LEAGUE CHIEF OFFERS VISION FOR FUTURE OF E-SPORTS
Helping to create the foundation of a professional sport is no easy task, but for Overwatch League Commissioner Nate Nanzer it’s all in a year’s work.
“Once we flipped the switch on the league’s announcement it became the craziest year of my life,” Nanzer said during a SXSW Gaming featured session, where he was joined by Chris Pursell of Cynopsis Media.
The Overwatch League is a professional e-sports league in which competitors play “Overwatch,” the best-selling competitive shooter game from Blizzard-Activision.
The league is modeling itself after professional sports leagues like the NFL or NBA, so that it has a group of permanent teams that play each other in a scheduled regular season format. Each team, or franchise, has a team owner, and players are paid a regular salary.
The league is part of the e-sports movement, a form of gaming competition in which professional video game players compete in a variety of games and formats.
E-sports have grown in popularity in recent years, and the culture has been a significant focus at this year’s SXSW Gaming expo.
The Overwatch League is now far removed from a nervous 2016 Blizz-Con announcement, finding success in building a world-
wide professional league for Overwatch on the back of a simple idea: An entertaining product centered on hometowns and personalities.
“The thing that surprised me the most was how fast the city-based approach has worked,” Nanzer said of Overwatch League’s 12-team system, with each team calling a different city home. From Boston and New York to cities around the world like London and Seoul, the league’s goal was to provide a center that would allow for fandom to grow.
While all season one game’s are being played out of Blizzard’s own Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, the goal moving forward is to have home arenas for each team.
“Most e-sports clubs don’t make money. In fact, a lot of them lose money. Traditional sports teams — the only reason they make money is because they sell tickets, concessions, parking and merchandise,” Nanzer said. So the path to success for Overwatch League teams such as the Houston Outlaws and Dallas Fuel is to create a home arena and generate the traditional trappings of sports fandom, but for a competitive gaming audience, he said.
Nanzer cited the Houston Outlaws as an example of how to build a fan base. The Outlaws’ team members were on hand at SXSW Gaming with a booth where fans can interact with them. Fans can play Overwatch against other Outlaws supporters and even the team members, as well as buy merchandise.
“There are fans that want to engage e-sports and their team live, because going to an e-sport event is unlike anything else.” Nanzer said. He drew parallels to European soccer and the value of the in-person experience of going to a match.
“I didn’t understand soccer until I went to a Champion’s League game live, so as a fan I understand the skepticism about competitive gaming since seeing is believing,” he said.