The death of Europe: How did we get here? How do we fix it?

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the sorry state of the European region in Overwatch. The region is stuck in a paralyzing chicken-and-egg scenario. Tournament organizers don’t want to hold events in Europe since there’s a shortage of big-name organizations and top talent teams to fill an event. At the same time, organizations that might be looking to pick up an unsigned European team are wary of doing so because there aren’t any tournaments. But how did the region that’s produced many of Overwatch’s biggest stars reach this point? And what can be done to set things right?

Exodus and Decay

With the announcement of the Overwatch League – a Blizzard run league that would initially launch in North America before expanding across the globe – many elite and mid-tier European teams have either relocated to North America, or are speculated as being about to. Luminosity moved their team to Toronto, Rogue have expressed the intention of moving their team to Las Vegas, and the recent acquisition of Misfits by the Miami Heat NBA team makes a move for that team incredibly likely.

But Europe isn’t just losing teams to region jumping. Many top and mid-tier teams from 2016 have fallen by the wayside. REUNITED, at one time perennial tournament contenders, just disbanded as an organization. Never able to achieve a level of success that matched their potential, they were unable to secure funding to continue into 2017. Uncertainty surrounding the Overwatch League was clearly a part of that. Other teams with potential, like ANOX and Melty, didn’t even make it to 2017 before disbanding. Dignitas, strong very early in Overwatch’s history, are still around but have fallen out of even the mid-tier.

However, even though the path to the top has cleared out, there has been a shortage of European teams rising to the world elite. This isn’t because there haven’t been recent signings. LDLC entered Overwatch in September with a promising team. Fragsters entered in October and have done well. Just days ago Sydioda picked up Bonjour, a team with several players from the once-strong Melty squad. However none of these signings have reached the same heights as North America’s rising teams, such as Immortals, Renegades (formerly Kingdom), and Rise Nation. Tragically, the unsigned team with the greatest potential to become an international presence – Ninjas with Attitude – was poached to death before it was able to secure an organization.

Opportunity Cost

With less and less teams able to contest them, it’s not surprising that there haven’t been many tournaments in Europe as of late. The only major LAN in the works – the Winter Premiere – is exclusively North American, even though many past LANs have had teams from both Western regions. The only major league – OGN APEX – took only one European team this season, despite taking two last season. This, combined with a slowdown in online tournaments towards the close of the year, has left European teams with little to play in, or for.

While the last remaining elite team in Europe – Ninjas in Pyjamas – could almost certainly be successful if they moved to North America, the outlook is bleak for most everyone else. Tournaments are the springboard through which unsigned teams prove that they’re worthy of being signed. They’re where mid-tier teams prove that they’re worth of consideration to invite-only events. It’s certainly worked that way in North America. Immortals, a team that’s on the cusp of elite right now, were signed after qualifying for the Overwatch Open. Unsigned teams like Kungarna, now playing in the Winter Premier, are hoping for similar boosts. Rise Nation and Renegades (up until very recently Kingdom) made a name for themselves through online tournaments. That pipeline just isn’t there at the moment for teams based in Europe.

The longer that the drought continues, the more harm it will do. There are economic considerations at work. Sponsors want to see the organizations they support competing in tournaments. Players supplement their salaries with money from tournament winnings. And as European players drift out of the public eye, their ability to attract new viewers, and thus make money from streaming, may also come under threat.

Breaking the Deadlock

To break the chicken-and-egg deadlock, one of two things needs to happen. Either a lot of good European teams need to emerge, which would attract interest from tournament organizers, or a few big tournaments need to be announced, which would attract interest from organizations looking to sign teams participating in the tournaments.

But before either of those two options can happen, Blizzard needs to tell the world – or at least tell tournament organizers and major European esports organizations – what their plans for Europe are. Although it is not entirely Blizzard’s fault that Europe is at such a standstill right now, their announcement that the Overwatch League would start in North America, followed by their steadfast refusal to announce anything else about the League, is a major contributing factor. Organizations rightfully go where the money is, and Blizzard essentially announced that the money would be in North America, and only in North America. If they have plans for Europe, they need to make those plans clear sooner rather than later, so that organizations can be comfortable that staying or buying into Europe is a sound business decision.

Once Blizzard does make their plans clear, they are also well positioned to break the chicken-and-egg deadlock. While they have little power over organizations signing teams, they have a great deal of power over tournaments. If tournament organizers are worried that they won’t be able to recoup their investments holding events in Europe, Blizzard could get them interested by putting up some of the money themselves, or by promising select partners that if they jump in now, Blizzard will give them priority on the calendar once things pick up again and multiple organizers are looking to hold events at the same time. It’s very likely that Blizzard has grossed over US $1 billion from Overwatch since launch. Investing a few hundred thousand to keep the European region healthy is sound planning for the future.

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