Gaming
esports
Keeping watch on Overwatch in South Africa
Overwatch League has set some big records to beat when it comes to competitive esports.
Blizzard’s The franchise league based system recently announced a deal with ESPN, Disney and the ABC family of networkings, ensuring the season 1 grand finals are broadcast on traditional sports channels and Twitch. Those grand finals are set to take place this weekend at the Barclays Centre in New York. Overwatch fever is at an all time high in the USA, with pro players throwing opening pitches at baseball games and New York storefronts branding themselves with team logos.
But Overwatch isn’t stopping there. While Overwatch League Season 1 comes to an end it will come with an expansion announcement and offer up more team spots for Season 2. The Overwatch World Cup also kicks off next month and will see a host of various stages with countries competing for national glory. Some of those stages will also play host to the Overwatch Contenders finals. Contenders is a regional competition which showcases the best new teams and talent who are all trying to be noticed and picked up for Overwatch League. I’ve been extremely fortunate to host Season 1 and Season 2 of Overwatch Contenders Europe - which has given me insight into the developing scene internationally.
And yet South Africa is extremely slow on the uptake. Somewhat surprising considering how sponsor friendly the title is and its mainstream appeal (credit to Overwatch League here, they’ve turned esports in to a mass media talking point). According to South African Caster Jesse “Cloudburst” McConnell the local scene is a diverse and vibrant one: “The local competitive player base is extremely friendly and a positive one. There is a diverse mix of people playing at various levels. Overwatch is such a loved game and people connect with it - which makes it welcoming to all walks of life. The rich lore and vibrant heroes in game make it easy to relate to with just about anyone and that extends to the competitive scene as well.
Another well known name in the local scene, Zaheer “GeneralSound” van der Fort says local discord servers for competitive play brag more than 500 players, with 60% of those players actually competing in the local tournaments. Currently there are 20 teams competing in the VS Gaming League - the only Overwatch competition in South Africa at the moment.
While the competitive scene might have the player base and passion, it is lacking tournaments. Blizzard does require organisers to apply for a tournament license, no matter where in the world they are, with strict guidelines around naming conventions and the like. However, applying for either a custom or community license on their website is relatively effortless. So why haven’t more tournament organisers and brands invested in the title that can ride off international traction?
Could it be the lack of local servers?
Currently South Africa does not have local servers for Overwatch. Player and caster Robin “SunPheonyx” Campbell says this could be off putting for local tournament organisers. “Having no servers is a significant barrier to entry for a lot of new players. Seasoned local players know well enough that the high ping, while not ideal, is not at all a major hindrance to performance. There are a number of local players who have reach the highest reaches of the ladder (GM, T500) on traditionally highly ping dependent heroes (hitscan dps). However, lower ping would be a boon to newer players looking to invest time and energy into Overwatch. I think many gamers in South Africa immediately dismiss Overwatch because of the lack of local servers, and as such, the competetive community struggles to grow. This is aggravated by the fact that the two most popular esports in South Africa (CSGO and Dota 2) have local server support, and thus are much more desirable for potential competitive players. Indirectly this has a major limiting factor when it comes to tournament organiser’s investment in Overwatch as an esport.”
Are our players up to scratch?
To ensure decent return on investment sponsors want to know if the esports title will be entertaining to watch. Overwatch has the entertainment value but for a tournament to be feasible there needs to be a high level of play on show. Former White Rabbit Gaming player Jared “Gastlee” Lee says South African competitors are primed to compete on the international scene: “Players such as eN.Twenty, eN.Senticall, [BZK]Riposte, UNI.Sponge, WRG.Visions and [GG]Lazarus are stand out players. Some of them , with access to better internet, definitely could go head to head with the European and North American players. However, it is hard to say without them having the same resources as their international counterparts.
Why is South Africa not competing in the Overwatch World Cup?
Ideally, for the title to garner more attention as an esport locally, it would be advantageous to have a team represented at the Overwatch World Cup - as a showcase of what South Africa could do. However, we aren’t fielding a team this year. SunPheonyx explains why: “The reason we don’t have a slot right now is because of a significant change to the qualification format. In 2016 (when EDEN represented SA in the Overwatch World Cup qualifiers), the format allowed any country to field a team in the qualifiers. The team at the time did quite well given their limited exposure to international competition and the state of local overwatch at the time, managing to take a map off Germany, but they were clearly outclassed by their superior opponents. Since 2017, however; World Cup qualifiers are populated based on the average SR of a country’s top 100 players. This severely limits SA’s chance of qualifying due to the smaller population of high level players. As such, South Africa hasn’t had the opportunity to qualify for a World Cup since its first iteration in 2016.
More competitive players at the highest level will allow for entry to competitions like the World Cup. However, to grow the level of competitive players they need more tournaments and competitive settings. It is a chicken/egg scenario. While the South African Overwatch community continues to host their own streams and try build the competitive scene, it will be interesting to see if more tournament organisers and brands choose to support the title moving forward - especially considering the market share it is grabbing in the rest of the world.
