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FEATUREFriday 12 January 2018
The future of esports arrives with Overwatch League launch
By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — In
the soundstage where
Johnny Carson and Jay
Leno spent four decades
filming “The Tonight Show,”
a former Washington State
computer science student
named Seagull is pursuing
a South Korean teenager
with a very big gun.
Their characters’ exploits
inside “Overwatch,” the
wildly popular multiplayer
game not yet 2 years old,
flicker above their heads
on an enormous high-def-
inition screen. Hundreds
of mostly millennial fans in
the renamed, sold-out Bliz-
zard Arena put down their
Doritos and roar for the
combat between these
six-player teams, eventu-
ally rising in ecstasy when
the Dallas Fuel earn an
unexpected point against
the powerhouse Seoul Dy-
nasty.
Here’s the new Johnny.
He plays video games for
a minimum $50,000 sal-
ary, health benefits, a re-
tirement savings plan and
a chunk of $3.5 million in
prize money.Esports history
was made Wednesday
night with the debut of the
Overwatch League, the
first attempt to present elite
computer gaming within a
traditional North American
sports structure compara-
ble to the NBA or NFL. The
league’s 12 franchises rep-
resent cities from Shanghai
to London, and they build
teamwork and stress player
development while com-
peting on a weekly sched-
ule stretching into summer.
If the esports industry is
still in its adolescence, this
well-funded venture is a
significant milestone in
its maturation. The Over-
watch League is about to
find out whether fans will
grow along with it.
“It’s a new frontier,” said Ari
Segal, president and chief
operating officer of the
Los Angeles Valiant. “It is
the biggest, boldest bet in
sports and entertainment
maybe since the NFL and
AFL merged. Maybe since
baseball introduced the
designated hitter. I don’t
even know what it stacks
up against, because it is so
In this Dec. 6, 2017 photo provided by Blizzard Entertainment shows several members of the Los League’s owners might
Angeles Valiant begin competition against the San Francisco Shock in a preseason match in the not be gamers, but they
Overwatch League at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, Calif. understand the visceral
importance of going to a
Associated Press good event. League com-
missioner Nate Nanzer is
different.” They might not all know a belt. But what’s the belt? I confident it will eventually
Segal had a career as a their way around a mouse, think boxing suffers from an harness income from ticket
hockey executive before but they know a growing ambiguity about whether sales and concessions and
he moved into esports last industry when they see it. any particular competition other areas that haven’t
year. He is one of many “I come from traditional means anything, and it felt meant much in esports so
seasoned professionals sports, and from the out- like that was really similar in far.“Why do people go to
from traditional sports and side, it seemed like esports esports.” a Dodger game? You go
business who couldn’t resist had grown up as this ex- The Overwatch League because it’s more fun to sit
the opportunity to shape citing, massive, organic, aims to end that ambigu- with 40,000 other fans and
the future of professional somewhat unstructured ity with traditional sports cheer for a home run than
gaming, which has ex- ecosystem that benefited touchstones, and it made it is to do it at home,” Nan-
panded with all the cohe- from that fact, but was sense to the luminaries zer said.
sion of a pipe bomb. also held back by it,” said from sports, tech and busi- “Video games are so in-
Shortly after Blizzard En- Pete Vlastelica, president ness who dominate the list credibly mainstream right
tertainment published this and CEO of Major League of investors. now. It’s such a big part of
hero-based, first-person Gaming, which operates Kroenke, the billionaire our fans’ lives. When peo-
PC shooter to acclaim in the league for Blizzard’s owner of Arsenal and the ple play ‘Overwatch,’ they
2016, the game develop- parent company. Los Angeles Rams, also play a lot of ‘Overwatch.’
er announced plans for a “It felt to me a lot like box- owns the Los Angeles It’s a special moment to
league backed by deep- ing,” added Vlastelica, a Gladiators, who plan to go share that with people
pocketed investors rang- former executive at Fox be based within the vast who have the same pas-
ing from NFL owners Stan Sports. “Anybody can cre- entertainment complex sion as you.”
Kroenke and Robert Kraft ate a circuit. Anybody be a around his Inglewood foot- Although the geographi-
to current giants of the es- trainer. Anybody can sign ball stadium after it is com- cal specificity of the teams
ports scene. a fighter. Anybody can win pleted in 2020. The Boston is an important part of their
Uprising are owned by future business plans, those
In this Dec. 7, 2017 photo provided by Blizzard Entertainment Kraft’s investment group, home cities are largely the-
several members of the London Spitfire esports team compete and they might end up oretical at this point.
in a preseason match in the Overwatch League at Blizzard based in Foxborough, Mas- For this season and the
Arena in Burbank, Calif. sachusetts, to share some near future, every team will
training facilities with the live in the Los Angeles area
Associated Press New England Patriots. and play all its matches
The San Francisco Shock’s in Burbank. Nanzer said
investor group includes the logistics of staging the
Jennifer Lopez, Shaquille competition around the
O’Neal and Marshawn globe were too enormous
Lynch. The Philadelphia Fu- to be solved immediately.
sion are owned by Com- That’s not the only geo-
cast Spectacor, and the graphical dissonance: The
New York Excelsior are the Overwatch League’s only
property of a venture capi- “European” team, the Lon-
tal fund sponsored by the don Spitfire, are owned by
Wilpon family of New York an American esports or-
Mets fame. ganization, and its roster
Many of the Overwatch consists entirely of South
Korean players living in
Los Angeles. But the Over-
watch League has bought
itself time to find its footing.
The league has sponsor-
ship deals with blue-chip
companies including HP
Inc. and Intel Corp., and
the Dallas Fuel wear jersey
sponsor patches from Jack
in the Box restaurants.
On Tuesday, the league
announced a two-year
agreement to stream its
matches on Twitch, the
streaming video platform
owned by Amazon. Sports
Business Journal reported
the deal is worth at least
$90 million, which would be
an esports record.q