Heroes Come Together: The Fans of the Overwatch League
By: Bryce L. Jackson
The inaugural season of Overwatch League has been a great, eye opening experience for me as the first esport I've followed religiously. The action has been great and I've learned plenty of things that I try to implement in my games, but one of the best parts of this season has been watching fans during the casts and interacting with some of them on (mostly) Twitter.
Support for the Dragons never wavered even after going 0-40 in the inaugural season of Overwatch League
Overwatch League fans are just as passionate and knowledgable as fans of traditional sports, however they don't draw hard fan lines with who they choose to support (i.e Lakers fans mingling with Celtics fans). The whole league rallied around the Shanghai Dragons in their quest for a single win this season. Even as they were unable to achieve that goal, you saw fans that were wearing Fusion T-shirts, the ones that were just screaming "Shields Up" and hoisting "Fleta is the Meta" signs cheering their hearts out and giving all of their energy to this team of talented players that just couldn't put it all together for that 3rd map win.
Hydration-Man doing Hydration-Man things.
From the start, this league was destined to be wacky just like the game (We're about to add a sentient hamster in ball with turrets on the sides to the tank line. I get to call it that). With silly team entrances, the fans followed suit and upped the ante on their fandom. We had Valla with a cool cosplay for the Valiant and becoming almost an official mascot for the team, Hydration-Man keeping the plastic bottles out of the sea by strapping them to his head and body, Tyler who lets his presence be known throughout Blizzard Arena whenever he can get out of San Francisco, Briggsy who does not hide a single emotion during matches (I've adopted her as my OWL spirit animal because I would almost certainly be the same way), Seagull-Man, who terrifies the casters, and many more I can't list out for interest of time. And of course, there were the signs in all their hilarity and glory. The fans have been the lifeblood of each night of Twitch streams whether at Blizzard Arena or on Twitter.
Awesome fan cosplays have been a season staple, even leading Valla (right) to earn an Ambassador-type role with the LA Valiant.
via Overwatch League Instagram
Interacting with fans online has been an interesting experience. From the few I've interacted with, I've learned things like how the Korean gaming culture operates thanks to who I only know as @gatamchun on Twitter, who painstakingly translates Korean script from the Twitter pages of players and personalities to English and vice versa. Her content has been an eye opening experience into Korean gaming culture and who I believe are the best in the world at esports, regardless of what game they play. I've also become more aware of the lower divisions of pro-Overwatch and the regions they exist in, fully supporting the Overwatch Contenders NA team, Mayhem Academy, who is affiliated with my team, the Florida Mayhem. With 6 regions, it'll be difficult for me personally to try and pay attention to players from all 6 regions, but it's more opportunities to watch pro-Overwatch during the offseason Also, how can I not root for a team named "Last Night's Leftovers"?
It's never all sunshine and roses and this community has had its rifts as the season unfolded. There has been waves of disgusting and disheartening incidents throughout the season that has sparked debates and arguments. At the forefront of these incidents, it has been the women and those that identify as LGBT+ leading the charge to educate and make the community kinder while passionately and respectfully debating and educating individuals that "don't see the big deal" regarding a particular league controversy and advocating for services for players like mental health services and a players union. Make no mistake, the women of Overwatch has been by far the cornerstone and the moral compass of this league's fandom.
At the beginning of the season, I expected to be apart of the Overwatch League discussions on twitter. Never did I expect to see cross-country interpersonal relationships grow right before my eyes or be witness to valuable learning moments. I expected to interact and argue just like I do in other sports social media threads but the #OWL2018 thread is like no other. Reflecting on the season, there were not many arguments between fans of opposing teams nor inner hatred of a rival team, just common wonder at what the pros can pull off in a game we all play and mutual frustrations from constant C9s. This community of diehard, mostly positive Overwatch League fans may be small compared to the larger community that plays the game and nothing more, it is still one of the greatest fan communities I have ever witnessed and I'm glad to be apart of.