Flocked by a Seagull — Pros speak out against the recent invites to OGN’s Apex Season 3 Yiska Follow Apr 12, 2017 · 7 min read

Competitive Overwatch takes a cold hard look in the mirror. Have we become WWE yet?

As over.gg today reported, OGN has locked in their invites for the Western slots for their Apex season 3. The Korean Media company downscaled the invite slots from the previous four to now only two teams from the North American or European region. Because of the quality of practice, the extremely high level of play and the huge exposure Apex provides, in an increasingly malnourished competitive Overwatch scene that is still suffering from a drought of offline events, these slots are much sought after. Nowhere is as much glory to be earned, Apex on all levels is the pinnacle of Overwatch esports competition. It, therefore, seemed right that a team like Rogue, which is currently sporting an incredible record in the NA region and is looking to build the second Western dynasty after EnVyUs reign this winter, received one of those precious call-ups.

For those reasons, many-a-teams were hoping for invites and also re-invites as they had been part of the previous two seasons. Kruise of eUnited, for instance, stated that he “would have gotten on the plane the next hour if I was given the chance to play in Apex again”. Similarly, Reinforce of Misfits expressed the desire of his team to once again compete in the League on Twitter.

Fans of other teams who are currently performing well such as Selfless, Luminosity Gaming, Immortals were hoping to see their teams compete on international ground too. The latter did indeed receive an invite on the back of their solid victory in the Overwatch Carbon Series but had to decline. The champions of season 1, EnVyUs were asked but because of the close call nature of the invite they had to decline.

“We would have loved to participate in APEX season 3, and even travel to Korea again. However, it was all such last minute in which we had other plans booked during the time period in which it would occur. As far as I know, multiple teams had to decline for the same reasons, so I do not think NRG being invited, or going to Korea, is unfair if that is the case.” EnVyUs head coach KyKy shared. He argues that the exposure NRG’s team brings to the event is very valuable for OGN and therefore their decision was understandable.

NRG’s fan empire

Indeed NRG is currently leading the scene in social media following and fan attention, boosting viewership numbers noticeably wherever they compete. With the addition of IDDQD to the roster, they not only upgraded their team with an incredibly capable hitscan specialist but also added one of the top Overwatch personalities further piling on the fan monopoly Seagull build for the organisation. In the same vein, Roadhog icon Harbleu brings a sizeable amount of fans himself and the team’s support player Dummy has recently produced a multitude of hailed Ana montages and VOD-reviews. Numlocked and Ajax themselves are always eager to participate in community content whenever asked. NRG is doing PR the right way and it shows.

Therefore there is no question that their appearance at Apex will be financially lucrative to OGN. There is no doubt that they will have a higher average viewership because of their participation and esports isn’t a charity. OGN has an obligation as a business to do what is best in their financial interest.

And it all wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t the fact that NRG’s new roster has yet to compete in a single competitive match . Zero. Games. This is to say that this roster was invited on factually no credible evidence about their performance. They will have one appearance at the Alienware Monthly Melee and then ship to Korea. Enter flocked by a seagull.

Flocked by a Seagull

To be flocked by a seagull is an English idiom, considered a euphemistic, informal, or slang term meaning “to get screwed out of a competitive opportunity you deserve based on performance because you bring fewer fans” which I just made up.

Disclaimer: Before you discard this notion out of hand, it needs to be said that this isn’t in the least bit meant to be an offence to Seagull the player himself, no. In fact, we can be sure that he would prefer to be judged fairly on his tournament performances because he has repeatedly expressed his desire to be a top contender, fighting and grinding to one day be called the best for the right reasons. This is to say that absolutely no fault lies on Seagull himself but the underlying concept our scene is shaped by and I feel this is best conceptually illustrated in this phrase. Much to the contrary, I think that Seagull himself is a victim of it too. Additionally, the competitive community would do well in thanking him for being the positive force that he is and realising what a tremendous contribution he has made for our niche scene. We are incredibly fortunate that the most well-known personality of Overwatch is a pro player and such a kind-hearted well-spoken ambassador at that.

Hard, core questions

Immediately the release of the report by over.gg, players of especially the slighted teams shared their frustration. Reinforce stated in no unclear terms what he thought of OGN’s decision.

Kruise, who himself enjoys an incredible amount of Korean fan attention and whose Youtube channel boats viewership numbers comparable to Seagull’s with 97% of his audience coming from Korea, stated that he wished the invitation would’ve gone to the Overwatch PIT winner of the European bracket and said that while he thought it was just that Rogue was invited because of their recent domination, he was sad NRG had been chosen instead of more deserving teams.

They all expressed emotions one would experience when being flocked by a Seagull. Were they not doing what competition or (e)sports was about? Trying to be the best and having a measurable amount of success in doing so? What exactly are we competing for if the goal isn’t to win on the server, but on Twitter, Twitch, Instagram and Facebook? What game are we exactly playing here? Competitive Overwatch has an identity crisis and had it for a long time. It poses serious questions that the Overwatch community has to decide collectively: Where are we on the spectrum of entertainment and competition? Are we chess, soccer or WWE?

The values we build on

The circumstances of this invite are hardly new. NRG had already been invited in Apex Season 1 as well as to the Chinese APAC Premier despite having been distinctly outside the top 4 team in the West, ultimately performing very much to the level they were expected to, dropping out in groups at Apex and dominating a very weak Chinese scene only to fall short to Lunatic-Hai in the semi-finals at APAC. NRG is only the most pronounced instance of this issue because they, as previously stated, simply have the biggest fanbase.

The same problem, however, was systematically enforced by Blizzard themselves, who build their first World Cup primarily around fan exposure. Notoriously this system of fan votes created faint resemblances of incredibly powerful rosters that could and arguably should have been, such as in France’s case. While the country had one of the deepest talent pools, certainly in the West, perhaps worldwide, the final roster was a mix of part pros, part streamers that by all means performed admirably, but yet disappointed in the light of what it could have been. Absolute top tier talent such as AKM, Winz, uNKOE and SoOn (and the list goes on and on), were not there to bring glory to their nation. In the US roster, coolmatt69, who had to be considered one of the top tier performers for the time frame these invites were based on, never even received as much as an email to the fan vote. His old EnVyUs dominated the scene for a healthy portion in beta and he was for a good amount the outstanding talent on it, practically never dropping a series to Seagull’s team mixup^. Later his Fnatic roster remained relevant with respectable performances at the Atlantic Showdown, Overwatch Open and MLG Vegas and while he was one of the key pieces of that roster, because he didn’t have the fan attention, he never got the mail. All of them, too, had been flocked by a Seagull.

coolmatt’s girlfriend could feel the bird too.

It was symptomatic that the World Cup also didn’t provide an incentive for the teams to perform well as no price money, but merely an attendance fee and cost and accommodations were paid out. Teams publicly announced that they weren’t really practising for the event and were really just winging it, further adding to the mockery of competitive integrity we’d think of with the sports concept of a World Cup. They were putting on a charade of seriousness and the audience according to the viewership numbers loved it, perhaps thinking that they were seeing much more than it was. To this day, the main subreddit and the majority of the community remains deeply ignorant to the level of play pro players are actually capable of. And who could blame them when they are being fed a subpar product with premium wrapping.

It doesn’t end here

Looking ahead, again Blizzard counts on inherently anti-competitive league structures and for instance is getting rid of relegation altogether. While it is understandable, possibly more from a North American mindset of sports, that investors need a certain amount of security for their already risky investments at the high price we are seeing, what exactly is there to punish bad performances? Is the team that consistently finishes in last place but generates the most revenue then the actual winner? Will organisations even recruit based on performance and for example invite Korean top talent over in order to win the League, or will they forgo that opportunity as faceless Koreans aren’t marketable? What if the profit share of the league Blizzard promised to pro teams wasn’t based on their ranking, but on the viewership numbers they attract? While (hopefully) hyperbole, I encourage you to think these through and actively participate in the discussion. What game are we exactly playing here?

I’m not necessarily suggesting that these values are inherently wrong, but we have to call a spade a spade. If we are essentially adopting WWE appeal, then I suggest we need to know that what we are seeing isn’t the real thing. The audience deserves to know that they are being fed an illusion of what the best Overwatch looks like. And if we then deem this of higher value, then so be it and let’s embrace it with open arms and let those who can’t stand for this search their luck elsewhere. But this battle needs to be fought first and it needs to be done openly or it will be decided for us.