Mentioned in this article Teams: Los Angeles Valiant Games: Overwatch

After a long regular season, thrilling playoffs, and a memorable All-Star event, the Overwatch League (OWL) is now in its first off-season. While much of the off-season media focus has shifted to roster movement, the league expansion, and the Overwatch World Cup (OWWC) at BlizzCon, for players, talent, and streamers of the game, this is a golden opportunity to create content and grow their brands.

“The off-season lined up perfectly with Overwatch Season 12 starting,” explained Overwatch League Host, Malik Forté in an interview with The Esports Observer. In Overwatch, amateur players earn in-game rewards by playing during “seasons,” which typically last about three months. Forté has been streaming himself playing the game on Twitch in between his duties for the Overwatch World Cup and noticed many professional players doing the same.

“No real method to my madness,” said Forté. “I just hop on for several hours that I get to game when I can.”

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”I’ve been trying to stream every day to grow my brand.”[/perfectpullquote]

For professional Overwatch League players, intentions for this off-season are more deliberate. Streaming has the potential to build the individual brands of players outside of the OWL, which can turn into revenue, personal brand sponsorships, and potentially creating a livelihood after retirement from professional play. The growth of individual player brands will in turn add value to their respective teams as they look for new sponsors leading into the League’s second season.

The Houston Outlaw’s Jiri “LiNkzr” Masalin and the Los Angeles Valiant’s Indy “SPACE” Halpern both told The Esports Observer that, since the start of the off-season, they have been streaming more regularly, but have different approaches to what they want to get out of it.

“With Overwatch League in its off-season, I’ve been trying to stream every day to grow my brand, and at the same time, stay up to date with the meta since I’m competing in the World Cup,” said Halpern, pointing out that the World Cup event is on the horizon for Team USA.

Halpern and his teammates celebrate after a match. Credit: Robert Paul/Blizzard Entertainment

“With the end of [the first season], I streamed more consistently,” said Masalin, who will also play in the World Cup representing Team Finland. “But for me specifically, I am practicing for BlizzCon and want to take a small break from streaming. I will probably go back to full force to grow the channel after BlizzCon is over.”

The Overwatch World Cup is a massive opportunity for pro players to represent the game for their homelands, which means they’ll have to work just as hard to succeed there as they would for their Overwatch League matches. However, Halpern doesn’t see the event as an obstacle to his streaming goals. “There’s still plenty of time to balance streaming and watching VODs with Team USA.” he said. “I think [Team USA OWWC coach Aaron “Aero” Atkins] made sure to account for streaming and giving the players off time in our schedule.”

Masalin has traditionally taken less time to stream during the OWL season. He said that trend will most likely continue during the OWWC. For Halpern, however, streaming for the majority of the off-season so far is showing results. “My viewership has actually increased during the off-season since I’ve been streaming a lot more consistently and climbing the ranked ladder. It’s been going fairly well for me.”

Since the Overwatch League ended, Halpern has shown growth in both his hours watched on Twitch and his follower count.

In the time since the OWL ended, Halpern has earned a spot as one of the more popular Overwatch streamers. Some weeks, he’s even found himself in the top 20 most popular streamers playing the game, by hours watched. The Overwatch charts may still be dominated by streamers like Félix “xQc” Lengyel and Calvin “aimbotcalvin” Chau, but Halpern’s progress shows the potential for growth in the off-season.

Currently, the Overwatch League does not have a direct way to help expose its massive Twitch following to the players of the league, but Halpern believes it would be helpful if it could find a way to make something like that work. “It’d be pretty cool if the Overwatch League worked with players individually to do stuff like the D.Va Nano Cola challenge, where an Overwatch League player could set a specified time to stream and have the opportunity to be presented on Blizzard’s Overwatch client.”

Calvin “aimbotcalvin” Chau saw a spike in his hours watched during the D.Va Nano Challenge on Sept. 10.



The D.Va Nano Cola challenge was an activation that saw Blizzard Entertainment partnering with a variety of creators to design exclusive in-game rewards for Overwatch players. To receive the items, Blizzard directed fans to select Twitch broadcast channels. With the more time watched, the more awards were given out. An initiative like the D.Va Nano Cola challenge designed to promote streams of professional players could go a long way in helping them reach personal goals.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Personally, I’m trying to balance both.”[/perfectpullquote]

Regardless of the two players’ divergent paths for the off-season, both can agree that the importance of streaming for pro players differs on a case-by-case basis. “I believe it depends on the player and if they’re focusing on building their personal brand by streaming and being more active on social media, or if they’re looking to take time off and get a good break for OWL [Season 2] by preparing themselves mentally and physically to compete again.” said Halpern, “Personally, I’m trying to balance both.”

Masalin’s thoughts on the subject were more direct. “I think it’s fairly important to know how much and how often you should stream,” he said. “Streaming isn’t for everyone, but for those who like it and want to do it, they should take this time to work on it.”