 2016, you know they mean like chill with the hottest dudes at the at the chess restaurants or whatever right those they made it actually at the coolest clubs, with the hottest and one of the coolest clothes. It is one of the most beloved companies in gaming.

Since then, the reputation has been destroyed by scandals baffling business decisions and the reveal that women employees are treated horribly at the company balance issues and weird league format that didn't end up actually happening because of coven. Aside, a lot of people just didn't want to play blizzard games anymore, but blizzard wants people to remember the good old days of 2016 when they were hyped for a new overwatch game. Monsieur. Does this mean overall watch? Don't do it they're, not gon na play the don't, do it? Yes, no! Yes, we are okay.

Okay, someone needs to get fired. I don't give a i! I don't give a who whoever is working at esports. Okay, if you miss this meme, that's that's that's right. They announced overwatch 2., but why fans asked why there even needed to be monsieur? Does this mean overwatch is back no in overwatch two when features are added to overwatch one all the time they thought it was a money grab.

Making people pay fifty dollars to keep playing literally the same thing, with an updated ui you're dealing with a stone, cold killer pilot, same game, overwatch two was blizzard finally delivering the death blow to overwatch one. After all, why play the game when it's just a waiting room for the sequel? The overwatch league suffered too kovid annihilated excitement for the game because of online play, but now the whole league was blindsided by finding out that they were playing a game that didn't even matter anymore, not to mention the fact that overwatch 2 was moving from 6v6 to 5V5, in an attempt to cover for blizzard's total inability to balance the game that meant that every franchise was gon na have to cut a starting player and pros were not clifton took the game. Do you think you think 5v5 is the solution? How about you balance your game instead, next time the game keeps getting delayed and sometimes you're going to be playing the next season of the overwatch league on an unreleased version of overwatch 2, which doesn't candy crush inspire a lot of confidence for me. If the game isn't ready and the community gets that initial touch and they're not happy with it, that's in my opinion, really bad for the game, the esport and potentially blizzard.

Ultimately, it wasn't one thing that came out to watch esports, it wasn't mercy or brigitta or goats. It wasn't moving to you chat. Aren't they like milking a lot of money out of a hearthstone still because of micros youtube or planning home and away games? It wasn't charging insane prices to get into a league that few ended up caring about it. Wasn't valor entered overwatch 2 either what killed overwatch was 55.

It was an avalanche of decisions that kneecapped the game before it could really succeed and become the massive esport its fans knew it could be, but the game is still popular, casual fans love it and they always have there's still a good game hiding under all of Blizzard's mistakes and screw-ups the overwatch league is still chugging along and blizzard is going to use overwatch 2 as a fresh start. The question is: can anyone really trust two years this time, thanks for watching? If you got this, this episode, you had a very bad timing. Very bad timing, chat with with the with the blizzard incident, give me.