Overwatch League rides the eSports wave

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By Saebean Yi,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

The Overwatch League launched its inaugural season on Jan. 8, 2018 and has put up massive viewership numbers. According to Twitch, a streaming site, and Esports Charts, in just the first week, the league drew in a total of over 10 million viewers.

The OWL is a eSports league based around the popular shooter game Overwatch. It is the first major eSports league to be represented by cities, just like the NFL and NBA. The league features 12 international teams, from Dallas and Los Angeles to Shanghai, China and Seoul, South Korea.

Aidan Phimmasehn, also known as PhimmyPKMN on his YouTube channel, creates Overwatch content, often analyzing the OWL.

“From all these views coming in, I think the Overwatch League could be the biggest eSport for the next ten years,” Phimmasehn said. “Blizzard (a game developer for Overwatch) did a great job promoting and advertising the league.”

Sophomore Sasha Jeremic is also a big fan of Overwatch and an avid watcher of the OWL.

“I’m really excited for what the league will do to eSports,” Jeremic said. “Even though lots of people don’t consider it a sport, you can’t deny its success and influence it’ll bring.”

Jeremic and Phimmasehn are fans of the San Francisco Shock and Philadelphia Fusion, respectively, and plan to continue cheering their team on.

Jeremic describes the influence OWL will have on eSports.