This is what happened sometime when teams select players for their skills, instead of trying to be “diverse”.
Its a dying league that no one really cares about. You act like its working when it isnt. people really do care about this, especially in the US
If the roles were reversed korea wouldnt like it if the seoul team were all Americans either
Its not that I hate foreigners, its that owl teams do a bad job of connecting with American cities.
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It just seems weird, shouldn’t the team that’s representing a city be primarily made up of people from said city?
Other parts of the world probably care less than the US tbh.
The league needs the US though and people here do care about this. It is a bit racist sure, Korea is very racist too though lol
It’s dying for many other reasons, a lot of it from covid, saying it’s because the Koreans are too good isn’t really based on evidence.
Except mixed rosters are a normal thing in the league. Seoul Inferno has had many white/Latinos and Koreans playing together. Korea and China* (which I’m guessing is what you actually meant) are the two biggest Asian overwatch countries and play together on mixed rosters like the Hangzhou Spark. Shanghai, one of the most important cities in China, has had a full Korean main roster for a while. Their fans don’t care because they usually do great, they like to see their city winning OWL.
I’ve only seen these opinions on the forums, not on reddit, twitter etc and not in OWL games other than a few edgy jokes. It’s not really an issue, just something you get used to until it’s not noteworthy.
They need something to relate to those cities and currently there is nothing doing that. Cant see them play live at home and the team is mostly people from other countries
Might as well not be tied to those cities at all
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Ive been talking about the US this whole time, China is very different. Try going to Atlanta and finding people who care about the owl team
PogChamps chess tourney is an example of how you don’t need the best players to get a lot of views and attention for the game. Since they started showing streamers playing chess became a lot more popular overall. These guys absolutely suck compared to the best players but people still watch because they are entertaining content. Only problem with OWL is they can’t afford any players like that anymore because they can make more streaming variety and have more fun doing so.
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I mean that was the plan and stadiums were being built to do that and sites chosen to host that and there was about to be a travel schedule for teams to host games at their cities but then the pandemic happened and that basically shut all that down for 3 years and then its hard to rebuild that with the stalled rollout.
It is what its, there is essentially nothing tying the teams and cities together now. Cancelled plans are not doing that.
No you haven’t:
Well first of all how big do you think Overwatch is lol. Despite that:
h ttps://e.sport.fr/live/owl-houston-outlaws-atlanta-reign-en-direct-2-717435.shtm
If you want to talk about the US as a whole then the battle for Texas that happens whenever Dallas Fuel and Houston Outlaws play each other is big live event… between two korean rosters. Or look at SF Shock’s fanbase. Players come and go, it’s the team that matters
Yes i was, i was referring to Americans feeling this way about owl this whole time.
You dont have to like or respect the fact that they feel this way but they do. I didnt even start this thread, other people told you they feel this way too.
It kind of does matter though when laws force them to cancel the plans. The teams had connection to the cities to start and then plans to further those connections but sadly the pandemic happened and the pandemic restrictions forced those to be cancelled.
This was one of the problems the XFL had when it was trying to debut and unfortunately could have zero fans meaning they also had no true connection to the city.
Big is a stretch. They get a couple hundred thousand views on Youtube over the course of many months. Random posts from streamers can beat that
My guy you can only brush past the evidence and arguments I bring up for so long.
You’ve already said yourself that this is coming from racism. If you wanna cut to the chase and say you don’t like Koreans in your teams because you’re being racist (I don’t believe that all Americans are racist) then we could just close this thread out.
Easy to say after the league is dead lol. The turnout is very outsized for the population. Go look at the pre-pandemic events then.
lol ok. I told you Americans feel a disconnect between them and the owl teams that supposedly represent their cities. It is somewhat racist and people really feel this way.
Most people have biased thoughts about others that are different from them.
Go to south Korea as an American and you will experience more bias and racism there than they do here.
Minor forms of bias and racism exist dude, and they are a factor in owl and its fan base.
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But that happens in other sports too? NHL in particular as a couple of us mentioned earlier in the thread has a ton of players not from the US at all, with some players who don’t even speak English.
You can relate to players without them being from your home town or even nationality. Some sports are extremely localized such as American Football. Which is barely a thing outside of the US at all.
You’re allowed to not like it of course, but it’s also completely normal thing as far as most sports are concerned.
Its still different because local fans gather in large numbers to watch the game live in those cities. They are big local events.
Owl doest really have anything actually connecting it to the city
Sure, though that’s really more so a matter of outreach efforts and less to do with nationality of the players. OWL was poorly run and managed. I think the other hurdle I touched on earlier is culture. Here in the US, a lot of people still do not see gaming as a sport at all. It’s going to be a lot harder to get those crowds and excited fans in the first place, especially with how different various parts of the US are to one another.
OWL should have done more to interact and make itself known as a sport you could go to and watch. Unless you played OW and happened to look up OWL and were interested in the scene online, there’s nothing to tell people it even exists.
I agree, I made some vague posts in this thread that people didnt take like i thought they would.
That would be the bigger factor for sure, but I think the nationality one does exist too. I didnt even make this thread, people out there really do feel that way too