Two years in so at what point is someone who matters gonna make a big deal about the fact that OWL went from guaranteed contracts to 30 day buyouts without notifying players directly?
Players can't prac. Teams building rosters without beta access. Kicking players after 2 weeks.
Sources: Overwatch League will get 3 new Chinese teams for Season Two (now 4 total with Shanghai). Will release details regarding the specific cities once additional information is confirmed.
And yes, this means more than 6 new expansion teams will be added.
Six months is too long for an Overwatch League offseason.
I know this because we're actually arguing about whether Overwatch League is an anime or not.
Sources: Blizzard changing Overwatch League regular season format ahead of Season 2:
The number of total regular season matches each team will play is being reduced from 40 to 28. In addition, Season 2 will be broken down into 2 stages rather than 4.
Esports teams are the new “I’m gonna buy a bar but I’m not going to hire anyone who knows how to run a bar to manage it and I’ll just give my friends free drinks all night.”
Imagine being an esports "agency" forcing ow players to sign with you just so they can play for "your" team, and then going afk on them during the most important time of year when they call on your help to find OWL opportunities... hope you don't charge much for that service :D
Barroi was deadlifting this org in the offseason like Avalla w Paris. Ran NA trials by himself, acted in GM role when Albless left. Provided individual feedback to every single player who trialed this offseason.
Released when offseason is over and no other teams looking. Cold.
Today, we are saying goodbye to
@ggBarroi
, our Analyst. Thank you Dennis for being a part of the Defiant family, and for all the work and passion you’ve poured into our team the past 2 years. We wish you all the best!
Everyone hoped for a Vancouver v. NYXL final but I think Shock will prove just as strong an opponent. Also really happy for Super and Sinatraa who take so much shit from the community but have been absolute studs in Stage 1.
Let's get 7 maps in tomorrow, yeah?
Willing to start an org called Rogue Squadron paying top $$$ provided players, upon signing, agree to change battle tags to Luke, Biggs, Wedge, Dak, and Jek Porkins.
Sources: The San Francisco Shock are acquiring Kwon "Striker" Nam-joo from the Boston Uprising. A formal announcement is expected to follow later today.
Only 8 matches from Week 5. Here are my
@overwatchleague
Power Rankings heading into the Stage 1 playoffs. Grats to
@UWaterlooGG
Overwatch for making their first appearance in the table.
#OWL2019
Updated Power Rankings ahead of Stage 3, Week 3.
Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, including every OWL team that plays Dallas from here on out.
So proud of this guy -- don't know if I've ever met a more confident player. He worried for no more than 5 minutes after being let go, but then went in and crushed trials with multiple teams like there was no pressure at all.
Congrats
@Neptuno
!!!
OWL contracts continue to trend in wrong direction. Guarantees do nothing when league rules in favor of teams dismissing players for visa-related issues. Players are the ones putting themselves at risk more than anyone the last 18 mos. and this is their reward. Change needed.
Overwatch League plans to run preseason games from January 28, 2019 to February 4, 2019, per league sources. No specific match-ups have been finalized at this time, however.
Additional details on 2019 season and report will follow later in the day.
OWL 2023 FA:
I know of 1 top tier pro who 100% lost an opportunity they committed to due to either one or combo of delayed signing period and/or age requirement change. I know of 2 similar pros who were, at the very least, convinced they would likely lose theirs too. /1
It's bad enough that most of the biggest OW streamers can't get drops enabled right now, but Blizzard not even putting them on the Contenders channel (and actively promoting these channels opposite Contenders playoffs)? If you think this is apathy, wait for 2019. Not kidding.
Being strong enough to share your personal feelings—however taboo that may be in this scene—doesn’t come off as childish.
A team manager subtweeting a player from another team. Now that seems childish.
But then again, I’ve never heard a positive thing said about you.
so funny watching fortnite community go through its own sombra arg and they giving in and smashing tvs after like 12 minutes but we held strong for 3 months
Seeing speculation about Kevster suggesting he doesn’t want to play in OWL and would never accept a pro contract?
Just want to set the record straight so he doesn’t miss opportunities: Kev 100% wants to play in OWL. Turning down bad offers =/= zero interest in going pro.
Excited to announce that I'm partnering up with
@EloHellEsports
to create several weekly video series!
Check out this week's edition of "TILTID: Things I Like, Things I Don't," where I talk Flame and the Outlaws, Valiant's Twitter game, and more!
📺
I think one of the reasons Paris is such an easy team to pull for is Avalla does such a good job of bringing fans into the team environment and pulling back the cover with her videos, quotes, etc.
I’m told “Daco will be back in Week 3.”
The team isn’t commenting on the reason for his absence.
Possibly related: There have been talks of Daco being unhappy with the flex support situation in ATL going back to preseason, and so he may have benched himself.
this schedule and qualification format is absolutely bonkers for gc teams looking to compete at higher levels in coed. it goes against everything leo and riot have championed publicly about what gc is here for. on one hand, i bet a lot of the gc community is excited thanks to a
Blizzard finally giving the thumbs up for pro pugs is no doubt the correct decision. Twitch numbers have been awful, and this will incentivize some of OW’s biggest streamers to give it another go. Props to
@AskJayne
and everyone else involved who made this happen.
"You just lost a Bo7 Grand Final now go play another Bo7 series 20 minutes later for a spot in an insanely important regional LAN tournament" feels like it should have raised a red flag before today...
Gauntlet Power Rankings after 1 match:
>> ATL and Envy
>> RunAway
>> EU
>> Rest of NA
>> Wild/Assassins (Akali carry)
>> Rest of KR
>> China Overwatch
>> Talon
>> Mayhem
"X was casting drunk."
"It actually seemed like X was drunk while casting."
Two very different messages are communicated here. If you're passing a moral judgement on responsibility, try being responsible with how you say it.
The
@FRANA_OW
tournament was so much fun. Legit had 4x viewership most of the NA Contenders casts were getting from the first 2 weeks.
We might be on to something here...
@AlexKennedyNBA
@CassidyHubbarth
"Can't close" lmao. LeBron has the best clutch FG% in the NBA since 2000. 55% +/- 5pts with 5 mins rem. in 4Q or OT. But yeah, you all right
Jake punching the desk and showing emotion is literally the best thing that can happen for OWL. Props to the producers for seeing that and demanding the cut.
OWL teams are spread across the globe, traveling, on different schedules, etc. Scrimming Contenders teams in no way equates to being weak or getting blacklisted.
Before patch change, there were NA Contenders teams borderline rolling OWL teams.
Flowervin and the rest of the RunAway staff are incredible. I don’t think we’ve given them enough credit for turning over a full roster in such short time and delivering a team that is just so much better than most of its peers in KR right now.
Remember when Bumper was “a 1T over aggro Rein who was getting enabled and carried by his teammates?”
And now the same ppl losing their minds that Titans would let him go LUL
“China is getting 3 more OWL teams? They couldn’t win a single match in season 1. How dumb do you have to be to not realize there is no talent developing there?”
—Reddit 2018
when you exploit the likeness of players you collectively owe tens of thousands to but don’t have the time to respond to emails from orgs who you are now ghosting on promised payments
Being a coach in OWL must be so mentally taxing. It’s a thankless, demanding position and contributions are easily misunderstood, intangible and marginalized on the outside.
I feel bad for so many of them.
@sacraparental
@JCE_PC
It’s not just ‘assault’ weapons. It’s all semi-auto weapons. The worst school shooting we had on record here was strictly semi-auto handguns. Gun nuts just use “mental health” as an excuse to protect their gun fetish. Like you said, it’s just not the US with mental health issues.
Officially time to stop asking if Crimzo is the best western flex support and instead considering where he fits in with the other top players there overall.
Frustrating how these decisions get made AFTER the offseason when players have already made their signing decisions.
I'm sure the current roster is just happy to have their jobs and will appreciate the opportunity to compete w top APAC teams.
Lots of concerns on r/cow about players getting released and how it spells doom for the state of T-2 OW.
I assure you there's plenty of announcements to come with lots of $$$ being invested into the scene by orgs -- new and old. The doom and gloom around T-2 needs to stop.
"kk ive been playing skyrim the past 2 days so my brig should be clean"
i want this on a tshirt
but at the same time these guys don't even know how to run a team so why would they be able to handle merch too
I know that I previously said "post-Fuel loss Reddit" is the best Reddit, but I'm changing my mind because "Zachareee's problem is that he spams hello too much" Reddit is now the best Reddit.
Remember when Shock scheduled a one-off stream to announce Ans and everyone laughed and said it was an underwhelming signing and every KR Contenders fan jumped in to explain why he'd never play?
The Watchpoint segments have been absolutely hilarious. I don't know who is responsible for some of these genius ideas, but it's been outstanding. GGs.