Mentioned in this article Teams: Cloud9, Dignitas, SK Gaming Games: Overwatch

Last month, Blizzard Entertainment finalized the Season 1 plans for the upcoming Overwatch League, including all twelve participating teams. The League is one of the most-hyped that I’ve ever seen in esports, and Blizzard has made some ridiculous promises along the way. Now finalized, ActiBlizz CEO Bobby Kotick is going so far as to say that “we have the very best team owners in esports!” Put bluntly, there’s one major problem that is holding the league back from realizing all that potential—and will continue to prevent it from finding success unless Blizzard can find a solution.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]OWL Season 1 definitely doesn’t live up to that spirit of globalism.[/perfectpullquote]

Let’s hit rewind. Activision Blizzard initially intended to recruit “prospective owners representing cities in the Americas, Europe, Asia and other parts of the globe.” Kotick claimed that what made the OWL unique was its “global footprint” (he also said his company’s audience was “five times bigger than Netflix”). Current catchphrases on the OWL landing page?

“One global talent pool… The world could use more win.”

OWL Season 1 definitely doesn’t live up to that spirit of globalism. Nine of the twelve franchises making up OWL Season 1 are based in the United States, meaning only three will represent the other 194 countries of the world. Here’s what that looks like:

While uneven, unfortunately even this belies the true problem. There are three franchises based outside the United States—Cloud9 in London, KSV-backed Team Seoul in South Korea, and NetEase’s newly-branded Dragons in Shanghai—and none of them are without fault.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Kevin Chou heavily recruited from the mobile game developer Kabam to fill out KSV’s executive roster. The name literally means “Korea + Silicon Valley.”[/perfectpullquote]

Seoul’s franchise owner, for example, is actually led by a company that has its roots in Silicon Valley. KSV’s owner and founder Kevin Chou heavily recruited from his former company, Silicon Valley-based mobile game developer Kabam, to fill out KSV’s executive roster. The name literally means “Korea + Silicon Valley.”

Then, there’s London’s Cloud9—a North American organization that will set up a team across the Atlantic. As an organisation, Cloud9 was conceived initially in San Francisco and is currently based in Los Angeles. In March, lead investor Dan Fiden said that his company “is the most important esports team in North America.” Despite this, the organization’s Overwatch operations will now be expected to set up shop in London—the hometown of Team Dignitas, a well-known esports organizations that was founded in 2003, almost ten years before Cloud9.

Finally, there’s China’s sole representative, NetEase. To the doubters—yes, this is a company with few American ties. However, it does have a significant other problem—as the official partner of Blizzard in distributing Overwatch to Chinese players, NetEase’s participation in the OWL is a massive conflict of interest. It is not an independent company investing in the OWL on the league’s own merits: it has a direct business link to the game and stands to make financial profits directly by using the league as marketing, something no other company in China can do.

So to recap: OWL is 10 American teams, a Korean organization rooted in Silicon Valley, and a Chinese company with a massive conflict of interest.

Where is the globalization that we were promised? Where is Germany, home to ESL and SK Gaming? Where is Russia, whose ESforce Holding owns teams like Na’Vi and Virtus Pro? Singapore? Australia? Brazil? Taiwan? Spain? All of these countries don’t only have significant esports organizations—they also have fanbases, the kind that make for a great franchise location.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The real problem is that by having

such limited representation outside of the U.S., non-Americans have little choices on who to support.[/perfectpullquote]

The real problem is that by having such limited representation outside of the U.S., non-Americans have little choices on who to support. Furthermore, the teams outside the U.S. will have to represent much larger regions than those inside it. The only team in Europe is Cloud9, so should all Britains, let alone Europeans, root for the London team? According to Newzoo, there are almost 560 million gamers in China—almost four times the amount found in the U.S. But come January, Americans will have nine times as many teams representing them in the OWL.

Bottom line: there’s no realistic way for non-American teams at this point to develop a local fanbase with such large distances they are responsible for. That, or Blizzard simply intends to tell those who don’t feel that they have representation to just wait for next season. And while the OWL website does promise an expansion to become “truly global,” that’s still a long way off.

When the Blizzard Arena in LA was revealed, Nate Nanzer walked back on the global premise, telling PCGamesN.com that the whole of season one would be played entirely out of the arena so that “…teams have time to build the capability required.” Perhaps the resulting viewership will provide a proof-of-concept to sell the League to more European, Asian and Oceanic investors—but now we have a proposition closer to what the NFL is doing in the UK, rather than an internationally conceived competition. Furthermore, the season one finals will only take place in July 2018. Esports moves fast, and Overwatch is starting to be overshadowed by new games like PLAYERUNKNOWN’s BATTLEGROUNDS.

The worst part is that Blizzard’s initial pitch to prospective investors—a global league with franchises in major cities across most continents—would actually live up to the promises made by Kotick. But as the time to deliver on those promises comes closer and closer, Blizzard is showing that it isn’t up to the task. There is nothing unique about a global league that fails to look beyond the borders of a single country.