The Overwatch League was meant to be Blizzard's big break into esports. Riding off the massive success of Overwatch, the league was launched in 2018. However, the league failed to make the impact that the gaming giant was hoping for. The game never gained the esports following of titles such as CS:GO or League of Legends. Furthermore, despite expanding to 19 teams by the 2019 season, there was very little upward growth. The league's commissioner abruptly left after the league's first season. Additionally, there were a number of perplexing moves behind the scenes.
Ahead of the 2023 season, a scathing report in The Washington Post outlined the chaos and apathy that dominated both the league and the teams that populated it. Elsewhere, a majority of the teams retained a prominent law firm to begin collective bargaining with Blizzard. Now it appears that the league as we know it could be done for good. It all began on July 18 when it was reported that Blizzard had laid off 50 employees within its esports division. But that appears to have been just the first step in the possible end of the league.
Overwatch League Tables "Vote To Continue"
During Activision Blizzard's second-quarter earnings call, the company put forward a dire proposal. Following the end of the current Overwatch League season, current team owners will be presented with a "vote to continue proposal". Teams who vote yes will remain in the Overwatch League. However, teams that vote no will receive a $6 million termination fee. Given that the owners are currently pushing for collective bargaining, it's hard to see few, if any, choosing to continue the league in its current form.
Further pessimism was expressed to The Verge by a now-former employee. “They may be able to keep a skeleton crew on to close out the OWL and the World Series of Warzone seasons in the next few months. But in my eyes, they are completely unequipped to internally support anything esports after that.” This also comes after the news that waning numbers for Overwatch 2 have forced Activision Blizzard to diversify the game's release. It was announced earlier this week that the game would be avaliable on Steam from August.
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