Since its release in May 2016, Overwatch has changed drastically: balance patches, new maps and characters, and an always-evolving metagame have continued to keep competitive players on their toes.

Now, with the first season of Overwatch League in the books, team managers and coaches are working with a metagame of their own. They are reflecting on what worked well and what didn't in order to further experiment with the most basic aspects of the esport, such as roster size, team housing, player scouting and much more, as the league moves into its second year.

"This was the year where teams had the chance to experiment the most since absolutely no one knows exactly what they're doing," said LA Valiant general manager Mike Schwartz. "It's hard to judge anyone or anything's effectiveness in one year, major changes will still occur in the second season. But teams will probably get more conservative after that."

We saw a few different approaches to roster size, one of the most basic aspects of any sport, at the beginning of the first season. Changes to each team's player count, while vital to a team's success in adapting to the metagame, proved to be a challenge.

We've seen squads with 12 players (the Blizzard mandated maximum) all the way down to six (the absolute minimum needed to fill a roster). It's an odd change of pace, considering the rarity of any traditional sport franchise not filling every spot on their roster. For example, the NFL training camps start out with 90 players, and then gradually scale down to 53, the limit going into the season.

"It's still up for debate, in terms of size," Schwartz said. "Some teams think you hit that sweet spot at eight or nine. I think 12 is great so you can have full scrimmages. But that's two full teams, and that requires a lot of infrastructure that not everyone has."

Overwatch League competitors aren't like professionals in baseball or basketball who are mostly independent from their teams outside the sport. Housing, per diem, training schedules and other amenities are all arranged by team management -- primarily because the first season took place in Los Angeles -- even though teams are city-based franchises, forcing players to relocate from all over the world.

"Once we go back to our home cities that might be less of a problem," said Philadelphia Fusion head coach Yann "Kirby" Luu. "But right now the league is in Burbank, with several teams in the LA Valley as well, so in that regard we have more restrictions."

Ownership from the New England Patriots, Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Flyers all own different teams in Overwatch League, and Luu believes that executives from outside the world of esports may not see the need for these types of costs and infrastructure.

"It isn't something we do in traditional sports so these executives don't completely understand those requirements," Luu added. "A lot of these teams ended up in scenarios where they were difficult to run. I wouldn't be surprised if the teams who had big rosters scale down and teams that tried to stay small go for the full squad right away."

It remains to be seen when exactly Blizzard will geolocate its teams. Provided by Blizzard.

Several coaches ESPN spoke to believe that full rosters are a requirement for success, even if the infrastructure had to be built out with the team.

"We're going to look to get as many players as possible, since you never know who is going to get sick or underperform," said San Francisco Shock coach Jae "JunkBuck" Choi. "Just having enough players to compete against each other so they don't lose motivation is so important."

Choi went on to say that while some teams do experiment with having six members for better team cohesion, the benefits of having a full roster outweigh the positives of other options. But outside the opinion that a smaller team could lead to a tighter team dynamic, the Overwatch League itself doesn't have something as simple as a waiver system after a player is let go.

League shortcomings like that, as well as most player contracts not being up until the beginning of Season 3, mean that we may see some teams not go for that maximum amount of players at all times. The lack of an NFL-like waiver system is one symptom of Overwatch League being in its infancy.

"Traditionally, the league represents the system of ownership of each team. So usually you have an opposition between the league and the players, and then moderation between the two," said Luu. "Here the infrastructure isn't there yet and the league has to kind of play both sides. So because of that there can be some issues with what teams can do."

While the league playing both sides hasn't been harmful as of yet, it can lead to issues down the road if interests on both sides aren't represented independently. That's something that's been long established in traditional sports and it's surprising not to see something similar from the get-go in the ambitious Overwatch League.

"We still don't have a player union and there isn't a lot of options with sports agencies," Luu added. 'There is one that represents most of the league, which could lead to issues."

The managers and coaches that ESPN spoke with believe that experimentation will continue into 2019 even if there are some unexpected consequences. "The scale and scope of the league has brought people from traditional sports, so they have that kind of mindset, or only know of that mindset," Luu said. "But not all of that applies -- the players are a different brand of athlete."