Well, as a player of old RTSs before warcraft, a lot!
Starcrafts 3 different faction playstyle came from Dune, and CnC.
Wow has a lot to thank EverQuest for.
Diablo, I would be willing to say was a thing they did create. That was new.
Starcraft in its very early development it was going to be an adaptation of the Warhammer 40k universe into an RTS .
Waracraft is heavy inspired by lord of the rings. There is a lot got borrow from the Tolkien universe, as most high fantasy does.
Like i wouldnt say copy, but DUNE 2 was the first successful rts game before blizzard made this and was inspired by it. Also herog zwei.
What blizzard did was they did it better than any before them, sort of like what riot is doing now.
Diablo was more unique though slightly inspired by zelda.
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You are comparing a board game to rts game although somewhat similar massively different. Nothing is close. Warcraft might have fantasy in it but it is not from Lord of the rings. Where do you get your drugs from I need some good drugs!
Starcraft was invented by blizzard they did not copy anyone dune was nothing like sc. Let’s start comparing air planes to trains because they are both vehicles.
Yes, apologies, I referred to this in a response to someone else.
I guess the main question is “will it ever be profitable?”. At the moment, it’s an interesting trend but nobody has managed to make the actual sport part anything more than a marketing tool for the core game.
Call of Duty (while I don’t like the game) is wildly successful. My gut says follow that model as it’s something they know how to do. Maximized IP with esport an experiment.
Part of my opinion is that Overwatch is too complex to be a mainstream esport and balance is impossible in a game with so many variables. I can’t see it being any bigger than appealing to a niche audience.
If I was advising them, I would say go for the CoD route.
CoD mobile is already at 1B revenue. Again, I don’t like mobile gaming but there is enough to suggest that a mobile expansion would be more profitable than OwL.
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Hmmm its goes like this
This was the first RTS game iiin 1980s i think
Then came DUNE 2 1992
Inspired by these warcraft was made in 94, but they chose orcs and stuff as theme.
starcraft came much later and was inspired by warcraft.
So we can conclude blizzard didnt creat rts genre right, they just did it right and better than others.
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Let’s just sum everything up. Blizzard started eSports with battle net. Blizzard has never not been in the lead for eSports. Blizzard just got bought by Microsoft. Under Microsoft ownership I do not see them loosing the crown of king of eSports
I hear key people left Respawn
EA is like Blizzard and Apex goes same way with Overwatch. Current season is very nice in Apex, made game literally unplayable for lot of people dat is beyond Blizzard™ quality ha
Now they are targeting fighting games esports scene with project L.
That strongly looks like GGXX knockoff
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Wrong, Doom was the first esports game with tournaments, even though if you include arcade fighting game tournaments it goes longer than that.
If anything starcraft was their only actual break into esports and it happened organically without much of blizzard involvement or focus.
They cant loose something they dont have obviously 
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Blinks. So, you completely don’t know anything about Street Fighter 2 or Doom.
Wow, these young people have a WEIRD view of gaming. Like, some of us were in the esports scene before Blizzard was really a thing.
Gaming history is totally lost I guess on some people.
Gaming was around before you favorite company existed. People made games before Blizzard was a thing.
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There are a lot of people on this forum born way after battle net was established . And for people talking about LOL I remember when it was DOTA on battle net
There is also a lot of people who were gamers before Blizzard existed.
Gaming has always been a sport but I think he’s saying e sports as we know it today did kinda start with star craft. Sure there were tournaments for street fighter but the big money was in rts iirc
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I know I’m just saying I don’t think the average age of the board is 30+ but I could be wrong
Battle net was the first online gaming service bringing a whole new aspect to gaming. Yes doom had tournaments but battle net made eSports the way they are now
Yeah, I mean, some of us are 50ish, and were playing games back when we had to code them ourselves from code in magazines.
Having people come along and not understand ANYTHING about where gaming has come from, and when esports started, or even been around long enough to see the evolution of various genres is pretty crazy stuff.
Yeah Starcraft was a high point in esports, but it wasn’t the start of it at all.
Battle net was the first online gaming service bringing a whole new aspect to gaming.
Not even close. Networked games and launchers for networked games were WELL established before battlenet existed.
You were just so late to the scene you think what you saw was new. It was more polished. Not it was nothing like new.
Network games! Not online
Yes, shocking, to you, but again, networked games existed before battlenet.
Network game launches existed before battlenet.
Networked games existed before the internet.
I used to dial up friends for games.
You are SO far out of what was happening history wise. Were you even around before the internet?
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I mean it started with doom, fighting games, and quake, if anything by the time starcraft got traction in south korea, csgo was there as the marque esports game.
Also halo had its own league for console gaming and a televised tv show.
I mean im not ripping of blizzard of titles, they did great and sc was a great esport and one of the firsts. But blizzard werent the inventors.