After this video, the next PTR update was Tracers Pulse Bomb nerf (with Mercys constant nerfing but that doesnt really count)
It doesn’t just feels like. It is a forced esport. For the last 2 years OW exists just to be an esport.
There are clearly no intentions of moving the game forward. I wold understand if it has reached the point of perfection but it is not even close. The game hasn’t left the beta.
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OWL is not forced on anyone
Ah yes, it’s not like they forced 2-2-2 to kill GOATs for sure, a comp only pros played. Not like they nerfed Sombra because of it, or were balancing around that “pros’ only meta” for a year straight.
It isn’t forced on anyone, but the changes to the game because of OWL are. That way, it is forced on everyone.
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You’re a bit late on this, but always welcomed to the Realization Club. 
I think they made this game with the intention that it be made for eSports, but didn’t quite get the resources they needed for it to be “eSports ready” before it was released. So we ended up with a sort of “post-beta” version of the game that they weren’t really ready to release yet, but they had a deadline to meet.
Now if you want a game that’s absolutely a “forced” eSports game, look at Fortnite. The fact they have multi-million dollar tournaments is an absolute joke. They haven’t even figured out how to stop you from randomly falling through your own builds, no-reg is rampant and the audio is absolute trash. Weapon balance is non-existent and there are a billion crutches available to let no-skills win over high-skills. Now that game has no business calling itself competitive.
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I love when people sit there and refuse to listen to Devs.
It’s like the “fake news” crowd all over again.
Here they are, the developers and managers of this community, giving you a direct answer- and it’s entirely ignored.
Seem like it doesn’t work. I suggest going full E-Sport.
Blizz did the opposite once (withheld Brig from S1S3) and everyone hated it, and I don’t recall them ever holding a patch specifically for OWL. Typically a patch has to be live for 2 weeks before it goes to OWL to ensure its stable.
It’s better to have the game be in sync with the most visible esports scene than out of sync and have them playing a different game from the rest of us.
Less events
same amount of events as always though? More actually if you count the mini-events. Unless you mean the volume of content in events, which was just getting exhausting honestly. It’s been one event since they reduced the number of skins, lets wait and see what HT and WW are like.
almost no lore
I’ll give you that one but it was bound to slow eventually and has literally NOTHING to do with the esports scene. Do you think Michael Chu makes the team schedules or something?
terrible balance changes
balance was always bad but now it’s mostly just slow. Certainly better than when they made Mercy the most broken character in history before OWL even debuted.
less communication,
Have you seen how dumb this place is? I wouldn’t talk to us either.
it’s almost like they pulled resources from the game
OW team has been hiring people, not firing them like most other Acti-Blizz teams.
had it not been forced into the pro scene.
There was a pro scene in beta. Blizz just took it up to the next level. The main thing they’re doing wrong is how bad they’re neglecting Contenders, OD and lower seed OWWC teams.
They forced 2-2-2 in order to have better balance. For instance, Rein was trash tier outside of goats, but you can’t buff him without making goats stronger. 2-2-2 allows you to balance easier without having to worry about comps like goats or triple dps.
It feels like a forced eSport because it is a forced eSport. Most games naturally transition into having an eSport scene whereas Blizzard decided to prematurely force an eSport scene and the game has suffered for it.
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Because it is a forced e-sport. I mean, this is the factual history of OWL. There was no grassroots, organic building up of any kind of pro scene.
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It’s silly…I suppose when the next balance patch comes out to address double barrier it’s goin to be because of OWL as well…
And when they added baptiste in middle of GOATS it was because of OWL…
Like we get it…you people don’t like the league…but it sounds silly when you blame everything that happens on it
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Original Starcraft became an eSport outside of Blizzard’s control. It became an eSport because it was an actual competitive game.
OWL is a whole different story – this was funded from the beginning with a broadcast team, stadiums, and paid teams. I can say “forced” is a strong word – but Activision/Blizzard definitely brute forced their way onto the scene with dollar bills, there’s really no question of that.
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The healthiest the game has ever been- yes.
Dive meta was ideal, it rewarded you for grinding high skill characters, unlike recent metas.
So are we just disregarding the whole year prior to OWL where there was a whole pro scene filled with tournaments and events or what
I genuinely saw threads when they put Baptiste’s kit up on the website, and later put him to PTR(?), and threads being made about:
“Blizzard just buffed GOATs!”
“Blizzard wants more GOATs by adding an AoE healer!”
and, honestly? That’s when I knew these forums served no purpose other than to read official Blizzard replies or have a simple discussion.
No one realizes that Balance isn’t always aimed at the META, like with Symmetra’s nerf- it’s not because she was META for the first time, it was because individual Sym’s did 40% more damage than prior to the bugfix.
A stale meta is not healthy.
People were getting really tired of dive, viewership plummet over time and it was hurting the esports scene.
You don’t have a top class tracer? Better buy one, otherwise you will lose and you will probably loose your job.
Being an esports athlete was an very unstable job till OWL came around.
Yes the schedule, the stress etc is burning out young people, but they made already improvements and esports as a whole will mature and get healthy
The people who claimed to be getting sick of dive likely never played a game against dive in their life.
The hero(es) with the highest skill ceilings in the game should be the ones played by the highest skill players in the game.
The fact that the best Tracer players in the world are now forced to play heroes like Reaper just doesn’t feel right.
Even if you don’t consider the fact that dive was such a high skill ceiling meta- it was still the most diverse meta we’ve ever had at the pro level.
Events and lore have nothing to do with the game being ready for the eSports scene. What do those have to do with pros?