The Overwatch League is again tonight for its second season, seeing 20 groups face off in an try to be topped the last word champions. Will the London Spitfire handle to repeat their successes? Can anybody cease the powerhouse that’s the New York Excelsior? Will the Shanghai Dragons lastly internet their first win? It all kicks off at 4pm PST/12am GMT, and you’ll watch alongside on Twitch.
But…it’s harder to look ahead to after these layoffs this week, isn’t it?
It would often be truthful to say that I’m the treehouse’s resident Overwatch League fanatic (I’ve an entire weekly column about it, in any case) but it surely’s arduous to really feel that enthusiasm proper now. Esports was one of many areas hit arduous by this week’s cuts, which noticed Activision Blizzard drop 8% of their staff despite achieving record profits in 2018.
To take only one instance, one in all my private favorite issues about protecting the League was utilizing Robert Paul’s photography (for instance, within the header picture of this submit). Every shot managed to seize what makes these occasions thrilling to me: the uninhibited cheering of a fan; the plain emotion of the gamers; the brilliant, showy colors all over the place.
Paul says that he’ll “be there for Week 1,” and that “it’s possible [he’ll] be at the arena here and there” after that, however I actually don’t suppose that the Overwatch League would be the similar with out his fixed presence, documenting each a part of the competitors. And whereas he could be one of many best examples to highlight due to the inherently front-and-centre nature of his work, he’s solely one in all roughly 800 individuals throughout Activision Blizzard who deserved higher than this company greed.
There’s solely a lot left to say after the trade’s suffered swathe after swathe of layoffs. One factor that bears repeating is just: unionise.
In the meantime, will I nonetheless be getting up at 4am to see the Dragons get their first ever win? Probably. The world is flawed and I discover it finest to grab that pleasure the place doable. But ah, Blizzard never have made that easy.
Quite a lot of very hardworking individuals might be bringing the Overwatch League to you tonight; at the very least spend a while being grateful for his or her unbelievable effort as season two will get underway. You can discover a full schedule of occasions at their web site.
