Last year, I wrote on my thoughts about how the Collegiate scene can impact the Overwatch League. Those thoughts have not changed, and I think moving forward in 2018, they will only become more prevalent with the Path to Pro. Today, Overwatch celebrates its 2-year anniversary, and the 2017–2018 school year has concluded for (most) North American colleges and universities. With all of that in mind, I want to speak on various topics that were brought up this year. Most importantly, where the future of Collegiate Overwatch can go.

This will not be some heavy-hitting deep dive into the Collegiate Overwatch space, rather, it will be more like a retrospective plus some hopeful thoughts for the future. The biggest of that being is sustainable communities, competition, and, you the player, the viewer, and the fan.

In its two years of release, Overwatch has seen a plethora of competition. Many have argued that the competitive scene has been butchered beyond recognition; paving the way for Blizzard’s ‘exclusive’ tournaments like Overwatch Contenders or the Overwatch League. However, often ignored is the collegiate space. Since launch, there have been two seasons of the Tespa Collegiate Series: Overwatch, wherein schools across North America competed for scholarships and fame.

The collegiate scene has grown in its own ways, but the outside perspective has always had this negative perception to it. This negative attitude by other levels of competition has, unfortunately, not halted even to this day. There is no way to avoid it, but there are ways to elevate the collegiate Overwatch scene through community development and community support. The biggest flaw Overwatch competition has seen so far through Contenders, Open Division, and even Overwatch League is the severe lack of community growth. There have been attempts to build Discord communities for professional players, and even the collegiate scene.

These attempts have generally been successful, but lack long-term goals and support. For spaces and competition levels to grow, there ought to be a formal community. I do not mean each level of competition needs its own Discord or clique group; rather I think that there should be more support between each competition level. Fostering talent through all levels of competition can lead to success across all levels. There is a feeling in some communities that the elite are just that, and the ‘lesser competitors’ are just there to hopefully ‘make it someday.’ I guess in this sense it would not be a formal community, rather a formal support system for all skill levels.

A solution among many other solutions to this flaw is for Blizzard to create official community tools for these competitors to use. Open Division and Contenders do have their own Discord servers, but there must be more to bridge the gap and, hopefully, make each community more welcoming than judgmental. Conflict is unavoidable when it comes to competition, but I believe that with the right tools, all levels of competition would benefit from clear community support.

The future of Collegiate Overwatch depends on how the community grows and exists; if there is a lack of community and community support, and competition is the only driving force, there will be no personality to the scene. Teams, and players need to realise that their interactions within their own scene shape how the outside world sees collegiate Overwatch, while also shaping how the community is.

In many cases, teams and players alike are overconfident, and brag about things to fulfill some need for spotlight. This, and in any other competition level, is not a good way to interact and hinders growth in the sense that constantly talking down to other teams can lead to a cycle of regress. Instead, teams ought to support each other in this young scene. It is imperative that teams and players understand what is at stake: their perception shapes the perception others have of their scene. Instead of stating that one team is the best because they reached a certain position in a tournament and downplaying another team for ‘not being as great,’ teams ought to build up other teams. This is in no way throwing out competitive integrity, and there is a healthy level of bravado to be had in any competition. However, it can be interpreted that the collegiate scene is immature because teams want to have this delusion of grandeur over one another.

With that said, I believe these are the main reasons other communities and competitors may perceive the collegiate scene as ‘immature’ or worthless. There is nothing like it: some colleges or universities may be composed of all Gold tier players, while others may be Grand Master. You would only see this significant difference in school in something like Open Division; which is just that, an open division. Collegiate however, is more restrictive than Open Division, which is where most of criticism can come from. In the past, collegiate teams have not done very well in Open Division either which has sparked further criticism that collegiate may just not be ‘good.’ Collegiate Overwatch is in a unique spot in its life where it has the potential to feed into Contenders or Overwatch League, like any other competition for Overwatch. Evaluating how that could work, similarly or not, to traditional college sports is something that ought to be considered before jumping the gun and integrating a so-called ‘unprepared’ competition level into the big leagues.

Support systems need to be put in place for all levels of competition, without them communities will be hollow and plain. This boring attitude can lead to unfavourable growth, and at some point, there needs to be a way for competition levels to grow into ‘the next big thing,’ or earn their place in the next competition level. It cannot be overstated that Overwatch has a mired community development cycle. With many Discord servers existing, all while offering the same services there is a plethora of sameness. Overwatch is a beautiful game; the past two years have been incredible.

Check out The Collegiate Hub, where collegiate Overwatch thrives: https://discord.gg/collegiate

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