Overwatch has undeniably gone through a somewhat rough period, as players went into a slight decline in the competitive scene, majorly due to a substantial lack of events to participate in.
Overwatch Competitive Scene Decline
This lack of events not only made the current number of players competing already drop, but somewhat dropped new players into a state of hesitation and doubt, mostly with regards to if it is worth investing time in the scene at all.
Thankfully, recent developments around both the Overwatch League as well as Blizzard Arena itself, have encouraged more and more players to get involved and brought life back to the esports scene.
Approaching BlizzCon
As the end of October is also drawing near, this will mark the arrival of yet another Major event for Blizzard, as BlizzCon is set to take place early in November.
This year’s BlizzCon will not only mark the end of another Overwatch World Cup, and once again crown an Overall champion. It is also rumoured that it will be the Event that sets the stage for the Overwatch League opening. The preseason for the league is set to start in early December, so a November announcement isn’t so unlikely.
Overwatch APEX Season 4
As a quick note to worldwide events, the OGN Overwatch APEX’s fourth season will come to a close in less than a week as GC Busan face the season 2 finalists RunAway, for their shot at the coveted cup.
Blizzard’s Dispute in China – Heroes of Warfare
Heroes of Warfare Gameplay
One a different note rather than upcoming events, Blizzard China has recently been dealing with an issue of their own, as they’ve been disputing a supposed copy of Overwatch that has been launched as a mobile game called Heroes of Warfare.
The somewhat “similar” game, or rather, almost identical game has instigated a law suit be issued by Blizzard China and NetEase. The game not only has similarities in the Hero designs, but maintained almost identical skills on said heroes. Not to mention the maps, of which if one compares one of the Heroes of Warfare map to Overwatch’s Illios, he wouldn’t find similarities, but much rather identical points in the map, such as the Well on one of the three stages on Illios, or the grid blue on white fence on the same stage.
In such cases, companies owning games are able to file such a lawsuit when similarities are detected, for this case however, that might be a little bit of an understatement.
Another map on Heroes of Warfare looks extremely similar to Numbani, one of OVerwatch’s maps, and some other details may be seen to coincide with Overwatch’s design, such as health packs, which were left identical, as well as the post-game card upvoting system, also left in place.
Whilst discussing such negative similarity issues, one must also mention some which are positive. Following the Overwatch League’s system that has established Geolocated franchises with their own branding, aimed at having a more stable set of esports brands within their league, talks of a similar system being implemented in other major esports leagues has surfaced, with League of Legends’ LCS being at the forefront of said discussions.
Stay posted as we bring you the latest Overwatch updates weekly, on esportsonly.com!
