Paul 'Redeye' Chaloner is an esports host that we've seen many a time over various games, and he recently spoke to Luckbox about the Overwatch League in particular, expressing concerns about not only the city-based structure, but also the investment after the third year of competition.
"It's got eight new teams this season, there's 20 teams involved," he said. "They're going to play some local matches, in Dallas as I understand it, this year, and a couple of the other cities as well. So it's expanding, and it's not doing it as quickly as I know some of the fans want to do it. They want to see home and away games all the time, but we're talking about 20 global city-based teams right now. There's no way you can schedule that in year one, there's just no way you could do it in year two either, but at some point they'll need to go to that."
"The real test for them I think comes at the end of year three. If at the end of year three teams aren't profitable, then the investors, the VCs, the money - those people are going to start going 'well hold on, how do we make money?' If they're not already, and I'm sure they are, but if they're not making it at the end of year three then they're gonna start going 'okay, this isn't for us', then we can assess it. I think doing it right now is premature."
The Overwatch League is due to start its second year next month, and with impressive Twitch viewership stats (being the fourth most-watched channel in 2018), there isn't cause for concern right now. Considering the longevity of the competition, however, Redeye is right to express a bit of concern, although time will tell how that holds up.
Where do you see the Overwatch League going?