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160-551: London Spitfire is a professional Overwatch team representing the city of London , United Kingdom . The Spitfire compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2017, London Spitfire is one of the league's twelve founding members and is the only professional Overwatch team representing a European city. The team is owned by Jack Etienne and the esports organization Cloud9 , who also own British Hurricane , an academy team for

320-414: A large roster of characters , known as "heroes", with unique abilities. Teams worked to complete map-specific objectives within a limited period of time. Blizzard added new characters, maps, and game modes post-release, all free of charge, with the only additional cost to players being optional loot boxes to purchase cosmetic items. Overwatch is Blizzard's fourth major franchise and came about following

480-616: A "gift." In addition to this loot box change, China has required Blizzard to publicly disclose the exact odds of winning each tier of item within said loot box. While initially loot boxes were not seen as gambling within the United States; the US Federal Trade Commission decided in 2018 to investigate the legality of the projected soon to be 50 billion dollar industry of microtransactions. Overwatch won numerous awards in 2016, including being named Game of

640-476: A $ 1.4 million prize pool, where the winners receive $ 1 million. 2018 season was the first in OWL history and consisted of twelve teams in two divisions. Each team played 40 matches throughout the regular season. The playoffs were contested by six team – the two teams with the best regular season record in each division and the following four teams with the best regular season record, regardless of division. At

800-571: A 0.18 rating, while a later ESPN2 re-airing of digital coverage managed a 0.05 rating. ABC's Sunday afternoon recap achieved a 0.3 rating. These ratings, when translated into household estimates, indicated the viewership numbers as 215,280 households for the Friday broadcast on ESPN, 59,800 households for the Saturday re-airing on ESPN2, and 358,800 households for Sunday's recap on ABC. However, Nielsen estimates are based on television-owning households in

960-629: A 0–3 loss to the Seoul Dynasty in week 5, causing the team to miss out on the Stage 1 Playoffs . London found success in Stage 2, as the team posted a 6–1 record and qualified for the Stage 2 Playoffs ; however, they were knocked out in the quarterfinals by the Hangzhou Spark after losing 1–3. The Spitfire parted ways with head coach Kwang-bok "Coach815" Kim in the middle of Stage 3, leaving

1120-469: A Battle.net account to play the game from February 2017 onward, which requires a difficult-to-spoof resident registration number among other unique information, which Blizzard believes would help to alleviate the problem. As to maintain a fair competitive field on consoles, Blizzard has spoken out against the use of input converters that would allow console players to use keyboard/mouse controllers, believing this gives an advantage to players that can afford

1280-409: A cast of characters that's eclectic and diverse." Caty McCarthy of Kill Screen echoed similar thoughts, writing "When playing Overwatch , the player is absorbed by its radiating positivity. It's a world filled with lively color and energetic, playful competition, much like Nintendo 's creative kid-friendly ink-shooter Splatoon ." Mike Minotti of VentureBeat commending the team-based gameplay,

1440-691: A few hours of being on sale, the Grandmaster package upgrades were entirely sold out, leaving only the General Admission tickets and the Master package upgrades. The remaining tickets for the event sold-out exactly two weeks later, leaving resell tickets in excess of $ 125. On the first day of the season playoffs, Disney and Blizzard announced a multi-year partnership that would bring the league and other professional Overwatch competitive events to ESPN , Disney XD , and ABC , starting with

1600-445: A global viewership of 10.8   million across the two days. This number was attained through a combination of officially partnered streaming platforms, including Twitch, ESPN, MLG, and Chinese partners ZhanQi TV, NetEase CC, and Panda TV. The Finals were also aired on South Korea's MBC network with a slight delay. Among all of these platforms, the average minute audience was reported to be 861,205 over both days. Blizzard reported that

1760-422: A group that appears to be trying to start a second Omnic Crisis, and Null Sector, a group of Omnics that revolted against the society that persecuted Omnics following the first Crisis. Overwatch continued to maintain peace across the world for several decades in what came to be called the "Overwatch Generation" as the team gained more members, but the rift between Morrison and Reyes intensified. One night, Blackwatch

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1920-418: A lack of preparation time heading into the regular season, the team struggled for form in Stage 1 and would only manage to notch six victories, missing the Stage 1 Playoffs. Using the stage-break to catch up on lost practice time and welcoming the arrival of Israeli DPS player Josue "Eqo" Corana, Stage 2 would prove to be a turning point for the team. After opening up the stage with back-to-back sweeps over

2080-455: A large amount of content, including art, cosplay, and anime opening-style music videos. Some Overwatch concepts have created internet memes such as "Gremlin D.Va", which focuses on the character D.Va , portrayed through Western gamer stereotypes. In some cases, Blizzard has reciprocated these fan creations back into the game, such as an emote for D.Va, based on the Gremlin meme. At

2240-413: A masked vigilante known as " Soldier: 76 ", who is trying to uncover the reasons why Overwatch was shut down. Reyes joined Talon, leading to him being experimented on by Moira who then became " Reaper ", a terrorist with a Death -like appearance. Overwatch was developed by Blizzard Team 4 and published by Blizzard Entertainment . The game came about in the aftermath of Blizzard's decision to cancel

2400-418: A means for skilled players to reach high ranks as to be noticed by esport team organizers. Dan Szymborski writing for ESPN stated that Overwatch was poised as the next big esport for having a sufficiently different look and playstyle from established esports games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Call of Duty , enough variety in maps and characters, and strong support from Blizzard to maintain

2560-413: A motorcycle theft on the day before the game's public release. Blizzard has encouraged fans of Overwatch to make artistic content based on the game. To support this, Blizzard released the hero reference kit before release, providing official colors and costume and weapon designs for all 21 heroes present at the game's launch. Fans have used these, the game's animated media , and other assets to create

2720-442: A much better spectator system," going on to elaborate, "Right now, it's incredibly difficult for commentators and viewers to see the skills of the players: who used their ultimates and how did they interact? Who is on cooldown and who has changed hero?" Fellow esports player Seb Barton and Michael Rosen criticized the game's map designs and game modes; Barton remarked that "the game modes are a little hit and miss," adding that "King of

2880-532: A period of pre-launch attention not typically expected; Game Revolution noted that "[ Overwatch 's ] reputation has quickly permeated through cyberspace, attracting attention from people who may not traditionally put down $ 40 to $ 60 each time a new first-person shooter releases." The game's open beta , which attracted 9.7 million players, was very heavily covered by the media. Overwatch received "universal acclaim" upon release, according to review aggregator Metacritic . IGN 's Vince Ingenito praised

3040-422: A player level, and on gaining a new level, received loot boxes that contain cosmetic items that they can use to customize the appearance of the hero characters but otherwise does not affect gameplay. Loot boxes could also be purchased through microtransactions . The backstory to Overwatch is described through animated shorts and other information distributed by Blizzard in promoting the game. Overwatch

3200-543: A result of the Spitfire's successful attack and capture of the point, they took the map victory, securing a 2–1 lead in the series. The fourth, and final, map of the night was the assault map Volskaya Industries . Needing a win to save the series, the Philadelphia Fusion encountered initial challenges, struggling to make significant progress on the opening point against the defense of the Spitfire. Despite

3360-469: A since-cancelled graphic novel called Overwatch: First Strike , which would have focused on the story of several in-game characters, including Soldier: 76, Torbjörn, Reaper, and Reinhardt. Blizzard began releasing the series of animated shorts in March 2016; the shorts maintained the style of the game's cinematic trailer, which centered on a battle in which Tracer and Winston fought Reaper and Widowmaker in

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3520-449: A single support composition. Boombox and Bdosin played Roadhog, while neptuNo and Nus assumed the role of Mercy. The Fusion swiftly secured Point A after Carpe's Widowmaker landed critical headshots, but they encountered some difficulties on Point B. As the payload advanced through the streets of King's Row, Profit's Junkrat served as a constant annoyance as a flanker. Additionally, Bdosin's aggressive Zenyatta play added further pressure to

3680-408: A team that had won every European Overwatch Contenders title in 2020. The team also left South Korea to play remotely from the United States and Sweden to compete in the league's Western region. After an 0–8 start to the season, head coach Justin "Reprize" Hand retired; assistant coach Mads "fischer" Jehg became the new head coach of the team thereafter. London remained winless until their final match of

3840-812: A whole to help combat the situations. In November 2017, the Belgian Gaming Commission announced that it was investigating Overwatch alongside Star Wars Battlefront II to determine whether loot boxes constituted unlicensed gambling. Many Asian and European countries view loot boxes as a form of gambling and have since decided to make them illegal for companies to sell directly to their consumers in their games. Blizzard has chosen to work with these regions to follow their gambling laws while staying true to their microtransaction focused business model. Within China, Blizzard has allowed their players to purchase in-game currency and receive loot boxes as

4000-455: Is believed to contribute to the growing toxicity. Kaplan said in a September 2017 update that Blizzard was very well aware of the problem, and have worked to improve their in-game player behavior reporting tools to help combat the toxicity, but because they have had to put greater effort into this, they are distracted from developing new features and content for the game. Kaplan urged the community to consider how they can improve individually and as

4160-505: Is set sixty years into the future of a fictionalized Earth, thirty years after the resolution of what is known as the "Omnic Crisis." Before the Omnic Crisis, humanity had been in a golden age of prosperity and technology development. Humans developed robots with artificial intelligence called "Omnics", which were put to use to achieve economic equality, and began to be treated as people in their own right. The Omnic Crisis began when

4320-436: Is vivacious and jubilant." A gamer with cerebral palsy publicly praised the game's customizable controls, which let him make his first snipe in a video game. One of Blizzard's artists, Roman Kenney, drew concept art based on one player's daughter's original Overwatch character design. Blizzard altered one of the game's maps to include a tribute to an avid Chinese fan of the game who died from injuries while trying to stop

4480-543: The Boston Uprising and Florida Mayhem , the team would continue to impress and go on to achieve a much improved 3rd-place finish – good enough for a stage playoffs berth. During the Stage 2 Playoffs , the team surprised many after defeating heavily favored Stage 1 champions London Spitfire in the semi-finals, however a finals match-up with the New York Excelsior would prove a juggernaut too much as

4640-715: The Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL). The arena has also hosted concerts, conventions and other sporting and entertainment events, including the 2013 NBA draft , the 2015 NBA All-Star Weekend , the 2016 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament , UFC 223 , and the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards . Ticket sales for

4800-533: The Houston Outlaws (3–1) and the New York Excelsior (3–2) in a reverse sweep. On March 7, midway through Stage 2 , the Spitfire parted ways with head coach Lee "Bishop" Beom-joon for undisclosed reasons. The team finished Stage 2 with an improved 8–2 record and attained another stage playoffs berth. However, they fell short to the Philadelphia Fusion in a 2–3 semi-finals series. As

4960-576: The Origins Edition content as well as a statue of Soldier: 76, one of the playable characters, along with the game's soundtrack on CD and a source book. In honor of its first anniversary in 2017, Blizzard released a digital Game of the Year edition of Overwatch . It includes all content from the Origins Edition , in addition to ten free loot boxes . Blizzard had expressed interest in supporting cross-platform play between console systems in

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5120-423: The beta release of its sequel, Overwatch 2 , the next day. Overwatch was an online team-based game generally played as a first-person shooter . The game featured several different game modes, principally designed around squad-based combat with two opposing teams of six players each. Players selected one of over two dozen pre-made hero characters from one of three class types: Damage heroes that deal most of

5280-528: The crossover MOBA game Heroes of the Storm . Various toy and figurine manufacturers produced merchandise lines featuring Overwatch characters. These manufacturers included Funko , Good Smile Company , Nerf and its parent company Hasbro , as well as The Lego Group . Overwatch was not developed with any dedication towards esports , focusing on "building a great competitive game" first and foremost, according to Morhaime, though they recognized that

5440-461: The massively multiplayer online role-playing game Titan in 2013, a project that had been in development for about seven years. While most others assigned to the project were transferred to other departments within Blizzard, a small team of about 40 people, led by director Jeff Kaplan , were tasked to come up with a new concept for a game in a few months. After some brainstorming, they came onto

5600-599: The quarterfinals by two matches to one. The team went on to face the top-seeded New York Excelsior in the semifinals , a game the Fusion were considered heavy underdogs. Philadelphia dominated New York in the first match, winning three maps to zero, and took the second match by three maps to two. The Barclays Center in New York was selected as the 2018 OWL Grand Finals host venue on May 9, 2018. Overwatch League commissioner Nate Nanzer emphasized that two factors influenced

5760-469: The 2014 cancellation of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game , Titan . A portion of the Titan team were inspired by the success of team-based first-person shooters like Team Fortress 2 and the popularity of multiplayer online battle arena games, creating a hero-based shooter which emphasized teamwork. Some elements of Overwatch borrow concepts from the canceled Titan project. Overwatch

5920-503: The 2017 D.I.C.E. Summit in February 2017, Kaplan said that much of Overwatch 's narrative is now being borne out of the game's fans, adding "We love it, that it belongs to them...We're just the custodians of the universe." Kaplan recognizes that he himself is seen as an Overwatch character within the fan community, and following similar steps that Hearthstone 's lead designer Ben Brode has done, has continued to engage with

6080-447: The 2020 season, finishing in 17th place in the overall standings. During the 2020 offseason, the organization completely rebuilt its team, dropping its entire roster and coaching staff. Focusing on signing Western players and staff, London signed former Los Angeles Valiant coach Justin "Reprize" Hand as their new head coach. They signed a team consisting players mostly from their Overwatch Contenders academy team British Hurricane —

6240-605: The Barclays Center on July 28, prior to the first match of the second day. The performance was streamed live exclusively on Twitch. During his performance, DJ Khaled made several attempts to engage the audience by encouraging them to sing along to his songs. However, it became evident that the crowd was not familiar with the lyrics, resulting in awkward moments of deafening silence. Despite the challenges, DJ Khaled continued with his performance, incorporating DJ medleys and additional vocals. Twitter users were quick to respond to

6400-483: The British Hurricane, and revealed their all-European Season One squad. The team went to the first Atlantic Showdown, where they defeated Lowkey Esports before losing to Team Envy in the second round. They lost in the first round of the bottom half of the double-elimination bracket to ATL Academy , 3–0. Overwatch (video game)#Esports Overwatch (retroactively referred to as Overwatch 1 )

6560-695: The Cloud9 moniker, such as Cloud9 KONGDOO, they would go on to field rosters from multiple continents during their pre-OWL tenure. On 10 August 2017, Activision Blizzard announced that Cloud9 had purchased the London Overwatch League franchise; the franchise would be the first and only European team heading into the inaugural season . Pete Vlastelica, an executive in Activision Blizzard 's esports division, reported that several unnamed European companies were interested in purchasing

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6720-482: The Fusion from gaining a single percentage on Night Market, resulting in a decisive victory for the Spitfire. Moving on to the second sub-map, Garden, the Spitfire continued their aggressive playstyle. Although the Fusion managed to gain a foothold on the objective, While the Fusion managed to establish a foothold on the point, Carpe's exceptional Widowmaker play proved instrumental as he battled against Gesture's Winston, landing crucial headshots. Despite Carpe's efforts,

6880-471: The Fusion to make further progress. However, Fusion's Hotba utilized D.Va's "self-destruct" ability, eliminating Gesture, a key player from the Spitfire team, and creating an advantageous opportunity for the Fusion. They capitalized on this advantage, overpowering the Spitfire and securing a 3–0 map lead. As the London Spitfire transitioned to their attack phase, they appeared entirely undeterred by

7040-450: The Fusion were able to capture the point and secure approximately 49% control. Despite the Fusion's efforts, the Spitfire showcased resilient defense, preventing the Fusion from gaining further control, and won the round. The Philadelphia Fusion adjusted their strategy to a more balanced team composition after their initial approach failed. This change allowed Carpe to showcase his skills as Tracer . Philadelphia managed to secure control of

7200-531: The Fusion would fall short in a hard-fought 5-map match. Heading into the final match of Stage 3 on May 5, the Fusion needed a win over the Los Angeles Valiant for a shot to claim the 4th seed in the Stage 3 playoff bracket. However, the Valiant proved too much to handle, as they defeated the Fusion by a score of 3–2 and claimed the 4th seed for their own. After Dallas Fuel's upset 3–1 win over

7360-426: The Fusion, as he executed his own flanks. Despite the Spitfire's attempts to impede their push, the Fusion kept the momentum alive through the second checkpoint with 1:30 remaining on the clock. As the Fusion turned the corner, Neptuno moved in to resurrect Sado, but he was killed. Soon after, Fury used his Self Destruct to eliminate two more Fusion players. As London had no more ultimates, the Fusion were able to finish

7520-498: The London rights to hold an Overwatch League franchise. Vlastelica noted, "Cloud9 may be a new name for some in the traditional sports world, but I can assure you they are not a niche or fringe player in esports. As we build this league, it was really important to us to combine the capabilities of owners from both traditional sports and the world of esports." Jack Etienne, chief executive Cloud9, paid roughly $ 20 million (£15.4 million) for

7680-741: The Los Angeles Valiant on June 15, Philadelphia needed a 4–0 sweep over the London Spitfire in order to make the Stage 4 Playoffs . While the Fusion were victorious in that matchup, they were only able to win by a score of 3–1 and subsequently, missed the Stage 4 Playoffs. Philadelphia Fusion claimed the 6th seed in the Season Playoffs on June 15, after Seoul Dynasty lost to the Los Angeles Gladiators . Fusion defeated third-seeded Boston Uprising in

7840-671: The Overwatch League announced that the Grand Finals would be opening with a live performance from DJ Khaled . However, the decision to have DJ Khaled as the opening act received mixed reactions from the online community. A notable point of contention surrounding DJ Khaled's performance stemmed from his past remarks, which were deemed sexist in nature. In an interview, he made statements suggesting that he expects certain actions from his wife, which he himself may not reciprocate. This led to criticism and backlash from some members of

8000-797: The Overwatch Museum. A collection of these cinematic sequences played in movie theaters across the United States as part of the game's launch event. The first episode of the animated short series, Recall , was released on March 23. It centers on Winston and Reaper, and features flashbacks to Winston's childhood. Blizzard published three digital comic series during Overwatch 's 2016–2022 run: Overwatch , Tracer - London Calling , and New Blood . These comics were also printed on hard cover through Dark Horse Comics . Further Overwatch literature including an art book, cook book, short stories, and novelizations were also published. Overwatch characters and elements have been brought over to

8160-424: The Philadelphia Fusion to defend against. Despite the Fusion's efforts, Poko, who started as the flex tank in place of Hotba, continued to impress with his performance. Poko executed a three-kill D.Va bomb, successfully slowing down the Spitfire's advance towards the second point. However, the London Spitfire displayed relentless determination, and their coordinated play proved overwhelming. They decisively rolled over

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8320-419: The Philadelphia Fusion, securing a 3-2 map victory and establishing a 1–0 lead in the series after Map 1. The second map of the night was Lijiang Tower . On the first sub-map, Night Market, the Spitfire completely dismantled the Fusion, strategically forcing them into vulnerable positions and capitalizing on those opportunities to pick off their opponents. London executed their game plan flawlessly, preventing

8480-530: The President of the Universal Society of Hinduism (Rajan Zed) urged Blizzard to remove two of Symmetra 's hero cosmetic items from the game since they could be seen as inappropriate and not accurate towards the beliefs and practices of Hinduism . In Hinduism, devotees put their destinies in the hands of their gods and goddesses; this is a stark contrast to how he believes they are portrayed within

8640-438: The Spitfire executed a decisive push and successfully captured the point, thanks in part to Gesture's performance on Winston, which proved instrumental once again. Although the Philadelphia Fusion had a strong start, they faced a swift breakdown in their defense. Bdosin's Tracer, who had been a constant threat throughout the match, secured crucial eliminations for the Spitfire during their payload push, propelling them to victory. As

8800-416: The Spitfire had already amassed an overwhelming 99% control. The Fusion managed to make a bit of a resurgence, reaching 38% control, but the Spitfire pushed the Philadelphia Fusion off the point and securing a resounding 2–0 victory on Lijiang Tower. The third, and final, map of the day was hybrid map King's Row . Philadelphia commenced their attack run against the London Spitfire with both teams opting for

8960-415: The Spitfire parted ways with head coach Lee "Bishop" Beom-joon for undisclosed reasons. The team finished Stage 2 with an improved 8–2 record and attained another stage playoffs berth. However, they fell short to the Philadelphia Fusion in a thrilling 2–3 semifinals series. However, after Stage 2, the Spitfire failed to make another stage playoffs, going 5–5 in Stage 3 and 4–6 in Stage 4. The team ended

9120-498: The Spitfire played their first regular season Overwatch League match in a 3–1 victory over the Florida Mayhem . They would end Stage 1 of the 2018 Season with a 7–3 record, earning them the third and final spot in the Stage 1 Playoffs . The team then became the first-ever stage playoffs champions, after achieving victories over the Houston Outlaws , 3–1, and the New York Excelsior , 3–2. In March, midway through Stage 2,

9280-597: The Spitfire that competed in Overwatch Contenders (OWC). Lee "Bishop" Beom-joon was appointed the team's first head coach and guided London to claim the league's first stage championship in 2018. While the team parted ways with Bishop later that season, the team went on win the inaugural season Grand Finals . Formed in March 2016, London Spitfire originally started out as the Overwatch branch of American esports organisation Cloud9 . Under variations of

9440-596: The UN to investigate the situation. During this, an explosion destroyed Overwatch's headquarters in Switzerland , purportedly killing Morrison and Reyes among others. The UN passed the Petras Act, which dismantled Overwatch and forbade any Overwatch-type activity. Overwatch is set six years after the Petras Act; without Overwatch, corporations have started to take over, fighting and terrorism have broken out in parts of

9600-638: The United States accounted for 289,175 of the average minute viewers, encompassing both the Twitch stream and the ESPN broadcast. The remaining substantial portion of the audience hailed from international markets, with the Chinese market likely playing a significant role. Chinese streaming numbers can be intricate due to challenges such as botting, which involves creating fake users to inflate viewer numbers, and differences in metrics used by various websites to calculate

9760-521: The United States and Europe. In March 2018, London signed a one-year sponsorship deal with Logitech G gaming products . The deal included equipment and gear supply, as well as the team hosting the Logitech G logo on their jerseys. Latest roster transaction: 30 October 2023. Grand Finals MVP All-Star Game selections On 15 February 2018, the Spitfire formally announced that their academy team for Overwatch Contenders Europe would be called

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9920-517: The United States and don not provide a comprehensive view of viewership patterns. Additionally, comparing Nielsen ratings to concurrent viewers on platforms like Twitch , where Overwatch League's grand finals broadcasts garnered between 150,000 and 350,000 concurrent viewers, can be challenging as households and viewers are not equivalent. According to a press release from Blizzard, the Overwatch League Grand Finals achieved

10080-423: The Year at The Game Awards , D.I.C.E. Awards , and Game Developers Choice Awards , as well as several awards and nominations highlighting its game direction and as a leading multiplayer game. Several publications, including IGN , GameSpot , Game Revolution , EGMNow , GamesTM , The Escapist , Game Informer and Eurogamer , named Overwatch the best game of 2016, receiving 102 "game of

10240-502: The Year Awards. In the years since its release, Overwatch has continued to be nominated and awarded for its strength as an esports game, as well as the ongoing content added to the title. Overwatch 's fan base has been noted to be generally kind and supportive; Daniel Starkey of Wired wrote, "where many fresh games struggle with an endless stream of player complaints and developer-prodding, Overwatch 's community

10400-455: The awards for "Best Competitive Multiplayer" and "Best Shooter". At IGN's Best of 2016 Awards, the game won the awards for "Best Shooter", "Best eSports Game", "Best Multiplayer", and "PC Game of the Year". In IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, the game won the People's Choice Award for "Best Spectator Game", while Game Informer gave it the award for "Best Shooter as Service" in their 2017 Shooter of

10560-418: The beginning of Dorado. The Spitfire swiftly secured control of the capture area, establishing a dominant offensive presence, led by Fury's Roadhog and Birdring's Hanzo. The Philadelphia Fusion initially appeared somewhat shaken by the Spitfire's assertive playstyle but managed to regain composure. They found success by relying on Eqo's Pharah play and Sado's performance as a tank. Through coordinated efforts,

10720-430: The bridge of Eichenwalde. Nonetheless, the Spitfire's tank line, particularly Gesture's Winston, dominated the remainder of the match and halted Philadelphia's progress along the way. The London Spitfire encountered difficulties when it was their turn to attack. For nearly three minutes, they struggled to make any significant progress against the defense of the Philadelphia Fusion. However, with about 50 seconds remaining,

10880-450: The characters are balanced writing, "The big question with class-based shooters like these is whether or not the characters are balanced," expressing that "some characters are naturally better, but no character is so overpowered that their mere presence spells doom for their opponents." In June 2016, Vulture 's Joshua Rivera listed Overwatch as one of the "best video games of 2016 (so far)," writing, "It's hard to separate Overwatch

11040-444: The clock, the Spitfire encountered a formidable obstacle against the Fusion's defense, led by Eqo on Hanzo and Carpe on Widowmaker. These two snipers consistently inflicted substantial damage on the attacking Spitfire, causing considerable disruption to their progress. In combination with the effective coordination of Hotba on D.Va and Sado on Winston , who provided crucial cleanup support, the Fusion managed to hold their ground and turn

11200-410: The community and adhere to standards for portraying a character according to their personality. Kaplan later stated that the team was already unsure of the pose and was thinking of changing it. The following week, a replacement pose was released, although it was noted to be similar to the original pose. The replacement pose was alleged to be influenced by Billy DeVorss cheesecake pin-up art . The pose

11360-481: The conclusion of the regular season, both London and Philadelphia had regular season records of 24–16 and were the fifth and sixth seeds, respectively, making them the bottom two teams to qualify for the season playoffs. The teams faced each other five times throughout the 2018 season, with one of those match-ups being the Stage 2 Semifinals – a game in which Philadelphia won. Overall, Philadelphia had beaten London in three out of their five match-ups. Cloud9

11520-577: The console's controls before introducing ranked play. The version has a game case for retailers in North America and Europe but does not include a physical Game Card , featuring a download code instead. The Xbox One version of the game received an optimization patch in March 2021, adding new performance settings when played using backwards compatibility on Xbox Series X/S , allowing the game to run at up to 120 frames per second on supported monitors. Before its release, Overwatch experienced

11680-413: The console's gyroscopic controls for some actions, such as controlling Junkrat's Rip-tire, and maneuvering Wrecking Ball in his spherical form. The version is equivalent to the existing version of the game on other platforms, including all heroes, maps, and game modes, although Switch players will not be able to participate in the game's current Competition season as to give players a chance to adjust to

11840-451: The converter. Some players have criticized the ability to use these converters, as players with them often populate the top of the competitive ranking ladders. Though Blizzard has appealed to Sony and Microsoft to either prevent such converters, or to detect when such converters are used as to be able to segregate players into servers based on this, disabled players have spoken out against such action, as many need to use such converters to play

12000-511: The course of a match, as a goal of Overwatch 's design was to encourage dynamic team compositions that adapt to the situation. The game's genre has been described by some journalists as a " hero shooter ", due to its design around specific heroes and classes. The game featured game modes for casual play, competitive ranked play, and for supporting esports competitions including Blizzard's Overwatch League . These modes were generally centered around sequentially securing control of points on

12160-440: The cultures of the characters they had created and would make necessary changes if they felt there were valid concerns. Kaplan commented that many players have responded positively to these outfits and feel they fit in appropriately with the idealized version of Earth. Later game developments showed that Pharah was set out as a half-Egyptian/half-Native American character, making such outfits appropriate in hindsight. In July 2016,

12320-510: The damage to attack or defend control points, Tank heroes that can absorb a large amount of damage, and Support heroes that provide healing or other buffs for their teammates. Each hero had a unique skill kit, defining their intrinsic attributes like health points and running speed, their primary attacks, several active and passive skills, and an ultimate ability that can only be used after it has been charged through dealing damage to enemies and healing allies. Players could change their hero during

12480-405: The decision to select the Barclays Center as the grand finals host: the venue's location in a prominent global city and its world-class status. Nanzer also acknowledged the fervent fanbase of the New York Excelsior (NYXL), stating that the support from NYXL fans played a role in selecting New York as the host city. Opened in 2012, the $ 1 billion stadium has a capacity of about 19,000 and is used by

12640-599: The design of the sculptures in January 2016, teams across the world, including Droga5 , Scicon, Stratasys and Egads, raced to print, finish and assemble the works in time for the game's release. Propelled by Overwatch , Blizzard had over 50% of the American advertisement share among gaming industry brands from May 16 to June 15, 2016. Overwatch was released for PlayStation 4 , Windows , and Xbox One on May 24, 2016. Blizzard allowed retailers to sell physical copies of

12800-450: The developers were aiming to avoid sexualization of the characters, there was some criticism of the female characters of the game during its development. In February 2015, Anita Sarkeesian commented on the lack of diversity in the female heroes' body types from the game's first twelve revealed characters, while Nathan Grayson of Kotaku remarked that " Overwatch 's women are mostly super slim and clad in cat suits." In March 2015,

12960-418: The development team revealed a new character, Zarya , who is a female Russian bodybuilder with a muscular body, and pledged commitment to diversity. Following promotional images featuring the female character Tracer in March 2016, a thread on Blizzard's official forums drew attention to one of Tracer's victory poses, which was criticized by a user as out of character and oversexualized. Kaplan apologized for

13120-591: The distance between them and the large pool of North American teams. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic , all live matches in the 2020 season were cancelled, and the league moved to exclusively online play. The Spitfire, along with the Vancouver Titans , relocated to Seoul , South Korea that year to increase the number of teams competing in the leagues Asian region. In 2021, their players and staff are playing and coaching remotely, with personnel situated in

13280-426: The fan community. Pornographic fan art of the game is popular, with Pornhub searches of Overwatch characters partaking in sexual activities spiking by 817% shortly after the release of the open beta. A large amount of such pornographic fan works are created with Valve 's Source Filmmaker tool and make use of the game's assets, which were ripped from the game during its closed beta and consequently spread over

13440-406: The finals began on May 18, 2018. Two-day general admission tickets sold for $ 60. Fans also had the option to upgrade their packages. The "Grandmaster" package, priced at $ 75, and the "Master" package, priced at $ 40, offered exclusive perks, including the chance to take photos with Overwatch League players, attend meet-and-greets with players, and receive Overwatch League merchandise, or "swag". Within

13600-427: The first year of its release and had more than 50 million players after three years. During its lifetime, Overwatch was considered to be among the greatest video games ever made , receiving numerous game of the year awards and other accolades. The game was a popular esport , with Blizzard funding and producing the global Overwatch League . On October 3, 2022, the Overwatch servers were shut down in preparation for

13760-585: The franchise slot. Etienne said that he chose the London slot because it is a "fantastic city with an amazing metro population [and] fantastic transportation to get people to events." On 1 November, the team revealed they would be called London Spitfire. Shortly afterwards on 4 November, they disclosed their 12-player inaugural season roster, the maximum permitted, which would be entirely composed of South Korean players. The roster would mainly be an amalgamation of their current Cloud9 KONGDOO core and OGN's Overwatch APEX Season 4 champions GC Busan. On 11 January,

13920-472: The frontline to control Carpe's Widowmaker and limit his impact on the match. Despite a brief scare, the Spitfire outlasted the Fusion and secured a convincing victory, resulting in a 1–1 tie as they headed into halftime. Coming out of the half-time break and into the third map of the night, hybrid map Eichenwalde , the Fusion subbed-in tank player Gael "Poko" Gouzerch for Isaac "Boombox" Charles. Philadelphia managed to regain momentum by swiftly capturing

14080-450: The future, though initially had no plans for Windows-supported cross-play due to the precision advantage of keyboard-mouse controls over controller-based ones. However, in June 2021, Blizzard brought cross-platform play to Overwatch across all supported platforms, with a beta test launched at the start of the month before full release by the end of June. To deal with the control differences,

14240-417: The game a day before to help players prepare for the servers' launch. Two special editions of Overwatch were released alongside the base game. The Origins Edition , available both as a downloadable and retail product, includes the base game and five additional character skins, as well as other bonus items for other Blizzard games via Battle.net. The Collectors Edition , only available as retail, includes

14400-469: The game but can still compete fairly with others, and for expert players that can utilize the various heroes to adapt to the dynamic tactics of the game. Webster went on to cite the atmosphere of Overwatch as a reason for the game's approachability, writing, "The first thing that makes Overwatch 's world appealing and approachable is, well, its world. This isn't the dour brown-and-grey shooter you might be used to. Instead, it's bright and colorful, with

14560-430: The game for a long time. Bryant Francis writing for Gamasutra noted the speed and short match times of Overwatch make the game highly favorable for viewership, further supporting the game as an esports title. Just before the game's release, PC Gamer writer Stefan Dorresteijn contacted professional esports players and hosts for their opinions. Longtime esports host Paul Chaloner stated that "[ Overwatch ] needs

14720-586: The game from Overwatch the phenomenon—and why bother, both are fascinating." The online magazine Inverse , while expressing an overall positive reception for the game, pointed out the balance of McCree (know known as Cassidy), teams composed of only one character, issues with matchmaking, and the Play of the Game as problems that should be fixed by the game's development team. Gabe Gurwin of Digital Trends , directed criticism at Blizzard, for their decision to exclude

14880-410: The game had potential as an esports game through internal testing. Kaplan stated that while esports was not a design goal, they included and planned for features for the game to support the competitive community. This included the introduction of the game's competitive mode some months after the game's launch after seeing how players took towards Overwatch ; Blizzard saw the ladder-approach they used as

15040-446: The game on consoles lacking the ability to use a normal controller. After a year from its release, journalists observed that the player community was becoming more toxic, disrupting the enjoyment of playing the game. It was believed this came from the nature of the game that requires teamwork, and when teammates see players unwilling to switch to different heroes to balance the team or otherwise play for individual gains, this would cause

15200-511: The game's characters and maps, writing " Overwatch takes just about every possible opportunity to make its cast and locales seem like people and places rather than puppets and scenery." Ingenito added that the game has a "strong online experience that gets you into games quickly and reliably." The Verge 's Andrew Webster praised Overwatch and previous titles Titanfall and Splatoon as "friendly online shooters" that have room for both new and casual players who may not desire to master

15360-798: The game's competitive mode would still remain segregated between console players and computer players, but all other game modes would allow for cross-play on any combination of platforms, after users register their account via Battle.net. The game was announced for Nintendo Switch during the September 2019 Nintendo Direct , the Switch had the Overwatch: Legendary Edition and was released in North America and Europe on October 15, 2019, and in Japan on November 29, 2019. The Switch version, developed by Iron Galaxy , includes support for

15520-560: The game's diverse character roster, and colorful settings, as well as the unlockable cosmetics earned through level progression and the smooth server connection. Referencing its similarities to Team Fortress 2 , Minotti confirmed that "[ Overwatch has] distinct classes, the team- and objective-based combat, and a bright, cartoon-like art style," and that " Overwatch certainly takes plenty of inspiration from Valve online shooter series," but opines that "[ Overwatch is] just better." Daniel Tack of The News & Observer positively received

15680-653: The game's narrative, as well as continuously tuning how the individual heroes play by monitoring meta-game statistics and user feedback. New characters and maps were added regularly to the game since launch, expanding the original hero roster from 21 in May 2016 to 32 by April 2020. Since April 2020 however, no heroes have been released, as the development team is focused on creating Overwatch 2 . Overwatch 's development had been led by Kaplan through April 2021, after which he departed Blizzard. Kaplan's duties were taken over by Aaron Keller following his departure. Overwatch

15840-539: The game, expressing that "no matter what happens – win or lose – you're going to have fun," adding that "the game's strength lies in its simplicity and polish." Tack went on to praise the game's characters, writing "Unforgettable characters are the lifeblood and driving force of Overwatch ." The Denver Post 's Hugh Johnson lauded the game for its emphasis on characters, rather than focusing on traditional first-person shooter tropes, such as weapon load-outs and incremental level upgrades. Johnson went on to insist that

16000-492: The game. Zed has in the past commented on other video game depictions of Hindu-inspired gods, such as in the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game Smite . In Overwatch 's Asia servers, there were problems with numerous players using cheats tied to the growing number of younger players using PC bangs in South Korea that allowed them to play Overwatch on an inexpensive hourly rate rather than purchasing

16160-457: The game. As these players do not need permanent accounts, they can use disposable Battle.net accounts and employ game hacks without repercussions, and if that account is banned, they can quickly make another and continue playing. Blizzard continues to block these accounts at a rate of thousands per day, but have not been able to find a more permanent solution. Subsequently, Blizzard announced that players from South Korea would be required to log into

16320-489: The globe, and there are signs of a second Omnic Crisis occurring in Russia. The intelligent gorilla Winston , a former member of Overwatch, decides to begin reforming Overwatch to protect the peace once again despite the Petras Act, with the team members recruiting old friends and gaining new allies in their fight. It is revealed that Reyes and Morrison were not killed in the explosion resulting from their battle: Morrison became

16480-399: The highest-grossing paid game for personal computers that year. In Activision-Blizzard's quarterly earnings report for Q1 2017, the company reported that Overwatch revenues had exceeded one billion dollars, the eighth such property owned by the company to do so. In June 2016, Gametrics, a South Korean internet cafe survey website, reported that Overwatch overtook League of Legends as

16640-410: The hill [Control] is super exciting and fast-paced but then you have the payload [Escort] maps, which are just a snoozefest for everyone involved." Rosen expressed a need for tweaking to the maps used for the control game mode, as they are "just too prone to the snowball effect. The moment the attacking team captures the first control point they don't just have the momentum but also the last advantage for

16800-440: The idea of a hero team-based shooter, building upon the success of games like Team Fortress 2 and multiplayer online battle arenas . They started with assets developed for Titan to demonstrate the proof-of-concept and were greenlit to build out the full game, the first new intellectual property that Blizzard had developed since StarCraft . The intra-company experience of Titan 's cancellation served to help drive

16960-415: The internet. Blizzard made efforts to remove the works. Kaplan stated that while the studio does not want to infringe on anyone's freedom of expression , Blizzard is mindful that many players are not adults and would hope the community would try to keep such imagery away from them. Blizzard opted to tell the story of Overwatch across various mediums, rather than include a story mode; Chu stated, "One of

17120-508: The introduction of competitive mode that the whole of the Overwatch community has become more toxic, and they are continually adapting elements behind the scenes to help deal with aggressive players more responsibly, while trying to promote more enjoyable matches. A week from its launch, Blizzard reported over seven million Overwatch players with a total accumulated playtime of 119 million hours; Blizzard reported more than 10 million players by mid-June and has reported continued increases in

17280-436: The map in overtime. It was then the London Spitfire's turn to attack, they struggled to capture the first point. With just under two minutes remaining, the Spitfire transitioned to a triple-tank, triple-support composition and captured Point A. The composition featured Reinhardt and Brigitte, which lacked mobility and resurrection capabilities, forcing the Spitfire to reset. With Gesture's Earthshatter, London managed to advance

17440-437: The map, or escorting a payload between points on the map, with one team attacking while the other defends. Other modes set aside for casual matches include solo and team deathmatch, capture-the-flag, and unique modes run during various seasonal events . More recent updates had enabled users to craft their own game modes with a limited set of scripting tools. Regardless of winning or losing a match, players gained experience towards

17600-412: The map, the Fusion was shut down. With less than two minutes remaining, Profit's Hanzo, combined with Gesture's well-timed halt ability as Orisa , unleashed a Dragonstrike that eliminated four members of the Philadelphia Fusion, effectively halting their advance. On London's attack, Gesture on Orisa and Bdosin on Roadhog consistently combined their abilities to create a force that proved challenging for

17760-552: The most popular game played across 4,000 of South Korea's PC bangs at the time. In 2018, Overwatch raised over $ 12.7 million for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation , which they generated from selling a special pink-colored Mercy skin where all proceeds went towards it. By July 2019, total in-game spending in Overwatch exceeded one billion dollars as estimated by SuperData, the sixth Activision-Blizzard product line to reach this metric. While

17920-510: The narrative and setting. They created an optimistic vision of the near-future, some decades following the Omnic Crisis and the formation and collapse of the peacekeeping Overwatch group. This allowed them to create a diverse cast of characters, including non-human ones, and colorful settings from around the globe. The Overwatch team continues to support the game through free updates, the introduction of new characters, maps, game modes, cosmetic items, seasonal events , and external media to support

18080-472: The next two games against the Gladiators, winning in 3–0 sweeps in matches two and three and advancing the team to the semifinals . London won both games against the Los Angeles Valiant in the semifinals, winning 3–0 in match one and 3–1 in match two. On September 20, 2017, Overwatch developer Activision Blizzard officially announced that Philadelphia Flyers owner Comcast Spectacor had acquired

18240-518: The number of viewers. The 2018 Overwatch League Grand Finals featured a lineup of entertainment performances. David Garibaldi , an artist known for his Speed painting abilities, created his own take on the Overwatch League logo. Blizzard said that one fan would have the opportunity to receive the artwork as a special memento. DJ Mick entertained the audience on Friday during breaks in the broadcast. Meanwhile, DJ Envy opened for DJ Khaled and performed during breaks on Saturday. On July 25, 2018,

18400-418: The opening act. Tatjana Vejnovic of Overwatch Wire described the performance as "the worst one [she's] ever witnessed... the performance should be categorized as a disaster." The 2018 Overwatch League Grand Finals commenced with the escort map Dorado . At the beginning of the match, the Philadelphia Fusion, who had a 70% win rate on the map, advanced a payload through the map with ease. Led by Sado, who

18560-428: The opening point. However, after the initial capture and a brief push of the payload, the London Spitfire regrouped and took advantage of Philadelphia's challenging choke point position on the map. Leveraging the map's topography, the Spitfire effectively stalled and wasted valuable time from the Fusion's clock. As the clock dwindled down to about a minute, the Fusion finally began moving the payload, progressing it towards

18720-447: The payload to Point B with 2:18 remaining to complete the map. The Spitfire completed King's Row with 1:10 left on the clock. Since London was the only team to finish their attack run with time remaining on the clock, they were granted another chance to attack. With only one tick needed on Point A to secure victory, the Spitfire swiftly capitalized on their advantage. London wasted no time and quickly gained control, effectively boxing out

18880-416: The payload. Key plays by their players, such as Eqo on Hanzo and Carpe on Widowmaker , allowed them to gain ground effectively. Eqo's precise arrow shots and Carpe's eliminations of enemy players supported their team's dominance. As the match transitioned to the map's interior areas, the London Spitfire's defense improved notably. Birdring 's Genji play and Fury's performance as D.Va made it harder for

19040-420: The performance, with many offering humorous takes on the situation. While DJ Khaled demonstrated professionalism by completing the entire 15-minute performance, the overall reception was mixed, with some viewers questioning whether he was the most suitable choice for the Overwatch League event. The performance sparked discussions within the Overwatch community about music preferences and the choice of DJ Khaled as

19200-515: The player base, with 60 million players as of April 2021 whilst possibly counting temporary free accounts. The NPD Group, a video game industry tracking firm, reported that Overwatch was the third best-selling retail video game (nb. discounting digital sales through Battle.net) in the US in May 2016 on the month of its release, and was the top-selling game in June 2016; the NPD Group later reported it

19360-415: The playoffs and throughout all of the following season. The partnership marked the time that a live esports competition had aired on ESPN in prime time and the first time that an esports competition had aired on ABC. The Nielsen ratings for the Grand Finals broadcasts on ESPN and ABC were relatively low compared to other programs that aired in similar time slots. The full Friday broadcast on ESPN received

19520-425: The playoffs. London Spitfire defeated Philadelphia Fusion in the first and second matches by scores of 3–1 and 3–0, respectively, to claim the title of Overwatch League Grand Finals Champions before a two-day attendance of 22,434 spectators. The Grand Finals are the post-season championship series of the Overwatch League (OWL), a professional international esports league; the teams of the Grand Finals compete for

19680-510: The point and gained 41% of control before the London Spitfire mounted a comeback. Led by Gesture and Bdosin, who played Zenyatta , the Spitfire took charge and successfully cleared out most of the Philadelphia damage heroes, seizing control of the point for themselves. Birdring's performance across multiple heroes was pivotal in the Spitfire's success on Oasis. His 15 eliminations to only 2 deaths showcased his effectiveness in working with

19840-503: The point, they found themselves at a loss against the Spitfire, particularly against Profit 's play as Mei . The Spitfire's solid defense prevailed, thwarting the Fusion's efforts to complete the map. On the attacking side, the Spitfire faced an equally slow start due to a formidable defensive effort from the Fusion. Unconventional in their approach, the Fusion adopted a more aggressive defensive style, led by Hotba on Roadhog, which proved highly successful in nearly fully holding London off

20000-421: The point. Despite facing a tight situation and limited time on the clock, the Spitfire secured a crucial elimination on Mercy , shifting the momentum in their favor and capturing Point A. The ensuing gameplay witnessed a tense back-and-forth exchange. However, in the closing moments, Profit swapped to Tracer and picked up five critical final blows in a span of 93 seconds, and the Spitfire captured Point B, securing

20160-431: The pose, stating "The last thing we want to do is make someone feel uncomfortable, under-appreciated or misrepresented," and confirmed that Blizzard planned to replace the pose. Kaplan's response drew mixed reactions from the gaming community, with many claiming Blizzard had forgone its creative control over the game and censored its content to placate one offended user, while others praised Blizzard's willingness to listen to

20320-458: The previous defensive collapse. The Spitfire exhibited an impressive start, and at one point, it seemed likely that they would achieve a full payload capture with four minutes left on the clock. As the payload reached its final destination inside the building at the end of Dorado, the Philadelphia Fusion seemed to awaken to the urgency of the situation. With just meters remaining for the payload to reach its final destination and nearly three minutes on

20480-512: The public. Overwatch League host Malik Forté also expressed his thoughts on the artist choice on Twitter, emphasizing the importance of mutual respect and equal treatment within relationships. Past BlizzCon events had successfully featured artists like Weird Al Yankovic and Muse , prompting some to suggest that the League could have considered alternative artists from the area who had not been involved in similar controversies. He performed live at

20640-519: The rights to the Philadelphia-based Overwatch League franchise; later the team name was revealed as the Philadelphia Fusion. Shortly afterwards on November 3, their roster was revealed. Philadelphia's first regular season OWL match was a 3–2 victory against the Houston Outlaws on January 11. On January 25, Philadelphia upset the undefeated New York Excelsior , which marked New York's only loss in Stage 1. With

20800-430: The robotic uprising and brought many talented individuals to the forefront, a rift developed between Reyes and Morrison due to Reyes being the official leader of the group despite everyone viewing the more popular Morrison as their true leader. Eventually, Morrison was made the leader of Overwatch while Reyes was given charge of Blackwatch, Overwatch's covert operations division, fighting terrorist organizations like Talon,

20960-469: The season playoffs. In the first round, London was defeated by the New York Excelsior , 1–4, sending the team to the lower bracket. A 0–4 loss to the San Francisco Shock ended the Spitfire's 2019 playoff run. In the offseason preceding the 2020 season , the Spitfire overhauled their roster, releasing nearly all of their players from the 2019 season and signing mostly rookies. Additionally,

21120-440: The season progressed, the Spitfire experienced a slight dip in form during Stages 3 and 4, resulting in a combined record of 9–11 . Despite this relative downturn, the team's performance during the first half of the season secured their berth in the season playoffs as the fifth seed. London lost their first postseason matchup against the Gladiators on July 11 by a score of 0–3 in the quarterfinals . The Spitfire turned it around

21280-419: The season with a 24–16 record, good for 5th place and a spot in the postseason . London lost their first postseason matchup against the Los Angeles Gladiators on 11 July by a score of 0–3, but the team turned it around the next two games against the Gladiators, winning in 3–0 sweeps in matches two and three and advancing the team to the semifinals. London won both games against the Los Angeles Valiant in

21440-428: The season with a win to the a 3–1 victory over the Florida Mayhem and continued that winning trend through their first five games, resulting in the team's best win streak of the 2018 regular season. They would end Stage 1 of the 2018 Season with a 7–3 record, earning them the third and final spot in the Stage 1 Playoffs . The team then became the first-ever stage playoffs champions, after achieving victories over

21600-719: The season, when they defeated the Vancouver Titans , to finish the season with a 1–15 record. On 1 November 2017, the London Spitfire brand was officially unveiled. The name and shield-like logo were selected to pay homage to the British military plane Supermarine Spitfire , whose use during World War II by the Royal Air Force (RAF) reflected the spirit of bravery the team hoped to identify with. The team colours were also announced as blue and orange: blue inherited from parent organisation Cloud9, and orange in recognition of British Overwatch character Lena "Tracer" Oxton who

21760-402: The second and final capture point." The first organized, prize-winning competitions for Overwatch started in mid-2016, a few months after launch. In November 2016, Blizzard hosted their own Overwatch World Cup , allowing users to vote for teams to represent their nation or region, with finals taking place during their BlizzCon event. Overwatch grew increasingly in South Korea since it

21920-424: The semifinals, winning 3–0 in match one and 3–1 in match two. London claimed the first Overwatch League championship after defeating the Philadelphia Fusion on 27 and 28 July by scores of 3–1 and 3–0, respectively. The Spitfire filled their head coach vacancy in the 2019 offseason, signing Kim "Coach815" Kwangbok. London began their 2019 season winning only three of their matches in Stage 1. The stage ended with

22080-528: The story from the game, which left players "with a great game, a great story, and no way to reconcile the two." Shortly after the game's competitive play mode was released, Kotaku 's Nathan Grayson stated that " Overwatch 's competitive mode [is not] all that bad, for how new and unpolished it is," but opined that "high-stakes competition and toxicity tend to go hand-in-hand, and Overwatch 's competitive mode already has an ugly toxic stain." Grayson concluded his piece with " Overwatch is, most of

22240-424: The tables on the Spitfire. Despite the Spitfire's earlier dominance, the tide shifted drastically, and the Philadelphia Fusion turned the situation in their favor. They held firm against London's efforts and repelled the attack, securing at victory from what appeared to be an impending defeat. During the second map, Oasis , the London Spitfire maintained their aggressive momentum, reminiscent of their performance at

22400-487: The team promoted Hong "Agape" Cheol-yong as their head coach. While the team planned to play in the United Kingdom for live homestands, the team relocated its training facility to New Jersey to minimize travel time to other cities. However, after all live events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic , the Spitfire relocated to Seoul, South Korea, to compete in league's Asia region. London did not perform well in

22560-540: The team without a head coach. A 0–4 loss to the Los Angeles Valiant in Stage 3 eliminated London from Stage 3 playoff contention as the team went on to post a 3–4 record for that stage. After a 4–3 win–loss record in Stage 4, London finished the regular season with a 16–12 record and qualified for the play-in tournament for a chance to make it to the 2019 season playoffs . London took down the Shanghai Dragons 4–3 in an OWL record eight-map series to qualify for

22720-515: The teammates to become angry and lash out at the player, become griefers and throw the match, or other harmful behavior that would spread over time, particularly in the game's competitive mode. Players are able to report malicious users with in-game tools, and Blizzard can ban players for egregious actions, but they do not attempt to segregate out bad actors from the larger pool (a method used by other developers in multiplayer games), instead keeping an inclusive community for all non-banned players, which

22880-485: The things that's really great is we're able to leverage the strengths of these different mediums to tell different parts of the story," citing Soldier: 76's appearances in fake news reports, an animated video narrated from his perspective, as well as the Hero short. In March 2016, Blizzard announced that they would be releasing comics and animated shorts based on Overwatch in 2016. The related media included plans for

23040-407: The time, a feel-good team game. Introducing high-stakes competition with a muddled message about the importance of individual skill drags the game into confused, oftentimes negative territory. If Blizzard wants this thing to work, they're gonna have to figure out a competitive framework that's true to Overwatch 's spirit, rather than just the spirit of competition." Kaplan acknowledged that with

23200-422: The tough start, the Fusion found a glimmer of hope when a few careless mistakes by the Spitfire players allowed Poko on D.Va and Eqo on Zarya to execute a near team kill. This play enabled the Fusion to seize control of the opening point with approximately one minute remaining. Although the Fusion capitalized on this opportunity, they faced a different story when it came to Point B. After initially capturing half of

23360-400: The victory in the series. Escort map Junkertown was the first map of the night, and Philadelphia was the first to attack. The Fusion launched their offense with a Bastion composition, effectively shielded for a powerful push. While the London Spitfire put up a fight, the Fusion managed to advance swiftly through the first two sections of the map. However, as they entered the last third of

23520-434: The week before release, Blizzard arranged to have three giant-sized boxes (approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) tall) of various Overwatch heroes, as if being sold as packaged action figures, put on display across the globe at Hollywood, Paris, and Busan, South Korea . The displays were created by Alliance Studios, led by Steve Wang , who has collaborated with Blizzard before on past projects, and Eddie Yang. After planning

23680-694: The worldwide automated "omnium" facilities that produced them started producing a series of lethal, hostile robots that attacked humankind . After individual nations' efforts failed to ward off the Omnics, the United Nations quickly formed Overwatch, an international task force designed to combat this threat and restore order. Two veteran soldiers from the Soldier Enhancement Program were put in charge of Overwatch: Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison. Though Overwatch successfully quelled

23840-457: The year" awards across critics and reader polls. Giant Bomb gave it the awards for "Best Debut" and "Best Multiplayer", and put it in third place for "Game of the Year". Polygon and Slant Magazine also put the game in third place for "Game of the Year", while PC Gamer gave it the award for "Best Multiplayer". Besides "Game of the Year", The Escapist gave it the awards for "Best Shooter and Multiplayer". Game Informer gave it

24000-462: Was a 2016 team-based online multiplayer first-person shooter video game by Blizzard Entertainment . The game was first released for PlayStation 4 , Windows , and Xbox One in May 2016 and Nintendo Switch in October 2019, with cross-platform play supported across all platforms. Described as a " hero shooter ", Overwatch assigned players into two teams of six, with each player selecting from

24160-644: Was a former RAF pilot in the game's lore. The team has never played in the United Kingdom. In the first two seasons of the league, the Spitfire played matches at the Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California along with all other Overwatch League teams. For 2020, the team planned to host two homestand events in the United Kingdom at Wembley Arena and the National Exhibition Centre , and the team relocated to New Jersey in order to reduce

24320-427: Was awarded the London slot for an OWL franchise on August 10, 2017, and was later named the London Spitfire. Shortly afterwards, they disclosed their 12-player inaugural season roster, the maximum permitted, which would be entirely composed of South Korean players. The roster would mainly be an amalgamation of their current Cloud9 KONGDOO core and OGN 's Overwatch APEX Season 4 champions GC Busan. London started

24480-441: Was dispatched to arrest a notorious mobster with ties to Talon. After infiltrating the compound, Reyes chose to execute the mobster rather than let him buy his way out of prison. This action caused Blackwatch and their less heroic actions to be exposed to the public. Several allegations of wrongdoing and failures were leveled at Overwatch, leading to a public outcry against the organization and in-fighting between its members, prompting

24640-784: Was formally announced at the BlizzCon event on November 7, 2014; the game was playable during the event to all attendees, with fourteen characters available to select from. During this event, Blizzard released a cinematic trailer and an extended gameplay video for the game. A month after the BlizzCon event, in December 2014, Blizzard published character introduction videos to its YouTube channel and followed up on this May 2015 by posting weekly videos of game footage and character highlights. A closed beta period for Overwatch across all three platforms began on October 27, 2015. The closed beta

24800-418: Was playing as Reinhardt , they charged forward aggressively. On the other hand, the London Spitfire appeared somewhat unsettled and unprepared. Throughout the match, several players made uncharacteristic errors. As the game progressed, however, the Spitfire gradually regained their composure and began performing more steadily. The Philadelphia Fusion capitalized on the Spitfire's overaggressive positioning around

24960-463: Was put on "extended break" in December and brought back in February 2016. Following the March 2016 release announcement, Blizzard announced an open beta period from May 5 to 9 for any registered user of the Battle.net client. The open beta proved popular with Blizzard reporting over 9.7 million players participating, and as a way of showing thanks, extended the open beta period by one extra day. In

25120-521: Was released. It topped gaming cafes in Korea in terms of player count, surpassing that of League of Legends . 2018 Overwatch League Grand Finals London qualified for the playoffs as the fifth seed and defeated the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Gladiators and second-seeded Los Angeles Valiant in the playoffs. Philadelphia qualified for the playoffs as the sixth seed and defeated the third-seeded Boston Uprising and top-seeded New York Excelsior in

25280-410: Was replaced during the game's beta period. Following the game's release, some of the alternative outfits for characters had come under criticism for using cultural stereotypes, such as a Native American headdress option for the character of Pharah , who seemed to be primarily of Egyptian origin. Kaplan noted that they had considered if these outfits were appropriate, and believed they were respecting

25440-418: Was the 7th highest selling game by revenue (excluding Battle.net sales) in the United States for all of 2016. With digital sales, Overwatch was the fastest-selling game during its release month. SuperData Research estimated that Overwatch brought in more than $ 269 million in revenues from digital sales worldwide in May, and over $ 565 million in sales on personal computers along by the end of 2016, making it

25600-415: Was unveiled at the 2014 BlizzCon event and was in a closed beta from late 2015 through early 2016. An open beta before release drew in nearly 10 million players. Overwatch received universal acclaim from critics, who praised the game for its accessibility, the diverse appeal of its hero characters, its cartoonish art style, and enjoyable gameplay. Blizzard reported over US$ 1 billion in revenue during

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