The 2019 Overwatch League season was the second season of the Overwatch League (OWL), an esport based on the video game Overwatch . The league expanded from 12 teams from the inaugural season to 20 teams. Of the eight new teams, two were from the United States, two were from Canada, one was from France, and three were from China.
133-805: The Los Angeles Gladiators are an American professional Overwatch esports team based in Los Angeles, California . The Gladiators compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2017, the Los Angeles Gladiators are one of twelve founding members of the OWL and are one of two professional Overwatch teams based in Los Angeles (the other, the Los Angeles Valiant ). The team
266-414: 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
399-616: 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
532-469: 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
665-505: A Contenders match in the same week. These players counted towards the OWL team's 12-player limit. Though most matches were still played at the 350-seat Blizzard Arena, the 2019 season introduced three "Homestand Weeks," which took place in three Overwatch League cities. These were held as practice runs for the planned expansion of the Overwatch League into true home-and-away formats for the 2020 season, seeing teams travel across
798-409: 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,
931-422: 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
1064-455: 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
1197-413: 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
1330-418: 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
1463-413: 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
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#17327905609901596-442: 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
1729-532: 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
1862-422: 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
1995-469: 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
2128-612: A six-game winning streak in Stage 2 , the team found middling results throughout the season, finishing with a 17–11 overall record and the fifth seed in the season playoffs . The Gladiators' first playoff match in the double-elimination tournament was against the Hangzhou Spark on September 5; they defeated the Spark, 4–3, marking the team's first ever playoff series win, including stage playoffs, in franchise history. The win advanced
2261-479: A tie that affects the qualification for Stage or Postseason playoffs still cannot be broken, the teams were to play a tiebreaker match. The season playoff teams consisted of the two division winners, four wild card teams with the best regular season records regardless of division, and the top two teams from the play-in tournament. Stage 1 ran from February 14 to March 17, 2019, with stage playoffs taking place from March 21–24, 2019. The two division leaders, and
2394-512: A verbal joint venture agreement between the two sides. In the aftermath from the lawsuit, it was announced that KSE and Sentinels would part ways, and KSE would officially take over management of the Gladiators on October 1, 2019. KSE would build up their own esports front office to manage both the Gladiators and a Los Angeles–based franchise in the Call of Duty League , which was later revealed as
2527-812: 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
2660-455: 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
2793-510: Is owned by Stan Kroenke and Josh Kroenke of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment , who also owns Gladiators Legion , an academy team for Los Angeles that competed in Overwatch Contenders . The Gladiators made a season playoffs appearance in every season from 2018 to 2022. They claimed their first midseason tournament title in 2021, after winning the 2021 Countdown Cup . In 2022, they won two more midseason tournament titles,
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#17327905609902926-505: 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
3059-436: 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
3192-515: The 2018 season . During this season, Blizzard stated it planned to expand out the league to add six teams, ideally gaining more teams in European and Asian regions, and started meeting with potential owners in March 2018. By September 2018, Blizzard confirmed it had signed eight additional teams based in Atlanta, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Toronto, Paris, Washington D.C., Vancouver, and Chengdu, bringing
3325-641: The Boston Uprising . The team failed to reach any of the first three midseason tournament interregional tournaments, despite promising showings in some of the qualifiers. However, in the fourth, and final, midseason tournament, the Countdown Cup , the Gladiators defeated the Chengdu Hunters in the finals by a score of 4–3. The win gave Los Angeles their first midseason tournament title in franchise history. With an 11–5 regular season record,
3458-603: The Grand Finals , which took place at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 29. In the 2018 season , the Shanghai Dragons failed to win a match, going 0–40 throughout the regular season. The franchise released eight of their eleven players going into the 2019 season. The Dragons lost their first two matches of the 2019 regular season, bringing their loss streak to 42 matches —
3591-523: The Los Angeles Guerrillas . The Gladiators parted ways with all but two of their players from the 2019 season, retaining only main support Benjamin "BigGoose" Isohanni and flex support Jonas "Shaz" Suovaara; among the many acquisitions of the offseason were veterans tank Indy "Space" Halpern , tank Son "OGE" Min-seok, and damage player Kim "Birdring" Ji-hyeok . The Gladiators finished their 2020 season with 11 wins and 10 losses to claim
3724-659: The Midseason Madness , after defeating the San Francisco Shock in the finals, 4–2. On November 2, 2017, the Los Angeles Gladiators brand was officially unveiled. The name and logo, a roaring lion head in a battle-hardened shield, were selected in spirit of the original superstars of sports and entertainment (as well as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ), the gladiators of ancient Rome , whose ferocity and "willingness to make
3857-576: 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
3990-423: 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
4123-528: 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
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4256-461: 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
4389-469: 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
4522-503: 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
4655-517: The 2019 season and had been frequently used by teams during Stage 1. Due to the tiebreaking issues in Stage 1, the League updated their tiebreaker rules to include head-to-head records across all stages, strength of schedule, and common opponents records. Stage 3 ran from June 6 to July 7, with the stage playoffs taking place from July 11 to 14. The stage marked the first time that assault map Havana
4788-665: The All-Star players of the league. The game was played on May 16, 2019, and was the culmination of the league's All-Star Weekend, a two-day event that consisted of the Talent Takedown, a Widowmaker 1v1 tournament , and the All-Star Arcade. All of the events were played at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California . The game was televised by ESPN2 and streamed live on Twitch . Teams in the 2019 season competed for
4921-524: The Gladiators faced the Spitfire. The team elected to bench Fissure in favor of Luis "iRemiix" Galarza Figueroa throughout the best-of-three series; although the organization stated that the reason for the change was because Fissure's playstyle was not "right" for the current state of the game, journalist Rod "Slasher" Breslau reported that Fissure was "unhappy with the players on the team not trying hard enough ... and stopped communicating in scrims." In
5054-705: The Gladiators finished in second place in the Western region standings, qualifying them for the season playoffs . While the team defeated the Philadelphia Fusion in the first round of the double-elimination tournament , consecutive losses to the Atlanta Reign and the Shanghai Dragons ended their playoff run. In the offseason preceding the 2022 season the Gladiators parted ways with head coach Dpei, as well as several players, including Moth and Birdring. The team brought on Sam "face" Merewether, who
5187-513: The Gladiators formally announced their academy team would go under the name "Gladiators Legion" for Overwatch Contenders North America, as well as revealing their 6-player Season One roster led by head coach Gannon "RaptorZ" Nelson. In December 2019, Gladiators Legion disbanded, after two years of competing in Overwatch Contenders. Overwatch (video game)#Esports Overwatch (retroactively referred to as Overwatch 1 )
5320-419: The Gladiators' saying 'shields up.'" Zayde Wølf's song "Gladiator" was used by the team during their last entrance of the 2018 playoffs. The song became popular with the team's fans, and since then it has been used by the team for almost every single one of their entrances at the arena. Latest roster transaction: July 24, 2023. Role Star selections All-Star Game selections On February 15, 2018,
5453-544: The Los Angeles location of the team. As an addition to their branding, the Gladiators began using the slogan "shields up" on social media, possibly a reference to the frequent use of shields by the ancient Roman gladiators as a means of defense. As a result, fans of the team have often chanted "Shields up" during the team's matches. When asked what the slogan meant to him in an interview, head coach David "Dpei" Pei stated, "It's kind of like defending your team, like being there for your team … I think that's what kind of epitomizes
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5586-797: 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
5719-468: The Pacific Division. The 2019 season's revised schedule format was announced on December 12, 2018. The season kept the four-stage format that was used in the 2018 season, though only the first three stages had playoffs, while the fourth stage's playoffs were replaced by a six-team play-in tournament to determine the final two postseason teams. The top six season playoff teams were determined by
5852-530: 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
5985-547: The San Francisco Shock and the Seoul Dynasty were tied for sixth place. By league rules, both ties were to broken by an off-stream match. While the sixth-place tie was decided in this manner, the Defiant and Fusion mutually agreed to settle the third-place tie by a coin flip . Due to issues on reporting the coin flip, league commissioner Nate Nanzer stated that the league would not allow teams to decides such ties by one in
6118-596: 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
6251-423: 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
6384-502: 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
6517-638: The amount earned by the runners-up quadrupled from 2018 to $ 100,000. Third and fourth place teams earned $ 50,000 while fifth through eighth place teams earned $ 25,000. For the postseason earnings, the Grand Champion team will earn $ 1.1 million (up from $ 1 million), second place will earn $ 600,000, third place will earn $ 450,000, fourth place will earn $ 350,000, fifth and sixth place will earn $ 300,000, and seventh and eighth place will earn $ 200,000. The season's free agency signing window opened to expansion teams on September 10, 2018, and closed on October 7,
6650-455: 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
6783-473: The break between stages increased from one week to two weeks (except for the break between stages 2 and 3, which was four weeks due to the league's All-Star Weekend). Each week featured three to four games on Thursday and Friday and four games on Saturday and Sunday, totaling either fourteen or sixteen games per week, up from twelve in 2018. Teams played zero, one, or two matches per week. The stage playoffs doubled in size from 2018, expanding to eight teams, up from
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#17327905609906916-450: 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
7049-410: 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
7182-577: 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
7315-413: 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
7448-451: 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
7581-511: 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
7714-440: 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,
7847-510: 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
7980-420: The day before the window for all teams opened. Each teams had to sign at least 12 players by December 1. The 2019 season was also the first in which two-way contracts were in effect. Players signed to these contracts primarily played for their OWL team's academy team that played in Overwatch Contenders . They were unable to play in more than two OWL matches in a stage, nor could they play in an OWL match and
8113-599: 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
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#17327905609908246-450: 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,
8379-418: 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
8512-426: 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
8645-447: The fifth week taking place at The Novo by Microsoft in Los Angeles as the final "Homestand Week". Stage 4 introduced a forced 2-2-2 team composition – 2 damage heroes, 2 support heroes, and 2 tank heroes, as a means of eliminating a metagame composition that became dominant in the league made of three tanks and three supports, otherwise known as "GOATS," named after the Overwatch Contenders team that popularized it. This GOATS composition
8778-470: The first half of the season, prompting them to make roster changes, including the acquisition of tank players Baek "Fissure" Chan-hyung from the London Spitfire in February and Kang "Void" Jun-woo from Contenders team KongDoo Panthera in March. Los Angeles reached the playoffs in Stage 3 , where they lost to the Boston Uprising , 0–3, in the first round. The team thrived in the final stage of
8911-483: 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
9044-602: The following top six teams, regardless of division, in the Stage 1 standings qualified for the Stage 1 Playoffs. The division winners were awarded the top two seeds, while the remaining teams received seeds three through eight based on their Stage 1 records. All matches emanated from the Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California . At the conclusion of the first stage, both the Fusion and Defiant were tied for third place after considering all tie-breaking resolutions; similarly,
9177-630: The four team system introduced in 2018's third stage. The top team from each division held the first and second seed, followed by the next six teams, regardless of division. The Grand Finals were held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 29, 2019. The prize pool was increased from US$ 3,500,000 to $ 5,000,000. All eight teams who qualified for each Stage Playoffs earned at least $ 25,000. Each stage champion earned $ 200,000 (up from $ 100,000 in 2018), while
9310-450: 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,
9443-646: The future. Stage 2 ran from April 4 to May 5, 2019, with stage playoffs taking place from May 9–12. The playoff format did not change from Stage 1. All matches emanated from the Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California, except for the fourth week of play, which took place at the Allen Event Center in Allen, Texas – the first of three "Homestand Weeks" of the season. This stage's Homestand Week
9576-417: 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
9709-469: 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
9842-430: 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
9975-586: 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
10108-410: 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
10241-446: 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
10374-511: 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
10507-798: 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
10640-560: 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
10773-653: 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
10906-539: 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
11039-492: 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
11172-457: 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
11305-622: The globe to compete. The fourth week of Stage 2 was held at the Allen Event Center in Allen, Texas and was hosted by the Dallas Fuel . The fifth week of Stage 3 was held at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Cumberland, Georgia and was hosted by the Atlanta Reign . The fifth week of Stage 4, dubbed " Kit Kat Rivalry Weekend," was held at The Novo by Microsoft in Los Angeles, California and
11438-489: 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
11571-399: 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
11704-410: 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
11837-440: 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
11970-415: 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
12103-508: 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
12236-443: The league at the end of September 2019. The play-in tournament is a single-elimination tournament that took place August 30–31. Each match were first-to-four maps, with the higher seed selecting the first map and the loser of each subsequent map selecting the next. The winners of each quarterfinal match advanced to the semifinals, where they faced either the seventh- or eighth-seeded team, depending on their own seed. The winners of
12369-539: The longest loss streak in professional sports history at the time. On February 22, 2019, the Dragons defeated the Boston Uprising , giving the franchise their first win. On June 12, 2019, Immortals Gaming Club (IGC), the parent company of Immortals and Los Angeles Valiant , acquired Infinite Esports, the parent company of Houston Outlaws and OpTic Gaming , marking the first sale of any Overwatch League franchise. Both Riot Games and Activision Blizzard approved
12502-437: 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
12635-552: 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
12768-510: 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
12901-403: The partnership) to help manage the operations of the team. During the same announcement, they unveiled their initial seven-player inaugural season roster, consisting of a mix of nationalities, as well as their head coach David "Dpei" Pei. Los Angeles' first OWL regular season match was on January 10, 2018, and resulted in a 4–0 sweep over the Shanghai Dragons . The Gladiators went 10–10 through
13034-515: 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
13167-503: The playoffs and continuing through the 2019 season. On January 28, 2019, Blizzard announced that new dedicated esports channel Esports1 , owned by German sports channel Sport1 , would be broadcasting Overwatch League events in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. A team's standing was based on their overall match win–loss record, with ties broken by map differential, head-to-head map record, and head-to-head match record, in that order. If
13300-568: The playoffs. In the 2021 offseason, the Gladiators made several roster changes, including the departure of BigGoose and Shaz, who had been with the team since their inauguration, and the signing of support player Grant "Moth" Espe, who was coming off of back-to-back OWL championships with the San Francisco Shock . The Gladiators competed in and won the SteelSeries Invitational, winning the final match 3–0 against
13433-431: 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
13566-527: The regional Kickoff Clash and global Midseason Madness . On August 10, 2017, Blizzard officially announced that KSE Esports , owned by Stan Kroenke and Josh Kroenke , had acquired the second Los Angeles–based Overwatch League franchise spot. On November 2, as the twelfth and final franchise to unveil their branding, the team revealed the franchise would be called the Los Angeles Gladiators, as well as formally announcing they had partnered with Rob Moore 's Phoenix1 (later renamed to Sentinels after
13699-430: 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,
13832-591: The sale. By OWL rules, one company may not own more than one OWL franchise, so IGC had to operate the Valiant and Outlaws as entirely separate entities, with oversight by OWL representatives, until IGC sold the Outlaws. In November 2019, IGC sold the Outlaws to the Beasley Media Group . The 2019 Overwatch League All-Star Game was the Overwatch League's second edition of an all-star game that involved
13965-414: The same way they were in 2018; the top two teams from each division and the next four teams, regardless of division. The season playoffs were contested in a double-elimination tournament. Teams played 28 regular season games instead of 40, with the league citing players' mental health and additional chances to interact with their home cities as reasons for the change. Each stage still lasted five weeks, though
14098-410: The season. Behind MVP runner up Fissure, the Gladiators finished Stage 4 with a league-best 9–1 record. The team unexpectedly chose the second-seeded Valiant as their first opponents in the Stage 4 playoffs; the Valiant subsequently defeated the Gladiators by a score of 3–2. With a 25–15 regular season record, the Gladiators claimed the fourth seed in the season playoffs . In their first playoff series,
14231-402: 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
14364-535: The semifinals qualified for the season playoffs and were seeded according to their regular season records. Eight teams competed in the OWL Playoffs – a double-elimination tournament – from September 5 to 29. The winner of each round of the Playoffs was determined by a single-match, where each match winner was determined by which team wins four maps. The final two teams remaining in the tournament advanced to
14497-634: The series, Los Angeles won the first match, 3–0. However, they lost in the following two matches, despite leading 2–0 to start both of them, ending their playoff run. In the offseason preceding the 2019 season , the Gladiators made several roster changes, including transferring Fissure to the Seoul Dynasty . The team made two core pickups, signing Gee "Roar" Chang-hoon as Fissure's replacement and touted rookie damage player Jang "Decay" Gui-un to play alongside existing damage players Lane "Surefour" Roberts and João Pedro "Hydration" Goes Telles. Outside of
14630-627: The sixth seed in the North America region. On September 4, Los Angeles advanced to the season playoffs after a 3–2 win over the Toronto Defiant in the North American play-in tournament . In the first round of the North American playoffs, the Gladiators were swept by the Philadelphia Fusion , sending them to the lower bracket. They lost to the Florida Mayhem in the first round of the lower bracket, which eliminated them from
14763-528: 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
14896-588: The team to the first round in the upper bracket, but they lost to the Vancouver Titans , 2–4, sending them to the lower bracket. Los Angeles' season came to an end after the following match, when they were swept 0–4 by the San Francisco Shock . In the preceding offseason of the 2020 season, controversy arose among Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) and their partnered management organization Sentinels . Sentinels CEO Rob Moore filed suit against KSE, alleging that KSE executive Josh Kroenke had violated
15029-515: 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
15162-485: 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
15295-407: 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
15428-633: The total team count to twenty. Whereas the franchising fee was estimated to be US$ 20 million in the inaugural season, the fee was estimated by observers to have gone as high as US$ 50 million for these new teams. The eight teams were distributed evenly between the two Divisions, with the North American East Coast and European teams joining the Atlantic Division, and the Chinese and North American West Coast teams added to
15561-479: The ultimate sacrifice captured the hearts of millions of people of all backgrounds for centuries". Continuing with the gladiator theme, the team colors were announced as purple and white, inspired from the royal colors of the Roman emperors that the gladiators fought for. In addition, the written logo was revealed with a contrasting color used intentionally for the connected letters L and A in "Gladiators", to highlight
15694-434: 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
15827-694: 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
15960-457: 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
16093-462: 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
16226-477: Was a former assistant coach to Dpei, as their new head coach. Additionally, they signed support Daniel "FunnyAstro" Hathaway and damage duo Lee "ANS" Seon-chan and Patiphan "Patiphan" Chaiwong. The Gladiators won the Western region Kickoff Clash , the first tournament of the season, after they defeated the Dallas Fuel in the finals by a score of 4–0. On July 23, the team won the season's first global tournament,
16359-509: Was difficult to counter at this level of play and was deemed boring to watch. Blizzard had tried to introduce changes in the game to better counter GOATS, but these failed to materialize. In the forced 2-2-2 composition, players are role locked at a start of a map, though they are free to switch heroes within that role during the map. Between maps, along with normal player substitutions, players can then swap roles. This change also came to normal quickplay and competitive mode in Overwatch outside of
16492-441: 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
16625-784: 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
16758-479: Was hosted by Dallas Fuel. The second stage was the first in which assault map Paris was available for play. It was also the introduction of new support character Baptiste into professional play. Baptiste was designed by Blizzard as to disrupt a three-tank, three-support composition (frequently called GOATS in the game's player base in reference to the non-league team that popularized it) which had been dominating Overwatch 's metagame for several months prior to
16891-426: Was hosted by the Los Angeles Valiant . All matches were broadcast on the Overwatch League's website and through Major League Gaming (owned by Blizzard), and by third-party broadcaster Twitch . On the first day of the 2018 season playoffs , Disney and Blizzard announced a multi-year partnership that would bring OWL and other organized Overwatch competitive events to ESPN , Disney XD , and ABC , starting with
17024-472: Was played in the Overwatch League. All matches in the fifth week of Stage 3 were played at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, Georgia . The event was the second of three "Homestand Weeks" of the season and was hosted by Atlanta Reign . Additionally, the Overwatch League hosted LGBTQ community Pride Day on June 7 at Blizzard Arena. Stage 4 ran from July 25 through August 25, with matches in
17157-463: 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
17290-486: Was released. It topped gaming cafes in Korea in terms of player count, surpassing that of League of Legends . 2019 Overwatch League season#Stage 2 The season began on February 14, 2019, and ended on August 25. Postseason play began in late August. The San Francisco Shock won the Grand Finals over the Vancouver Titans to become the league champions. The Overwatch League initially launched with twelve teams in
17423-410: 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
17556-418: 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
17689-415: 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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