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# Overwatch League Sure Was
- URL: https://aftermath.site/overwatch-league-sure-was/
- Published: 2023-11-09T00:30:53.000Z
- Updated: 2025-10-27T17:22:43.000Z
- Author: Nathan Grayson
- Tags: Blog, Video Games, activision blizzard, esports, overwatch, overwatch league, rip, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-10-27 13:00

Today [Blizzard announced](https://www.pcgamer.com/the-overwatch-league-is-officially-dead-blizzard-is-transitioning-away-from-its-groundbreaking-esports-league-as-teams-reportedly-vote-to-withdraw/?ref=aftermath.site) that it’s "transitioning from the *Overwatch* League and evolving competitive *Overwatch* in a new direction.” In other words, OWL is dead. What more is there to say about the big league that couldn’t that hasn’t already been said? Not much, really – and that was always the problem.

*Overwatch* League launched in 2017, when *Overwatch 1* was at the peak of its powers. It was immediately met with questions: Would an NFL-style model – in which teams had home cities and would regularly travel to play against each other – snap neatly into esports’ unique contours? Could Activision Blizzard take what was previously a *very* nascent competitive scene and juice it full of money until it matured? Or were time and attentive cultivation of a grassroots scene the only path toward a truly self-sustaining esport?

Every step of the way, OWL was met with more questions, which seemed to have clear answers: Would team slots actually prove worth [the $20 million investment](https://www.espn.com/esports/story/%5F/id/20673359/blizzard-entertainment-locks-two-more-20-million-overwatch-league-spots?ref=aftermath.site) each competing organization made during the first season? Or the [$35-60 million price tag](https://www.espn.com/esports/story/%5F/id/23464637/overwatch-league-expansion-slots-expected-30-60-million?ref=aftermath.site) of season two? (No.) Was *Overwatch* too chaotic of a game to produce matches parsable by a mainstream audience? (Yes.) Would a shift in development focus from accessibility for players of all kinds to high-level play result in a game that did not live up to its potential in either direction? (Yes.) Would a lucrative Google deal that made the league [exclusive to YouTube after two years on Twitch](https://kotaku.com/overwatch-league-call-of-duty-league-and-hearthstone-1841208709?ref=aftermath.site) tank viewership? (Yes.) Would staging a season in *Overwatch 2*’s beta [cause a whole host of issues](https://www.dexerto.com/overwatch/owl-pros-baffled-after-bizarre-overwatch-2-bug-causes-losing-team-to-win-1839718/?ref=aftermath.site)? (Duh.) Would the dual travails of a grueling practice/play schedule and eventual travel demands [cause players to burn out](https://www.polygon.com/2020/1/28/21083588/overwatch-league-player-caster-talent-burnout-season-3?ref=aftermath.site)? (Yes and then some.)

To undercut my own argument slightly, I covered OWL credulously for years. I, like many, spent ample time treating it as though it was a real sport and not just [Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick's vanity project](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-09/activision-blizzard-s-overwatch-league-fails-to-fulfill-bobby-kotick-s-vision?ref=aftermath.site). Even then, these questions were there, bubbling beneath the surface and often rising far above it.

Certainly, the covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown were not good for OWL’s fortunes. And of course, Activision Blizzard’s industry-rocking sexual misconduct scandal [caused the league to bleed sponsors](https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-league-doesnt-have-a-single-sponsor-less-than-two-months-before-its-fifth-season/?ref=aftermath.site) in 2022\. But the deal was sealed long before that. From the get go, the *Overwatch* League reeked of inevitable death. However, it was Bobby Kotick's baby, so it persisted. Against plausibility, against inertia, against common sense. Along the way it picked up a small cadre of diehard fans – as well as players and a production staff – who really cared, but it felt like their passion was regularly squandered in Activision Blizzard’s effort to squeeze blood from what was always self-evidently a stone.

Now OWL has had even its last legs hacked out from underneath it, with teams [accepting $6 million “termination fees”](https://esportsadvocate.net/2023/11/teams-vote-to-exit-overwatch-league/?ref=aftermath.site) from Activision Blizzard to bow out. It’s a fitting end to a project that spent even its best years as a money sink. All the fans, players, and staff who actually gave a shit deserved better, but no amount of hope was ever going to make this rocket – exploding in slow motion since its first day upright – achieve liftoff. At least now all involved can put their time and energy to better use.