All ingredients for a successful esports title are met in Overwatch’s recipe:

An experienced game developer at the controls

A huge fan base that celebrates basically every title they produce

A gameplay niche discovered and occupied at the right time

A well-targeted marketing and PR campaign

….

Did I miss something? Oh yeah, the monumental viewing experience a top tier esports title needs. Blizzard forgot that completely. While Overwatch was well received by the media as well as casual gamers all over the place, at one point of time actually pulling ahead of League of Legends in Korean PC bangs—a strong indicator of success and international potential bearing in mind LoL was the all-time-favorite for almost half a decade—its esports success clearly lags behind.

Although finding support of big players like Turner’s ELeague, DreamHack, ESL, or OGN, Overwatch still struggles to become a spectator-friendly experience. And to be clear: the reason is not because tournament and leagues, casters and analysts, teams and players are not taking it serious. To the contrary, they are doing an exceptional job. To date, esportsearnings.com counts an amazing overall prize pool of almost $1 million in 132 tournaments—a lot for a game released only four months ago.

The reason Overwatch struggles is the game design itself. Simply put: it’s almost unwatchable. It’s a fact that Blizzard acknowledged. In its recent release of patch notes for the public test region (all subject to change before the official patch of course), Blizzard deals with the topic. Right at the start, it reads:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Static cameras are now supported in spectator mode.”[/perfectpullquote]

And later on:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Camera movement in Spectator Mode has been improved.”[/perfectpullquote]

And to be fair, that’s something. Blizzard starts doing things right. But I doubt it will be enough to let Overwatch succeed as an esport, as a spectator sport. Again: I don’t want to take anything away from those involved in the scene. Having engaged players, talents, organizers, and fans is a solid foundation. But if Overwatch can’t hook the casual viewer too, it’s likely not going to fulfill its prophecy of being the next big esport.

Taken from an interview with caster Josh “AskJoshy” Sutherland with Tempo Storm:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“When I first started [spectating <A/N>] I didn’t know what I was doing—I was kind of just clicking around a lot. When I got the hang of it, I was basically just using tab constantly to see everyone’s portraits to see if they’re dead or not or if they have their Ultimate or not. That bar across the bottom with all of their portraits is vital for spectating, but It’s kind of in a clunky spot right now.”[/perfectpullquote]

He goes on:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “Right now there is no up or down, you have to use WASD like you’re running—so you have to zoom in, zoom out, move forward and back so it’s kind of clunky right now. You basically have to get into a spot where it overlooks the whole scene and you’re fine. First person camera needs a little bit of love on the HUD as well just to see who you’re spectating at all times and whether they’re attacking or defending. If they have duplicate heroes on both sides it’s hard to tell what you’re even looking at.” [/perfectpullquote] That interview goes all the way back to November 2015 when Overwatch was still premature. A beta problem, right? No. Even today, almost one year later, Overwatch still lacks massively when it comes to a proper viewing experience. It takes the capacity of the Turner studios, including four observers and a director with the experience of Jason Baker (who designed how Overwatch Open was broadcast) in the control room, to really get the most out of it—and yet, a lot leaves to be desired.

Starting with simple things like confusing colors, misplaced player icons, lacking ability indicators, the missing mini-map, no detailed scoreboard, and—maybe one of the most inherent and structural problems—a sheer overload of graphics, especially in team fights (which basically happen all the time).

Some of these problems are minor and easy to fix. Blizzard will surely address them (and partially does so in the patch notes mentioned above). Viewers will also get used to some of the issues, constant repetition is still the most influential factor in persuading people to believe in something. But after all, at least for me, Overwatch needs a heavy tune-up—or rather down—when it comes to its overall game design to really become enjoyable to watch. Right now, the money that gets invested into Overwatch esports (production, teams, events, etc.) is not matched by the viewership at all.

Overwatch is far from dead, it’s casual success undeniable, but if it really wants to compete as a top-class esport, things need to change quickly or the recent flow of money will dry out eventually. The grand final of Turner’s Overwatch Open, starting today at 10pm ET, won’t profit from the announced patch—and my prediction is, it won’t overcome the mediocre viewership results of past events. A shame, considering how professional Turner and its staff handles it. Come on Blizzard, you can do better. Don’t let Overwatch esports down.