You know esports have arrived when they’re featured in the Sports section of the Washington Post …
Also
Go Spitfire! Aces high!
Thanks for the post. I’ll admit, completely oblivious to this game. Reading this article, and then looking up Overwatch and then OWL was fun. This is how esports is done!
Oh lord, yes – the Overwatch League is the big time. The broadcasts are on par with any other pro sport. Just incredibly well done.
I’ll have to check it out! I’ve never been good at FPS but I like watching. Are the games streamed somewhere?
There’s also a free mobile app 
Bumping this, as the second season of OWL has just gotten underway! Live now at the link above!
This year, the league has expanded to 20 teams with the finals winner taking home a $5 million prize! (Last year, the London Spitfire took home $1 million for winning it all.)
Okay, I just need to say that Soe “Soembie” Gschwind-Penski is my very favorite esports caster ever. All of the OWL casters are really great, actually, but Soe’s enthusiasm and positivity is just infectious. (Puckett is 2nd fave.)
All of the matches so far have been great – there are significantly fewer this year, making each one more meaningful. Watching Houston vs Toronto now!
I’d like to check out a esports event. What time will it be broadcast?
It’s live right now!
Doh! I misread. I thought you said tomorrow for Houston vs. Toronto. Dang-it. I’ll have to try another time.
It’s on tomorrow too – the matches run Thursday through Sunday each week during the season:
Watched a little bit of London vs. Paris – I don’t know the game, but it’s cool to hear commentary and live gaming. It seems like Paris was kicking London’s butts!
Yah, I don’t know what’s with London – they haven’t had it together in either of their matches so far. They didn’t look good on Thursday either.
That said, Paris looked great!
With regard to understanding the game, here’s a quick breakdown of heroes into their roles:
Tanks:
- D.Va, Orisa, Reinhardt, Roadhog, Winston, Wrecking Ball, Zarya
DPS:
- Ashe, Bastion, Doomfist, Genji, Hanzo, Junkrat, McCree, Mei, Pharah, Reaper, Soldier:76, Sombra, Symmetra, Torbjorn, Tracer, Widowmaker
Supports:
- Ana, Brigitte, Lucio, Mercy, Moira, Zenyatta
The current dominant meta is multiple tanks and multiple healers, making for matches that tend to be slog-fests. Teams seem to be mixing in some DPS-heavy comps this season, though, which makes matches much more frenetic and exciting to watch (imo).
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Omg, the OWL is really the big time … check out Dallas’ training facility 
I actually find it really interesting how the DFW area (where I currently live) here in Texas is embracing the esports scene a lot. I actually heard a brief mention of this on the news this morning and thought it was pretty cool.
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I don’t play over watch but I heard that they give rewards for watching or something , so are you watching for the rewards ? , well Iam proud of my champion Catherine skin even with me watching the worlds for entertainment not for the rewards , some people say it’s boring to watch , Iam actually feel bored when I watch 5v5 vainglory games competitive or not .
I watch because I like the game and find the matches really enjoyable – the level of play is spectacular, and the casters are able to provide enough insight to understand the strategies in use despite the speed of the game.
If you link your Twitch and Blizzard accounts, you do indeed get rewards for watching – they’re in the form of OWL tokens, which you can use to purchase OWL team skins for the various heroes. It’s pretty cool, especially as some of the expansion teams this year have really awesome skins! Some examples:
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AND THE DRAGONS FINALLY GET THEIR FIRST WIN EVER!!! 
(the arena went NUTS – how cool is that???)
Watching today’s “Watchpoint” preshow – I have to hand it to Blizzard: they are setting the bar REALLY high for esports casting …
Seriously, these broadcasts are as good as any other professional sports league.