Prospects of eSports?

[Arenis]

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.

Seen the size of that AoE? Any tight place is instantly locked down. It can be used to deny enemies a massive part of the map. It can be fired randomly in a smoked area(IF theres such a mechanic like smokes) and hit everything. Add all the clutter noice of other enemies/teammates and you have a recipe for disaster imo.

[Flutterguy]

The dragons don't one-shot either. At least they didn't one-shot my Symmetra when it was dodge off the ledge and die from falling off the map or take it on the chin.

[TheTaurenOrc]

Will it have controller support over a mouse and keyboard? Don't most of the FPS pro's use a controller like on a console?

Personally those details aside for FPS I don't thinks going to get traction in the MLG world without a console release to get the grassroots playing.

[Alarinth]

Seen the size of that AoE? Any tight place is instantly locked down. It can be used to deny enemies a massive part of the map. It can be fired randomly in a smoked area(IF theres such a mechanic like smokes) and hit everything. Add all the clutter noice of other enemies/teammates and you have a recipe for disaster imo.

That's not how I experienced it while testing it. That skill has a 1.5 sec charge up time, in which Hanzo yells some totally bonkers stuff. This is the biggest blinking red light to gtfo, and if you fail to do so, it takes the arrow roughly 2 seconds to kill you (it deals damage per sec, and not a fixed amount on impact). Now you might think that is very little, but when you are already on the run, looking for a way out, 2 sec is not impossible. Also, this teaches players to -not- enter bottlenecks, cause as you said, that is exactly what will happen. People will find a way around it, and it's just gonna be a normal gameplay dynamic.

[Deleted]

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...

It's not like it's claiming to be an old-school arena shooter, though. They said repeatedly during the reveal that they value accessibility. Also, the skill ceilings in this game will vary depending on hero. It's not a game that has universal movement rules or anything. It'll have a place in the competitive scene and we're bound to learn and develop the nuances when people get their hands on it (almost every PvP game ever has its quirks), but no, it won't be arena shooter level.

[shamestia]

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.

Yeah I agree. The small elements of this reminds me somewhat of RTCW from the early 2000's. The team aspect of that was huge and it became a pretty large esports driven game like most FPS back in the day. I was a huge RTCW player back then and participated. This game reminds me SOMEWHAT of that. The ceiling blizzard has to go with this game is high. They can create the game modes that players would wanna see. The strategy will be there once the population gets their hand on this from the offense vs defense. There will always be one team doing it different that will completely change the dynamic of the map. Those of you who never played those types of objective based FPS like RTCW/cs will not realize it but this game has a ton of potential. I for one am very excited for this; 1 because it's blizzard and they do not fail at delivering a great game, and 2 because I was a huge FPS gamer before they fell apart and into the shit we see on consoles now, so I am super excited to see the FPS genre on blizzards desk since all other FPS companies are done creating good classic PC FPS.

[Arenis]

Will it have controller support over a mouse and keyboard? Don't most of the FPS pro's use a controller like on a console?

Personally those details aside for FPS I don't thinks going to get traction in the MLG world without a console release to get the grassroots playing.

I'm honestly not sure if you are trolling about the controller part or are just new to it, but dear lord no. FPS pro's use m+kb. They are vastly superior to controllers and the gameplay difference shows that.

[shamestia]

I'm honestly not sure if you are trolling about the controller part or are just new to it, but dear lord no. FPS pro's use m+kb. They are vastly superior to controllers and the gameplay difference shows that.

This times a million. Consoles killed good classic FPS gaming.

[DebraTwine]

I hope it does. The game looks really interesting! <3

[TheTaurenOrc]

I'm honestly not sure if you are trolling about the controller part or are just new to it, but dear lord no. FPS pro's use m+kb. They are vastly superior to controllers and the gameplay difference shows that.

http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/mlg/mlg-equipment/

[Arenis]

That's not how I experienced it while testing it. That skill has a 1.5 sec charge up time, in which Hanzo yells some totally bonkers stuff. This is the biggest blinking red light to gtfo, and if you fail to do so, it takes the arrow roughly 2 seconds to kill you (it deals damage per sec, and not a fixed amount on impact). Now you might think that is very little, but when you are already on the run, looking for a way out, 2 sec is not impossible. Also, this teaches players to -not- enter bottlenecks, cause as you said, that is exactly what will happen. People will find a way around it, and it's just gonna be a normal gameplay dynamic.

Okay, didn't know that (didn't play it myself yet). That seems more reasonable. Now I hope the map layout is good enough to not force an entire team through a single chokehole to get to the objective :').

[Alarinth]

Okay, didn't know that (didn't play it myself yet). That seems more reasonable. Now I hope the map layout is good enough to not force an entire team through a single chokehole to get to the objective :').

Of the maps I tried, there were A and B checkpoints to control. The first one was very open, and tough to defend. The second one, however, generally had only 2 entrypoints, so there is potential for some chokepoints, but not as bad as with only 1 at least.

[Arenis]

http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/mlg/mlg-equipment/

MLG is good for anything BUT the FPS genre. They pretty much focus only on consoles there because of the playerbase. They even added Call of Duty 1v1 sniper lobbies (/sigh)...

Check sites like ESEA, ESL and EsportsHeaven. Tbh I forgot the Quake organisations but yeah...

Long story short: m_kb >>>> controller.
Just compare things like top-level PC counter strike/cod4 promod/quake to top-level console counter strike/call of duty/halo. You'll understand .

[jinsu]

the problem with blizzard is they only half do whats neccesary for e-sports in their games.

1.It took a very long time for SC2 to even get the tools neccesary to provide good tournaments and they even hindered tournaments early on because they would ban accounts trying to use the proper tournament server even after given permission.

2.Hearthstone is still missing features to make streaming and particpating in tournaments easier.

3.They won't seperate WoW pvp and pve to get proper balance. There is also no way for people to organize tournaments on a tournament realm.

4. HoTS is still in alpha so i can't comment on it.

5. Diablo 3 LOL

So while they might want to push overwatch toward e-sports, I will hold my judgement and excitement till I see it. I am very excited for Overwatch as a game and I think it looks fantastic, but as an e-sport? Not yet.

[ThePlanckEnergy]

Hanzo's ability seems really tame compared to Reaper and Pharah. Theirs kill a lot faster, though it may be easier to kill them during it. There's really no time to get away though. Also Bastion Turret is better than all of them.

[Alarinth]

Hanzo's ability seems really tame compared to Reaper and Pharah. Theirs kill a lot faster, though it may be easier to kill them during it. There's really no time to get away though. Also Bastion Turret is better than all of them.

Bastion and Torbjørn are imo very overtuned. In my mind, there should be no way a turrent can score a pentakill on its own while the actual player isn't even looking at the screen. DDD Reaper though, can be avoided. Granted, I always died against Reaper, but that's more or less cause I didn't figure out his weakness while playing as Widowmaker / Tracer.

[Mormolyce]

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.

Poker is a game of pure luck, the only "skill" involved is betting on the probabilities of a hand win.

If you are playing constructed HS you can have a very good idea of what cards your opponent has based on successful deck types and powerful class cards. Your opponent's hand in poker is completely random and all you know is that they don't have the cards you have.

[Repefe]

Being boring to watch is the main down fall of fps e-sport games, so fingers crossed Blizz can do something with Overwatch and all the crazy comps/abilities that teams can use.

[Deleted]

I would say as much as something like team fortress is on an esports level.

Of course Blizzard could throw a lot of attention on it and money, and that might help it, but in the end determining if a game will be good/successful as an esport is almost impossible to say.

[Mormolyce]

3.They won't seperate WoW pvp and pve to get proper balance. There is also no way for people to organize tournaments on a tournament realm.

5. Diablo 3 LOL

These two are silly because neither WoW nor D3 are intended to be eSports. PVP is an afterthought in WoW.

- - - Updated - - -

Will it have controller support over a mouse and keyboard? Don't most of the FPS pro's use a controller like on a console?

I don't know how anyone can use a controller for FPS, it's like breaking half your fingers and giving yourself Downs syndrome.

Mouse + keyboard is infinitely superior, surely anyone can tell that from 10 seconds of gameplay.