#overwatch league rosters

[evilroachindustrial]

Man, remember when NYXL used to be like The Org within the Overwatch League and now they’re out here allegedly putting together a PR stunt of a team that’s got good odds of being horrific for absolutely everyone.

[teamahwol]

Somehow I didn’t put two and two together and realize until right this minute that because it’s post-grand finals that also means that its open season on roster changes and I am. Afraid.

[soudeko]

ughhh i'm watching recall's video of iconic moments from overwatch league and god i miss it so much i have so many good memories of it and it really should have lived on soooo much longer!! i love you owl forever and always. i shed a couple of tears even

[whateverthese2havetournament]

2024 Roster Announcement

Alright, let's get this show on the road.

You all gave me plenty to work with, and though time has passed, I haven't forgotten. I have utilized what I believe to be an unbiased system of sorting relevant entries to the top, and I have a list of 32 and 16 for both the "Men's Division" and "Women's Division".

The Men's Division, in no particular order:

Archie and Maxie, Pokemon

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Looney Tunes

Professor Pierre Aronnax and Captain Nemo, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Sicard and Emmanilain, Final Fantasy XIV

Alber Wesker and Chris Redfield, Resident Evil

Derek Morgan and Spencer Reid, Criminal Minds

Suguru Geto and Satorou Gojo, Jujutsu Kaisen

Luffy and Zoro, One Piece

Kotetsu T. "Wild Tiger" Kaburagi and Barnaby "Bunny" Brooks Jr., Tiger and Bunny

Yoichi & Kudou, My Hero Academia

Elim Garak and Julian Bashir, Star Trek

Dale Cooper and Harry S. Truman, Twin Peaks

Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha

Composer and Orpheus, Identity V

Eddie Brock and his Symbiote, Venom

Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang, Link Click

Keith and Lance, Voltron

Optimus Prime and Megatron, Transformers

Newt Geiszler and Hermann Gottleib, Pacific Rim

Kim Dokja & Yoo Joonghyuk, Omniscient Reader

Sam and Max

Officer Bailey and That Other Guard, Ghost Trick

Steven Stone and Wallace, Pokemon

Medic and Heavy, Team Fortress 2

Basil and Sunny, OMORI

Ike and Soren, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance

Professor X and Magneto, X-Men

Mercutio and Benvolio, Shakespeare

Stanley and the Narrator, The Stanley Parable

Junkrat and Roadhog, Overwatch

Merlin and Arthur, Merlin

Jessie and James, Pokemon

And the Women's

Madoka Kaname and Akemi Homura, Madoka Magica

Azula, Mai and Ty Lee, Avatar: The Last Airbender

Alice 'Daisy' Tonner and Basira Hussain, The Magnus Archives

Sable Ward and Mikaela Reid, Dead by Daylight

Mina Harker née Murray and Lucy Westenra, Dracula

Xena and Gabrielle, Xena: Warrior Princess

Falin Touden and Marcille Donato, Delicious in Dungeon

Emma Swan and Regina Mills, Once Upon a Time

Ruby Rose and Penny Polendina, RWBY

Milly Thompson and Meryl Stryfe, Trigun

Daphne Blake and Velma Dinkley, Scooby Doo

Vriska Serket and Terezi Pyrope, Homestuck

Kimura Seiko and Andoh Ruruka, Danganronpa 3

Lucia and Elincia, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance

Yuri and Natuski, Doki Doki Literature Club

Lyn and Florina, Fire Emblem the Blazing Blade

Wowie, what an all-star cast! Videogames, comics, movies, anime, cartoons, classic literature, and more.

So, I'm going to aim to get the ball rolling, let's say October 14th. I'll start with Men's Round 1, then the following week do Women's Round 1, and so on. I will post the actual brackets a bit closer to that date.

In the meantime! If anyone would like to submit any propaganda, images, complaints, objections, or what have you, the ask box will remain open. I know last time had a pretty rocky start, but I am wise for the experience, and I think this time 'round will be even better.

[lunarsilkscreen]

Win Rate in Competitive Games (and Non-competitive raids)

Imagine a character has a zero% win Rate in a multiplayer game. Is this character good? What if I told you that the only player that had figured out how to unlock the character had a zero% win rate with every other character in their roster. Would that change your mind?

Balancing is a tricky issue, it's much easier in 1v1 fighting games like smash bros, where you don't have to worry as much about team balancing. Not that I'm saying it's an easy feat.

In games like league and other competitive team formats like Overwatch, you have to worry about team interactions. This is where I'm including games with "Raids" where teams fight against the Dungeon or Dungeon boss.

If certain teams are guaranteed to have higher DPS or win-rates, why would players allow any other combination of characters on their team?

But that's not the entire argument.

Another concept that high-end players and game-designers have noted is what we call the "Skill Gap" or "Skill Ceiling". Certain characters are easier to play if you know more about the games inner mechanics, or are just a seasoned veteran gamer.

This means that certain characters could have higher DPS if the player is skilled enough to get higher DPS (DPS means damage per second.) Otherwise the character is underpowered and seen as a very bad character.

If a newbie player is trying to play a character that has a high-skill ceiling, they will in-fact be holding their team back as opposed to if they picked a mid character.

Now, older games, especially arcade games, especially arcade racing games, used to have *skill* indicators on the character/car select. This was separate from the level-difficulty select.

It was a feature that indicated to the player that certain character selections would be underpowered if you didn't know the game. Indicating that you would be more likely to lose very quickly because of this selection.

It's not something we see very often anymore.

Even in MMOs where certain characters or classes are only unlockable after extensive play and player experience have often been rebalanced because players that unlocked and wanted to play them, couldn't figure out how to play them correctly.

And because of this, the devs had no choice but to correct the skill ceiling in order to ensure fairness for players that had to deal with unskilled players bringing the team down and wasting time.

Casual dungeons runs are between 15 and 45 minutes depending on difficulty of content and party equipment.

But if player is not very skilled or knowledgeable (Or worse, using accessories from a completely different class that gives no main stat boosts) then this can drag out the dungeon runs, or make them uncompletable. Encouraging the frequent usage of "vote player kick/removal" options in order to ensure smooth gameplay.

Which drags the community down into a certain mindset if this becomes the "correct way to play". Ultimately making it less fun for players and game-designers alike.

Alternatively, this becomes an issue. Because while players know that a class requires more skill to play, they're also more likely to view those classes and characters as an overall detriment. Because they're become accustomed to seeing *less skilled* players playing them. And more likely to vote-kick before seeing that particular player's skill in the class.

And adding the feature I described above "Character Difficulty" only exacerbates that. Even if the character is the top character for someone with an inkling of an idea how to play them.

It's these community interactions that I often think about in my spare time. As a player I both love the concept of high-skill-ceiling characters, and understand the issue in the community.

But when you develop a game that requires the use of a party finder system, or isn't simply a 1v1 experience, it becomes an issue in the community you're trying to build. Retaining subs being the entire point of making a game in the first place.

Capitalism and all that.

That all being said; even having a character that dominates the PVE scene lowers the game's difficulty overall.

If your mid-characters are about as strong as your difficult characters (with a few % variation) then it takes the fun out of playing a difficult character as well.

How tricky it must be...

[circesoracle]

Destiny needs a k-pop collab so bad I'm serious. League, Overwatch, Pokemon, Diablo, Fortnite, the fucking Marvel Overwatch clone is launching with it's own k-pop superhero in the roster it is getting dire like WHERE is my terribly integrated k-pop collab WHERE is the tonally dissonant song WHERE is the glam and the glitter and the horribly contorted light stick ghost shell?

[purplekoop]

I was gonna make a big, long, overly depressing for my standards ramble post about my thoughts on the state of Overwatch right now, but after one big hit of backspace I think it'd be more efficient to say:

I'm happy.

It's just fun and exciting getting to see so much stuff to look forward to. I know some people are a bit bummed to know what the next year's worth of characters are so far in advance, but like... think about it. For one, the rate of new character's isn't increased. I know it definitely at least we're close to the game actively having too many characters for its own good. I saw one person complain about how "they can't even balance the characters we do have", but I feel like the current balance dilemmas are due to the lingering ramifications of the 5v5 change, and not strictly roster size. I've seen arguments over the years for the opposite, that more characters means that it's less likely for any one individual hero to be overpowered and uncounterable just by the sheer probability of another option beating them out being more likely with more heroes. I don't think I wholeheartedly agree with this take either, but either way I think that the current cadence of hero releases is sustainable. Especially considering that, even before OW2 and the direct financial incentive to release them, new heroes are by far the biggest "event" the game can get. It's just exciting to have new guys to keep the game fresh, so I really don't blame new heroes being such a constant priority. For some numbers though, starting with Hero 43 the game's roster will have officially doubled in size since the initial 2016 release. All things considered, that's... way tamer than it could be. For one reference, League of Legends came out in 2009 with a roster of 40 characters, and has now gone up to 162 (all of these numbers are just going off google anyways, I'm pathetic but I'm at least not a League player). Maybe once we hit 50 total characters I'd like to see them slow down to 2 a year, but even then, at this rate we're not reaching 50 characters until partway into 2027, four years from now, so I'm not too worried yet.

The other sentiment I've seen, or at least anticipate seeing, about how many reveals there were this weekend is that these reveals were too soon and took away surprises for later. I understand this one more, but I still disagree with it.

To explain what I mean, remember how excited people were about Junker Queen finally being revealed? We knew she was coming, her first-person viewmodel was "accidentally" shown in some beta footage, but it was the vindication of finally getting to see that highly anticipated character make it into the game in that made the wait worth it and the payoff so satisfying. We saw that same energy this weekend with Mauga, who was foreshadowed and even somewhat leaked to hell and back, but I was still just grinning ear-to-ear the entire time to see the mad lad in action at long last. Farther back, remember how insane Doomfist's reveal was?? I didn't even think he was gonna actually be more than a one-off cool name, but the fact he was realized and put in as the biggest canonical badass was hype out of this world, who cares if he's sucked for most of his in-game existence? And if you want surprise factor, it's not like those reveals didn't have that too. I wouldn't've guessed in a billion years that Junker Queen was gonna be a buff 7 ft+ badass and not just some edgy punk otherwise just as dainty as the other female characters Overwatch gets so much flak for. While not every "surprise" is a hit, I agree that some of the design changes between Mauga's initial short story art and his final in-game appearance are a little. eyebrow raise emoji, there was still more to learn about his character that made the reveal more than just being able to finally play with the toy that's been sitting sealed away on the shelf for years.

Now think about. The pathetic wet fart that was Lifeweaver's release. A completely new character that just kinda. Showed up. Revealed in a twitter post a day before the seasonal trailer dropped, where he wasn't even focused on barely at all. His pitiful in-game usefulness and Blizzard having its weekly controversy at the same time didn't help things, but it was just so... unceremonious. Not because it was a bad reveal, but because it was so unsatisfying of one. The attachment to him was flimsy at best to start with, and while like his balance, it did get better over time, there just wasn't that same established excitement as there was with characters like Mauga, Doomfist, and Junker Queen. Same goes for other "surprise" reveals too, like Illari, who got foreshadowed in what'll probably be the messiest point in Overwatch history, and Moira, who was the relatively boring side reveal after Reinhardt got his cinematic. OW1 hit a decent balance with heroes that weren't teased in the lore previously. We used to get teasers for new heroes at least a couple days before their proper reveal, building up their lore and hinting at what their kit might be like. That hasn't been the case in OW2 (though Sojourn, JQ, Kiriko, and Ramattra already had teasers established beforehand), and also wasn't the case for Moira and Ashe (who at least got starring role in a cinematic the same day as her reveal as a hero to build her up at least a bit).

The reveals for the next 3 heroes are sort of a backwards approach to this: we know what they look like (or what they might look like for the latter two, Venture seems pretty close to finalized), and we know varying amounts of how they play, but we don't know their names, much of their personalities, or their lore outside of random vague tidbits. I mean with 42 we still know next to nothing anyways, with Sigma's leak we at least had a blurry face and a name. But either way, the effect is the same: we have something to go off of, and from there we can build that preemptive attachment to these characters. I've already seen some great fanart of the two fresh faces from yesterday, and I'm extremely excited for someone to make a better interpretation of 42 than my rush job today. They already feel like part of the gang, but we still know they get to have their special time later. I'll say making Mauga actually playable (even just temporarily) immediately alongside the other reveals was definitely the right call to not overshadow him and make it feel like this is his time, and the other folks can have their time later too when it's more appropriate.

My favorite thing about how the reveals were handled though is how. Unprofessional it was. In the best of ways.

I've mentioned before how I think it's a pitfall for small creatives like myself to feel the need to fit the "professional standard" of holding your cards close to your chest until you can actually put out a "finished product". Like, they don't show beta footage of the next Smash Bros character with an unfinished model and a meme in place of their character select icon, right? No, they wait until a few months max before the character is ready to release. I mean, this is for a few reasons, mostly hype management and promotional reasons, things which have very clearly burned OW's ass before. But this is different, this isn't a forced showing of unfinished work for the sake of pleasing investors and making moronic execs feel good, this was because the devs had cool stuff they were excited about and know fans would be excited about. Somebody says outright at the start of today's panel that they know marketing will be mad at them or something in a tongue-in-cheek way, and like, I get the reasons to be secretive, but it just feels nice to let the pressure off and have fun with it even if it's a little messy, as long as they're transparent about it. It's an always appreciated reminder that there are people behind this game that love their characters the same way that smaller creatives like me love our characters. They got their they/them silly little meow meow with a drill and so do I, but the multi-million dollar company with stock shares or whatever to lose was more willing to share early than me, the one person who doesn't even have a bank account yet. Frankly, it's more a reminder I should finally get to sharing my ideas sooner before I have to say "dude trust me I had this idea for this ability without knowing they had it too" again.

I dunno. Maybe it's silly. but I think it's nice. It's reassuring. This feels like the most candid Overwatch's team has felt in a while. They're excited, they want us to be excited, and personally I'm taking the bait.

Welcome to the team, you three weirdos, excited to meet you later.

[nimona-antifa]

14# for the Salty Ask List! What's your unpopular opinion about your fandom(s)?

OKAY SO. (This will be long, TL/DR at the bottom)

First of all, I love league of legends (as you may have guessed from my profile picture) and my unpopular opinion is that it (both the game and the fandom) gets shit on WAY too much. As someone who loves math, figuring out optimal builds is so much fun for me! I love solving puzzles and making rune pages and builds for different characters and then getting to try them out is so much fun for me! Is there a big Shonen anime brand misogyny problem in parts of the fandom? Yes, absolutely. Is it probably a good idea to mute liberally because of rampant toxicity? Also yes. But I've met some great people there too!!! Maybe I'm just incredibly fucking resilient because I've been dunked in some of the deepest strongest acid vats of toxicity and negativity out there (conservative christian upbringing, league of legends, playing riven specifically, Twitter, tiktok, Steven Universe fandom) and am still a ray of sunshine in person, but I actually quite enjoy it. Do I wish it wasn't hilariously broken with a character roster that's very much male dominated? Yes. Is there a misogyny problem even within the character balancing (male OP characters get ignored or buffed while female OP characters get nerfed into the ground)? Yes. But there's so much fun to be had if you know how.

Okay. Second big fandom is Team Fortress 2 and I think that uh. Well to put it kindly I think a lot of them miss the entire point of the game. They basically have sticks up their asses about weapons being "fair and balanced" and while I agree that they should be to a certain extent, I also think focusing on that too much risks losing the spirit of the game. If I wanted an optimized, polished first person shooter, I'd play overwatch. If blizzard could get it's shit together for five fucking seconds and realize it's making some of the worst possible business decisions with the game that is. But anyway back to TF2. If we were to optimize every single weapon to be 100% fair and balanced, we miss the entire point of the game. Like, a vast majority of the game would be gone if that were the case. It's not very fair and balanced to run through a doorway only to get instantly blown up because there were 5 stickybombs there you couldn't see, but removing that would make it not TF2. I think probably the best example of this is the Sandman and Flying Guillotine combo, may she be restored soon. Was it entirely balanced? No. But in my opinion that wasn't a good reason to remove it entirely. Same with the degreaser/reserve shooter combo. Just because they're annoying doesn't mean you get rid of them entirely. Another thing they get too upset about is when someone dare suggest that a niche weapon should be buffed to checks notes fill it's niche better. Take the amputator. It's niche is to provide AoE healing. But the situations where that's handy become uh. Much less frequent thanks to the specific quirks of how it works. You enter a short taunt during which you can't move. I personally feel like it could be better served by some sort of recharging bar and a big movement speed debuff. The other big hindrance is that the damage is a direct downgrade to the stock. The other Melees all provide some sort of combat advantage to stock. The Übersaw has a slower swing speed but greatly increased critical hit chance, which if you ask literally anyone who has played with or against the Übersaw, is a significant understatement. The vita-saw provides a psychological advantage with slightly less health but the knowledge that if you do die, you won't lose all of your Über. And the Amputator is basically the Overwatch experience, trading swing speed for knowledge of the enemy's health. The amputator provides none of this, which makes it pretty shitty as a self-defense tool. It does less damage than stock with no increased swing speed or bleed effect to balance things out. I won't go into a whole bunch of detail about my fixes but I just find it ridiculous the types of things that they say will lead to power creep. The Ambassador used to be able to headshot people from as far away as you could headshot people without a zoom, and it was just accepted as part of the game for the longest time. And I'm supposed to believe that weapons filling their intended purpose is gonna be too powerful? Okay whatever. I doubt hordes of people will be swapping off of Soldier just to hit me to death with a slightly improved bonesaw on the class that has the least combat capacity but apparently it's definitely going to happen if the amputator isn't a direct downgrade to the stock in terms of self-defense!!! Sorry this got long but basically:

TL/DR:

League of Legends isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be and there's a lot of fun to be had if you know how to curate your experience

Some TF2 players are way too tryhard

[grimmf0xx]

Hello!

Hi I’m Grimm, This blog has no particular theme, it’s just an old blog I wiped clean to use as my main social media now that the bird website is tanking. This’ll mainly just be me posting stuff about video games I enjoy, characters I enjoy, art I like and maybe some writing every now and again.

High chance I will eventually reblog or maybe even post something NSFW so 18+ only

VIDEO GAMES & CHARACTERS THAT LIVE RENT FREE IN MY BRAIN

OVERWATCH

Been playing this game since the first open beta of Overwatch 1 and whilst some of the dev choices are questionable It’ll always have a place in my heart.

Lifeweaver:

Baptiste:

Symmetra:

League of Legends

Been playing league for ages although with it’s MUCH bigger roster than most other games I doubt I can make a whole image change about the characters I’m attached too, the main handful are,

- Janna - Rakan - Morgana - Sett - K’Sante - Shen

Valorant

I don’t play this game nearly as much as I’d like too but I follow the game closely and when I get that Valorant Itch it’s typically the hyper-fixation for a month or two.

Harbor:

Killjoy:

There are a tonne of other games I enjoy like destiny 2, Pokémon and a bunch of single player games but these games are the ones I find myself sinking most of my play time into.

[sundove88]

Which Project Link Up Installment Should Get a Roster Next?

Here are all the rosters so far:

(Shonen Jump Power Linkage)

(Super Smash Bros. Power Linkage)

(Cookie Run Sugar Linkage)

(Genshin Impact Elemental Linkage)

(Overwatch Power Linkage)

(Brawl Stars Battle Linkage)

(Sanrio Dream Linkage)

(Transformers LinkSpark)

(Disney Dream Linkage)

(Bugsnax: LinkSnax)

[rvdispatch]

BREAKING: New Age Turns Heads With Recent Signings

New Age Media was once again the talk of the town at the end of 2022, and while that is nothing new for the innovative label, it was in a whole new avenue.

Gaming Insiders reported that many major esports teams across many games had been bought out of their existing contracts, and signed in some way to one of New Age’s subsidiaries, New Dream Media. These titles include Apex Legends, Valorant, Overwatch, and League of Legends. These teams hailed from all over eastern Asia (not just South Korea), and most noteably, every team had at least one female-identifying player on the roster.

With the success of teams such as the Valkyries-- an Apex Legends roster under Siren Entertainment-- it’s not a huge surprise that New Age might want to get in on the action too. However, insiders insist that the timing and scale is weird; with New Age signing so many teams, over various rosters, all at once? It’s almost unheard of.

These teams have carried out their usual gaming obligations since being signed, but many insiders have advised to keep a close eye on the teams, and on New Age for new developments, because something big is coming.

[smashmains]

Overwatch crosshairs

#OVERWATCH CROSSHAIRS PRO#

#OVERWATCH CROSSHAIRS FREE#

In default setting, only Show Framerate and Show Network Ping are enabled. Advance Performance Stats: There are 6 advanced options: Show Framerate(shown as FPS), Show GPU Temperature (shown as TMP), Show VRAM Usage (shown as VRM), Show Network Ping (shown as PNG), Show Network Round Trip Time (shown as RTT), and Show Network Interpolation Delay(shown as IND).Display Performance Stats: Display performance statistic on the upper left of the screen.Triple Buffering: Enable/disable Triple Buffering.VSync: Enable/disable Vertical Synchronization.Aspect Ratio: Choose the ratio for the display on-screen.Field of View: The field of view for your first-person aspect, ranged from 80 to 103.Resolution: Options with the asterisk symbol (*) is the recommended resolution.If the player only have one output, it will show "Monitor 1". Target Display: Choose which display output for the game.Display Mode: There are 3 options: Windowed, Fullscreen, or Borderless Windowed.The name of player's graphic card is displayed.Please note that all product links in the table above send you to Amazon and we receive a small commission for items sold. We use the following abbreviations: coach (C), manager/organization entourage (M), content creator/streamer (S), benched/inactive (B).

#OVERWATCH CROSSHAIRS PRO#

That is to indicate that the player in question isn't (currently) a pro player on the main roster but still part of the organization. In our list you will sometimes see a capitalized letter behind an organization. If you have any further questions, you can refer to our FAQ as well.

#OVERWATCH CROSSHAIRS FREE#

If we’ve made any mistakes, please feel free to join us in the comments to discuss these settings and their sources. The list is connected to our database which is continuously updated, as the scene evolves and new trends become standard. If that is the case, you can find the settings, resolution and sensitivity of the pros below. Instead of taking a data-driven approach, it might be that you want try out a favorite Overwatch pro’s settings like Seagull or Surefour. Averages of eDPI for example can be a great guiding tool in deciding which Overwatch sensitivity you want to use. In our articles we deliver an overview of what we consider to be the best Overwatch settings. This is for all players who want to add the perfect Overwatch settings to their arsenal. We’ve updated the list to reflect the Overwatch League by Blizzard in addition to a host of free agents that are looking to break-through in the scene. Our Overwatch Pro Settings Guide is a great place to start. Tuning your Overwatch settings is what takes you to the next level. We consider this our data-vault, our source to give you the Best Monitor and Gear for Overwatch. We also verified information on the monitors, mice and keyboards of these players as well. We researched the Overwatch settings like resolution, dpi and sensitivity for each individual pro. With big changes for Overwatch 2 on the horizon, the game has seen renewed interest and we can only hope that it returns to its former glory as Blizzard makes changes to the (competitive) multiplayer aspect. Overwatch might have passed the height of its popularity but it's still a game that's played by tens of thousands of people every single day.

[futuristicpaintercat]

The Explosive Growth of the eSports Industry: The Rise of Competitive Gaming

Over the past decade, the eSports industry has seen immense growth in popularity and viewership. What started as a niche hobby for hardcore gamers has exploded into a billion-dollar global industry. Major tournament championships now attract millions of viewers online and thousands of LAN attendees. Tournament prize pools rival and sometimes surpass traditional sports events. In 2020 alone, global revenues reached over $1 billion for the first time. This growth shows no signs of slowing down as gaming and it continue penetrating mainstream culture. The Rising Star Players and Teams At the center of competitive gaming are the star players and elite professional teams. Those at the top can now make millions of dollars per year through salaries, tournament winnings, sponsorships and endorsements. Just like traditional sports superstars, the best Esports athletes achieve celebrity status with huge social media followings. Leading teams like Team Liquid, T1, and G2 Esports have valuations exceeding $200 million as major brands back top rosters. Its players are now viewed as serious athletes who train for countless hours perfecting their skills. The commitment levels of pros are on par with other competitive disciplines. Increasing Corporate Sponsorships and Events As it gain wider recognition, blue-chip companies are investing heavily through sponsorships and partnership deals. Major tournaments now feature activations from Fortune 500 brands. For example, at League of Legends Worlds 2020, sponsors featured household names like Mastercard, Alienware and State Farm. They see its marketing as an effective youth-oriented channel. Live event spectacles are also rising as companies leverage it to engage audiences. Intel sponsors premier stadium event Extreme Masters with tens of thousands of LAN attendees. Similarly, League of Legends Champions Korea averages over 10,000 live viewers per match at Seoul's Jamsil Stadium. Esports' affinity with online and digital lifestyle also meshes well with technology sponsors. Automakers are also entering the space seeing parallels with motorsports audiences. Future: Continued Expansion and Evolution All forecasts point to sustained long-term growth of competitive gaming. The arrival of PlayStation, Xbox and Switch consoles in living rooms fueled explosive casual play. Those players are now the core demographic driving esports interest and viewership. By 2023, global revenues could near $3 billion according to some estimates as broadcast deals and sponsorship rise. Existing franchised leagues like the LEC and LCS will continue minting millions of fans. Meanwhile, new titles like Fortnite and Valorant also cultivate sizable infrastructures that could rival current giants like League and Overwatch. Audience demand is spurring investment as the industry creates structured ecosystems bringing amateur and pro levels closer together. With esports firmly entrenched in youth culture, its continued evolution of tournaments, teams and careers seems inevitable. After over 20 years of grassroots progress, competitive gaming has solidified as an integral part of modern entertainment.

Get More Insights on Esports

About Author:

Ravina Pandya, Content Writer, has a strong foothold in the market research industry. She specializes in writing well-researched articles from different industries, including food and beverages, information and technology, healthcare, chemical and materials, etc. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravina-pandya-1a3984191)

[zaffreberries]

It started with plat chat. The 2020 overwatch league season had ended and plat chat were discussing roster moves, specifically the Element Mystic core of Paris Eternal going over to the Dallas Fuel. There was excitement. The Dallas Fuel had made some of their moves earlier than the other teams, they had snatched the hungry fans attention and held it alone for a period of time whilst other orgs waited to make their moves and behind the scenes jockeyed and negotiateduu to sign players. For a brief window of time the focus was theirs alone. Other teams made their moves and other “Super Teams” were assembled and the hype for Dallas was tempered against these other new exciting teams that were going into the new season. My interest had been piqued and I wasn’t distracted by the other teams. I had a fondness for Sp9rk1e, Fielder had impressed me and everyone spoke about how good Hanbin was. Then they signed Fearless. That was a turning point, when they solidified my attention. I had watched Fearless on the Shanghai dragons, his Winston was legendary and he was a favourite player of mine. The fact he wanted to play on a team with his friends, refused higher offers from other teams. It was a moment that struck a cord with me, this wasn’t just another Super Team, this was THE super team, one that wanted to be together.

Their first foray as a team was the Netease esports tournament 2021. They lost 2 matches and won one. Not good results and people wrote them off. I couldn’t. Something about them stuck with me, my mind refusing to budge. There was a glimmer that I was drawn to, something special that only I could see that was more important than the victories and losses. The 2021 season started and they played a close match against Houston (a team people thought was weak) the murmurs started when they lost 2-3, Dallas Vs the Fuel, the Fuel cycle of misery. But somehow they bounced back and beat Gladiators 3-1 And then lost to Washington 1-3, they were a good team, but exactly how good no one could decide. Gladiators were a “super team” that they had beaten, but so was Washington Justice. It was just enough to qualify for the first tournament and that’s when things changed. In a rematch against Houston they dominated with a 3-0 victory and to secure their a lot to Hawaii they beat Shock 3-0 as well. Suddenly this team was shining again, suddenly others could see the glimmer growing brighter and brighter. They were going to Hawaii, they had made it to the first tournament in Hawaii. What followed was a convincing tournament run that cemented me as a fan. It wasn’t just that they had beaten (in my mind) the strongest team in the league, but that they did it twice. I watched the tournament and then I watched the replay later the next day. I suffered from lack of sleep (thankfully it was the weekend) and I watched it again at my mothers place and had to try and explain to her what I was so riveted by. I didn’t expect them to win, maybe that makes me less of a fan. But to me a fan is someone who likes them DESPITE the team not winning. It wasn’t a matter of “I like this team because I’m from Dallas” it wasn’t that I was a fan of the parent org Envy before the League. I liked the players and I liked how they played. It wasn’t a hyper flex or god gamer hard carrying them to victory, it was a legitimate team effort, every player had shining moments, every player clutched up and had stood brightly in the spotlight. They won the tournament and that glimmer I had seen shone bright and everyone could finally see it. “Those who burn blue, burn brightest”.

They remained strong throughout the year, they made it to the tournaments in Hawaii two more times and although they didn’t win again, I was still a fan. I still was mesmerised by that glimmer. Their play was analysed, it was championed, it was placed upon a deserved podium and lauded for its ingenuity, they gained new fans as they gained more victories. Long time fans were rewarded for their enduring love with a team to be proud of, despite the lack of trophies, there was something special they could finally brag about. Sparkle slowly gained renown for his impressive picking up of Tracer and learning to play at a top level.

So we (I’m just casually joining the roster at this point) didn’t win the 2021 season. Shanghai did. Shanghai had solved 6v6 and outside of hard carry metas they were the strongest team in the overwatch league. But that didn’t matter to me. Dallas had captured my heart. I didn’t follow the team because they always won (though it helped they were a strong team). I followed the team because they had that magic, that ability to coordinate and overcome arguably losing fights, they would triumph despite the odds, they would work hard to overcome set backs that would defeat other teams and turn weakness into strength. Since the roster announced, since that fateful plat chat episode where I first glimpsed a seemingly innocuous blue speck of light, I have been a Dallas Fuel Fan.

[ledenews]

Ohio Esports: Changing the Game for Students in the Valley

Not too long ago, playing video games consisted of powering up your Atari, grabbing a joystick and shooting space aliens trying to attack your ship. Eventually, Nintendo came along and this process evolved into using two buttons to guide a plumber through harrowing lands in his quest to save the princess. If you were lucky, you had a second controller so your best friend could play. No groups. No internet. No headphones. In the years that followed, video games changed drastically, switching from side-scrolling quests to interactive, story-driven movies and contests. The advent of the internet allowed for online play, where gamers could compete against each other in different types of matches. It wasn’t long after that people discovered they could form leagues for competitive play. That’s when gaming competitions started popping up. StarCraft, Warcraft III, and, of course, Madden, seemed the most popular. Esports was born. And the state of Ohio loves it. Local high school students are now participating in Esports. In 2023, the Ohio High School Athletic Association officially partnered with Esports Ohio, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing an Esports league for high school students. While face-to-face video game competitions have been around since 1981, it wasn’t until 2000 that they fully evolved into the internet-based mass competitions we know today. These organized multiplayer competitions, played individually or by teams, grew tremendously since then; not only in participation but in the amount of media attention they received, mainly because the grand prize could go as high as $1 million. Seeing this opportunity, a group of educators formed Esports Ohio six years ago. At the start, they had 12 high school teams. This year, they have 803 rosters, 5,015 players and 294 schools. “We feel that we will continue to add more players in teams,” said Esports Ohio President Jacob Gebers. “We hope to have over 350 schools in the next 5 years.” The partnership has been a win-win for both organizations. Students who may not be interested in contact sports now have the opportunity to compete in an activity more suited to their interests. OSHAA can help the organization grow. “OHSAA has a long history of high school sports and have (sic) connections throughout the state,” Gebers said. “They are able to help promote to schools our league and what we can do while we can still control the logistics. We are also able to hand out OHSAA trophies to winning teams which is a fantastic accomplishment.” Gebers said Esports Ohio was founded to give students the ability to play other schools in Ohio and build upon existing rivalries. Video gaming obviously was important to the Esports Ohio founders. But why? Gebers said that despite the negative connotations video games often receive, the benefits of playing in a team setting can have a positive impact. “I am a gamer when I have the time. I really like the way it forces people to have teamwork and also giving an outlet for those that may not be involved in other activities. Learning how to work together with other students is a long-life lesson,” Gebers explaiend. “This also includes learning how to communicate efficiently as well as problem solving.” Now, games like Overwatch, Fortnite, League of Legends, Super Smash Brothers, chess, baseball and even Just Dance are in the mix. Locally, the sport is growing, with schools like St. John Central Academy, Belmont Harrison Career Center, Buckeye Local High School, Buckeye Trail High School, Caldwell High School, Cambridge High School, Conotton Valley High School and East Liverpool boasting programs, according to the Ohio Esports website. Read the full article

[steelmarrow3dprojectmusic]

5 Examples of Maya being used in the Game Industry:

Assassin's Creed Series by Ubisoft: Maya is often used in the creation of 3D character models, animations and environmental assets in the Assassin's Creed series. The intricate historical settings and realistic character animations are a testament to the software's capabilities.

Gears of War Series by Epic Games: Epic Games incorporated Maya for character modeling, animation and level design. Maya's robust tools contribute to the detailed and visually impressive environments and characters in this popular third person shooter franchise.

Overwatch by Blizzard Entertainment: Maya was used extensively in the development of Overwatch. Maya played a key role in character modeling, animation, and the creation of vibrant and dynamic game environments similar to many of the other games on this list.

League of Legends by Riot Games: utilizes Maya for character design, animation, and cinematic sequences. Maya helps bring the diverse roster of champions to life with fluid animations and expressive character designs.

Uncharted Series by Naughty Dog: Maya has been very influential in the creation of lifelike character animations, detailed environments, and engaging cinematic sequences, contributing to the overall immersive experience of the Uncharted games.