Prospects of eSports?

[Toralin]

Like all Blizzard games, eSports does seem to be a key focus. Do you think this will be played on MLG/ESL type tournaments? I honestly hope so.. it seems a lot more interesting to watch than, say, Dota.

[Dispirit]

Blizzard seemed interested in turning Overwatch into an e-sport. Really hope they can pull it off.

[Deleted]

I would hope so. But it is very very early to tell if there is a chance of it working.

Look at Heroes, alot of people said it would never work, I think the mini-tournament at Blizzcon was fine for a first time.

[Coombs]

All sports only need 1 thing to be viable, and that is a following to make it profitable. It can be the lamest, most skill-less, repetitive pile of shit on the market. If 100k+ viewers watch it regularly though it will become an esport.

[Deleted]

The key difference is that Blizzard actively works with the e-sport side of things - the WoW, Starcraft and Hearthstone tournaments at Blizzcon are basically the World Series for these games and Blizzard supports that. Some other game could be the most BEST game ever, in terms of being an e-sport, but without the much needed support, it won't gain traction, it won't attract sponsors and it won't gain a sizeable enough audience.

Yes, Heroes of going to have a hard time breaking into the MOBA market, and the FPS market is pretty much oversaturated as it is, but the key ingredient for a game to become a popular e-sport is the support, and there's no denying that both Heroes and Overwatch will get the support it needs, from it's own developer.

[Toralin]

All sports only need 1 thing to be viable, and that is a following to make it profitable. It can be the lamest, most skill-less, repetitive pile of shit on the market. If 100k+ viewers watch it regularly though it will become an esport.

While that's true, there has to be a reason why those 100k+ are watching.

[Rinoa]

As evidenced by Hearthstone, a game does not require great balance or a very heavy weight placed on player skill to succees as an eSport (random card draws ETC make it very random as far as a high level 'traditional' eSport game goes). If there is an audience for it, if there is enough interest and enough money, Overwatch will become an eSport. If not, then it quite simply won't.

I do hope it will though, as I imagine I'd enjoy watching high level plays and strategies.

[Deleted]

I could imagine that it will be an esports game. But I'm not sure if the viewer-count / viewer-acceptance on streaming-sites will be as high as it is for dota, lol or hearthstone. First person shooters are somewhat hard to follow as a viewer - especially if they have a multi-colored animations flying all over your screen.

[Scandral]

A proper ranking system with some great tools for observing can make this a really nice competitive game.

[Deleted]

I can see this easily becoming a competitive game. Blizzard no doubt wanna push that front, and frankly it has the potential just from what we've seen. Though I don't think anything like this will ever be as big as the highly strategic games such as LoL and Dota. They simply have the depth to truly foster that kind of environment. It's a little more difficult with a shooter but I can at least see smaller-time tourneys and shoutcasting being huge.

[Toralin]

A proper ranking system with some great tools for observing can make this a really nice competitive game.

Actually, I think this is key. If there is actually a ranking system and not just casual server lists I can see this becoming great.

Reference the Hearthstone comments, I find it odd how it seems to be perceived as a successful eSport as after watching the live finals (don't remember the name of the tournament, I think it was a Bliz one) it was honestly the most boring thing I've ever watch. Even the competitors looked bored. Which was a shame as I love Hearthstone.

[bobo333]

from the sound of it there's going to be a tactical depth to it so i can see them trying. they have the resources and the contacts, no reason why they shouldn't

[Deleted]

As evidenced by Hearthstone, a game does not require great balance or a very heavy weight placed on player skill to succees as an eSport (random card draws ETC make it very random as far as a high level 'traditional' eSport game goes). If there is an audience for it, if there is enough interest and enough money, Overwatch will become an eSport. If not, then it quite simply won't.

I do hope it will though, as I imagine I'd enjoy watching high level plays and strategies.

I kind of disagree on the assesment of that it would not put emphasis on player skill.

It would indirectly try to assert that randomly drawn card games, do not yield skill.

Which would be quite frankly silly - Given that Poker is also a game in this vain, yet very skill determined.

[Rinoa]

I specifically used the phrase "very heavy weight placed on player skill" to mean exactly that. There certainly is a lot of skill in constructing great decks, and knowing how to properly utilise the cards within that deck - of that there is no doubt. Though as much as the previous statement is true, it is also true that quite a lot of matches are won based on who gets the better draws. That part of the game is not related to skill, and also not that comparable to poker, as you can heavily minimise your losses by not betting high (in HS each hand and draw matters a *lot* as your chances are extremely limited), or attempting to bluff - something that's also much more common and simple than in Hearthstone. It's not a very good comparison I think.

[Deleted]

Which would be quite frankly silly - Given that Poker is also a game in this vain, yet very skill determined.

I do not agree with you. Hearthstone and Poker are very far away from eachother. In poker it is all about reading the game and know when to play your hand. In Hearthstone you have no freaking clue what cards the opponent has. You could also get 8 shitcards after eachother and then you are pretty much screwed.

[ContentsMayVary]

In a game with a significant random factor like Hearthstone (or Backgammon, or MtG) you have to play a lot more games for the skill level to show through the RNG factor. (At least we don't get mana screw in Hearthstone - I've lost count of the number of MtGO games I lost only due to mana screw or flood...)

[Deleted]

Uhm, yeah. Play Hearthstone on a high level for a while and then come back, please. It's very different from Poker, but all the points given in this thread apply to both games, just differently weighted. Only valid reason was the one with sitting turns out and stuff, in Hearthstone you have to face bad draws, matchups and so on. But even that can be somewhat managed, knowing the meta and the players you play against. The variance in Poker is also fucking huge, so I don't know where those "yes, but..." arguments come from.

OT: The better question would be, how could this not get an e-Sport? People really need to adapt, HotS will show how few "advanced" mechanics a game needs. It's much more action packed than any other MOBA before and finally sets the focus on consistent play over snowball moments.

[Arenis]

Auto-targetting attacks, see-through-wall abilities, massive AoE attacks going through walls...

Yeah this game will probably have enough PR to make it profitable in the esports scene, but its "top level" will probably look laughable to more dedicated FPS players...

[Alarinth]

Yeah this game will probably have enough PR to make it profitable in the esports scene, but its "top level" will probably look laughable to more dedicated FPS players...

Initially I had the same thoughts - but I do actually not think it'll turn out like that. Most of the abilities that work like that, are not only predictable, but impossible to miss. You'll instantly know when Hanzo fires off his dragon arrow, because of the sound he makes. Factor that in with the fact that most heroes has quick mobility, and I really don't see the issue.

[sulfuras]

Blizzard is focusing way too much on e sports, Just seems like anything new will be their focus from now on.