If you’re reading this then you’re obviously wondering how you can kill a professional league in 3 simple, easy steps. Well, I’m here to tell you just how YOU can do that! Let’s get to it :]!!!
Step 1
First, all great leagues have a game to base the league around it. The Call of Duty League has Call of Duty, the ESL Pro League has CSGO, you get the gist right? The league in reference here is the Overwatch League, which has Overwatch.
The first step in killing your league is to never effectively balance your game. Leave that game in whatever poor state it’s in for as long as you possibly can and you will be WELL on your way to killing your league. In words provided by my good friend Tanner Rice, “The lack of balance forces pros to work literally twice as much as other pro gamers or at least some of them. It also makes people in ladder toxic because some picks just aren’t viable while others dominate.”
Right you are, my friend, couldn’t have put it better myself.
Step 2
Now that you’ve successfully put your game in a very bad state and your fans in a sour mood, let’s make a real BOLD decision that will make literally zero sense to everyone. You know how the first two seasons of OWL were run on Twitch, and you had the cool “All Access” pass and the ability to ask questions of the pros? Oh and the fact that you had drops for every game you watched which would give you tokens you could use to buy in game skins from your favorite team? Yeah that was awesome, a huge perk for the league.
Now let’s take that, all that you established, and just throw it all away. Light in on fire and toss it in the dumpster.
Done? Okay good, now sign a deal to YouTube out of nowhere, a week in advance of the season starting with little to no warning.
Brilliant! Now you that you’ve absolutely torched your fanbase and your streaming system, let’s move on to the final step!
Step 3
The final step is the key step in successfully axing your league and hammering that final nail in the coffin. You finished season 2 on a high note right? You had a great final series between San Francisco Shock and Vancouver Titans, which San Francisco dominated by a demanding 4-0 victory. San Francisco also had the league MVP, Jay “sinatraa” Won! He plays a critical role here.
So to effectively finish the job, you need to allow your previous league MVP to retire and jump ship over to Valorant, the upcoming FPS created by your (laughably) rival, Riot Games. Niceeeeee, good idea helping out your competitor! You’re not done though, ONE. MORE. STEP.
Have Vancouver release their entire roster mid season. Yes, I know they were the 2nd best team last year and had the makings of making another run this year, I know I know but just do it. Release them all. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.
PERFECT. You’ve done it! You’ve successfully managed to just decimate your league and set yourself up for disaster! I knew you could do it, I’m proud of you!
Sarcasm and satire aside, what the HELL is going on with the OWL? As much as I was joking with this article, I was also being serious. They are decimating their league and it’s not looking good at all. Everything I said has happened, and I truly hope the free agents from the Titans are able to find a roster to play on because that’s just completely ridiculous. It’s been a hell of a ride for OWL, but it’s seemingly all downhill now.
Blizzard and Activision better do SOMETHING to fix this mess, otherwise this could be the end beginnings of the overall end for the Overwatch League…
thoughtsfromthebench.com 