Cloud 9 just announced the acquisition of Laser Kittenz which has sparked a good amount of excitement and just as much speculation. Will the rosters be merged? Who will be taking the OWL spot? What does such a move mean for the future of the original roster and the org in general? These are all important questions, but, my questions is this, what does this mean for Overwatch esports?

First, a few facts about the acquisition. Both the original Cloud 9 roster and the former Laser Kittenz roster, dubbed C9 EU, are found on the C9 website and there has been no indication of a merger between the teams. There has also been no indication that either roster will be chosen to represent their Overwatch League spot.

It is my contention that Cloud 9 intends to solidify a firm hold in both Overwatch League and Overwatch Contenders with each of their rosters taking a spot in each league.

Lets take a step back have a look at what we know about Overwatch League and the Overwatch esports ecosystem. Overwatch League will probably have around 12 teams on launch. The exact number doesn’t really matter, the key is that we know there will be plenty of other good teams and players that will not be playing in the Overwatch League at its onset. It also seems that Overwatch Contenders, Apex, and other such leagues will still be running and may be sort of a minor league equivilent in their relationship to OWL. The question that many have brought up is what does this mean for non-OWL players? Will the tier 2 ecosystem be rich enough to support players and orgs in a meaningful enough way to provide sustainability? It is a valid question to be sure.

There are parallels with the League of Legends Challenger Series. Cloud 9 was able to build a challenger team and qualify them for the LCS. Cloud 9 was then able to make a pretty enormous profit by selling the team. This doesn’t seem like a viable opportunity in OWL as it operates on a franchise system. Is it worth it to have a feeder team in Contenders to cultivate talent for the C9 OWL team? Maybe, but it is hard for me to believe that C9 so adamantly wanted to grab a team this early if all they want to use it for is to cultivate talent. The Overwatch space is still undergoing a major shake up of rosters and players, wouldn’t it be better to wait for the dust to settle to find a team to slap your name on? Perhaps the price was better this early? Maybe they made the move because they believed in the strength of the organizational structure behind the team. Alicus, indeed, has been very proactive in moving toward success.

But lets go back to sustainability. The other factor that could contribute to an org wanting to have a Contenders team is that, on some level, it may actually prove to be sustainable, albeit perhaps not as profitable as OWL. This might be my own biased thinking (or it may have already been a part of the calculations leading to some recent decisions in my career) but I think that Cloud 9 recognizes the developmental Leagues that help feed OWL talent like Contenders will remain popular enough to sustain the teams within them. Blizzard is already taking a very different approach to building the ecosystem underneath OWL (compared to other developers) and it seems they know the importance of multiple thriving tiers within the Overwatch esports ecosystem (I am sure I will write more on this later). Blizzard is always thinking bigger than most can really wrap their head around and it seems Cloud 9 is pickup up what they are laying down.

The motivations behind such an aggressive acquisition are likely a combination of most if not all of the above factors. Or maybe they really do just want to make a quick buck by re-selling the team or players to a would-be OWL owner looking for a squad. Either way you slice it, there is so much happening in the space and I have no reason to believe things are slowing down. As Contenders kicks off next week keep tabs on the ever evolving scene and set your sights high because every new piece of news is another indicator of great things to come.