Blizzard unveil their esports mobile app

The American games developer and publisher, Blizzard Entertainment, have recently unveiled their new mobile esports app. The app is available for iOS and Android mobile devices and it looks to give gamers an easy way to follow the progress of all of Blizzard’s esports tournaments. As a result, it’s expected that the new Blizzard mobile esports app will cover all competitive gaming events for top titles like Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, StarCraft and StarCraft II.

The announcement of the new Blizzard esports app was made just before the start of the annual BlizzCon gaming event. This epic conference takes place on 2 and 3 November at the Anaheim Convention Centre in California and is expected to see the games’ developer giving fans plenty of fascinating details regarding their top franchises. But the arrival of the Blizzard esports mobile app signals how this legendary games developer could be making esports an increasingly important part of their ambitions.

What does the Blizzard mobile esports app include?

The core concept of the Blizzard app is that it aims to give gamers a convenient way to see the latest Blizzard esports schedules, news and scores. As such, it is similar to many other sports score apps like the NBA and MLB apps, and should mean that you won’t have to go to a standard esports news site to see the live scores for your favorite Overwatch, StarCraft, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone or Heroes of the Storm tournaments.

Notifications are a big part of the Blizzard esports app, as the developer states that the app contains a wide range of customizable alerts that can let you know when certain games go live and you can even create your own personalized news feeds for your favorite esport.

As live streaming is a hugely important feature for all esports fans, the Blizzard mobile esports app also includes live Twitch.tv linking. In addition to this, the iOS and Android app offer multi-language support for English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Russian, Korean and Chinese speakers. And with plenty of interesting push notifications, news stories, and a user-friendly interface, it seems that Blizzard has given us an easy all-in-one way to follow their esports tournaments.

So is the Blizzard esports app any good?

Loading up the Blizzard mobile app gives you plenty of options for tailoring the content to your own gaming tastes. You can just pick and choose which esports you want to follow, what kinds of notifications you want to receive, and there’s also a handy spoiler-proof way to show or hide certain scores.

From here, the main screen of the Blizzard app allows you to check all of the relevant news stories, check the past scores for a wide variety of esports, and you can also quickly check ahead to see which games tournaments could be of interest. All of this is pretty straightforward, but the best part of the app could be the in-built Twitch.tv feature. If you see the red ‘Live’ icon next to any of your featured games, then you can just tap on this and then you will be instantly taken to a live feed of your preferred esports match.

As the Blizzard esports app is very new, there are obviously a few glitches that need to be overcome and the games’ developer has given you a handy in-app feedback function to let them know your comments. Some user reviews have noted that there could have been more done to include relevant esports statistics and player information, whilst others have mentioned that some text appears to be poorly displayed. The lack of native tablet support might also be disappointing for some.

But perhaps the most surprising absence from the current incarnation of the Blizzard esports app is that it doesn’t cover the Overwatch League. This esports tournament is perhaps Blizzard’s best-loved gaming event, and with the second Overwatch League set to kick off early next year, it’s a glaring omission from what seems to be a remarkably well-thought-out app.

Blizzard’s bid to professionalize the esports world

Blizzard’s esports tournaments like the Overwatch League, the Overwatch World Cup, the StarCraft II World Championship Series, and the Hearthstone Championship Tour are some of the biggest gaming competitions around. A big part of the appeal of these tournaments is the fact that Blizzard have endeavored to standardize the gaming formats in a bid to add a touch of professionalism to the action.

With the Overwatch League ensuring that there’s a fixed number of teams and with each player getting a minimum salary, it has helped make esports much less chaotic. And the arrival of the Blizzard esports app looks to make it much easier to watch these epic gaming contests too.