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133-557: The Atlanta Reign were an American professional Overwatch esports team based in Atlanta , Georgia. The team competed in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2018 by Atlanta Esports Ventures , a joint venture between Cox Enterprises and Province, Inc., Atlanta Reign was established as one of the expansion teams for the OWL's 2019 season. They became

266-455: A " hero shooter ", Overwatch assigned players into two teams of six, with each player selecting from a large roster of characters , known as "heroes", with unique abilities. Teams worked to complete map-specific objectives within a limited period of time. Blizzard added new characters, maps, and game modes post-release, all free of charge, with the only additional cost to players being optional loot boxes to purchase cosmetic items. Overwatch

399-598: A "gift." In addition to this loot box change, China has required Blizzard to publicly disclose the exact odds of winning each tier of item within said loot box. While initially loot boxes were not seen as gambling within the United States; the US Federal Trade Commission decided in 2018 to investigate the legality of the projected soon to be 50 billion dollar industry of microtransactions. Overwatch won numerous awards in 2016, including being named Game of

532-611: A 0–3 loss to the London Spitfire . On November 10, 2023, the Reign announced that the team would be disbanded. On October 23, 2018, Atlanta Esports Ventures announced that the team Atlanta-based team would be called the Atlanta Reign. "We are excited to finally unveil the Atlanta Reign," said President and chief executive officer of Atlanta Esports Ventures Paul Hamilton, "We said from the beginning that we are building to compete. We chose

665-621: A 4–3 record, securing a spot in the Stage 1 playoffs . However, the team faced defeat in the quarterfinals against the Philadelphia Fusion . Prior to the start of Stage 2, on March 28, 2019, Dafran announced his retirement. In response, the Reign made roster adjustments, including the acquisition of Andrej "Babybay" Francisty from the San Francisco Shock. Despite struggling in Stages 2 and 3 with

798-469: A Battle.net account to play the game from February 2017 onward, which requires a difficult-to-spoof resident registration number among other unique information, which Blizzard believes would help to alleviate the problem. As to maintain a fair competitive field on consoles, Blizzard has spoken out against the use of input converters that would allow console players to use keyboard/mouse controllers, believing this gives an advantage to players that can afford

931-409: A cast of characters that's eclectic and diverse." Caty McCarthy of Kill Screen echoed similar thoughts, writing "When playing Overwatch , the player is absorbed by its radiating positivity. It's a world filled with lively color and energetic, playful competition, much like Nintendo 's creative kid-friendly ink-shooter Splatoon ." Mike Minotti of VentureBeat commending the team-based gameplay,

1064-524: A combined 5–9 record and no stage playoff appearances, the team found their stride in Stage 4 with a perfect 7–0 record after the implementation of the 2–2–2 role lock . With a 16–12 overall record, the Reign secured the sixth seed in the season playoffs . In their first playoff match, they achieved a 4–3 upset victory over the San Francisco Shock. However, they were defeated 2–4 by the New York Excelsior in

1197-425: A first-to-three map series, similar to that of the 2019 playoffs . Activision Blizzard senior director of product strategy and business operations Jon Spector noted that due to the elimination of Stage Playoffs, map differential would be less important, as it is not very likely that many teams would have the same regular season record heading into the playoffs. Every match still begins with a control map followed by

1330-422: A group that appears to be trying to start a second Omnic Crisis, and Null Sector, a group of Omnics that revolted against the society that persecuted Omnics following the first Crisis. Overwatch continued to maintain peace across the world for several decades in what came to be called the "Overwatch Generation" as the team gained more members, but the rift between Morrison and Reyes intensified. One night, Blackwatch

1463-450: A large amount of content, including art, cosplay, and anime opening-style music videos. Some Overwatch concepts have created internet memes such as "Gremlin D.Va", which focuses on the character D.Va , portrayed through Western gamer stereotypes. In some cases, Blizzard has reciprocated these fan creations back into the game, such as an emote for D.Va, based on the Gremlin meme. At

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1596-413: A masked vigilante known as " Soldier: 76 ", who is trying to uncover the reasons why Overwatch was shut down. Reyes joined Talon, leading to him being experimented on by Moira who then became " Reaper ", a terrorist with a Death -like appearance. Overwatch was developed by Blizzard Team 4 and published by Blizzard Entertainment . The game came about in the aftermath of Blizzard's decision to cancel

1729-418: A means for skilled players to reach high ranks as to be noticed by esport team organizers. Dan Szymborski writing for ESPN stated that Overwatch was poised as the next big esport for having a sufficiently different look and playstyle from established esports games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Call of Duty , enough variety in maps and characters, and strong support from Blizzard to maintain

1862-413: A motorcycle theft on the day before the game's public release. Blizzard has encouraged fans of Overwatch to make artistic content based on the game. To support this, Blizzard released the hero reference kit before release, providing official colors and costume and weapon designs for all 21 heroes present at the game's launch. Fans have used these, the game's animated media , and other assets to create

1995-442: A much better spectator system," going on to elaborate, "Right now, it's incredibly difficult for commentators and viewers to see the skills of the players: who used their ultimates and how did they interact? Who is on cooldown and who has changed hero?" Fellow esports player Seb Barton and Michael Rosen criticized the game's map designs and game modes; Barton remarked that "the game modes are a little hit and miss," adding that "King of

2128-406: A name that reflects that intention. We want to engage directly with Atlanta's passionate esports community and the city as a whole." The logo depicts a red phoenix inside a crest, with the rising phoenix representing Atlanta's city seal and new beginnings, as well as the team's name, representing "work ethic, reinvention, and excellence," especially that of the city of Atlanta. The official colors of

2261-532: A period of pre-launch attention not typically expected; Game Revolution noted that "[ Overwatch 's ] reputation has quickly permeated through cyberspace, attracting attention from people who may not traditionally put down $ 40 to $ 60 each time a new first-person shooter releases." The game's open beta , which attracted 9.7 million players, was very heavily covered by the media. Overwatch received "universal acclaim" upon release, according to review aggregator Metacritic . IGN 's Vince Ingenito praised

2394-422: A player level, and on gaining a new level, received loot boxes that contain cosmetic items that they can use to customize the appearance of the hero characters but otherwise does not affect gameplay. Loot boxes could also be purchased through microtransactions . The backstory to Overwatch is described through animated shorts and other information distributed by Blizzard in promoting the game. Overwatch

2527-606: A rotation between assault , escort , and hybrid maps. Similar to previous seasons, should a match still be tied after four maps, a fifth tiebreaker map will be played on a control map. After the announcement of hero pools in Overwatch for the competitive season starting in February 2020, the league announced that it would adopt the hero pool system beginning in the fourth week of play in March in effort to prevent stagnant metas . Each week,

2660-417: A since-cancelled graphic novel called Overwatch: First Strike , which would have focused on the story of several in-game characters, including Soldier: 76, Torbjörn, Reaper, and Reinhardt. Blizzard began releasing the series of animated shorts in March 2016; the shorts maintained the style of the game's cinematic trailer, which centered on a battle in which Tracer and Winston fought Reaper and Widowmaker in

2793-534: A targeted goal for Activision Blizzard, with Pete Vlastlica, the president and CEO of Activision Blizzard Esports Leagues, expressing their long-standing interest in Atlanta. As a result, the Atlanta Reign became the first official esports team representing the city of Atlanta. Atlanta Reign hired Brad "Sephy" Rajani, the former head coach of the San Francisco Shock , as their first head coach. In late October 2018,

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2926-797: A whole to help combat the situations. In November 2017, the Belgian Gaming Commission announced that it was investigating Overwatch alongside Star Wars Battlefront II to determine whether loot boxes constituted unlicensed gambling. Many Asian and European countries view loot boxes as a form of gambling and have since decided to make them illegal for companies to sell directly to their consumers in their games. Blizzard has chosen to work with these regions to follow their gambling laws while staying true to their microtransaction focused business model. Within China, Blizzard has allowed their players to purchase in-game currency and receive loot boxes as

3059-486: Is Blizzard's fourth major franchise and came about following the 2014 cancellation of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game , Titan . A portion of the Titan team were inspired by the success of team-based first-person shooters like Team Fortress 2 and the popularity of multiplayer online battle arena games, creating a hero-based shooter which emphasized teamwork. Some elements of Overwatch borrow concepts from

3192-455: Is believed to contribute to the growing toxicity. Kaplan said in a September 2017 update that Blizzard was very well aware of the problem, and have worked to improve their in-game player behavior reporting tools to help combat the toxicity, but because they have had to put greater effort into this, they are distracted from developing new features and content for the game. Kaplan urged the community to consider how they can improve individually and as

3325-499: Is set sixty years into the future of a fictionalized Earth, thirty years after the resolution of what is known as the "Omnic Crisis." Before the Omnic Crisis, humanity had been in a golden age of prosperity and technology development. Humans developed robots with artificial intelligence called "Omnics", which were put to use to achieve economic equality, and began to be treated as people in their own right. The Omnic Crisis began when

3458-436: Is vivacious and jubilant." A gamer with cerebral palsy publicly praised the game's customizable controls, which let him make his first snipe in a video game. One of Blizzard's artists, Roman Kenney, drew concept art based on one player's daughter's original Overwatch character design. Blizzard altered one of the game's maps to include a tribute to an avid Chinese fan of the game who died from injuries while trying to stop

3591-692: The Grand Finals , the championship event of the Overwatch League. However, the Reign fell short in the Grand Finals, losing to the Shanghai Dragons . On August 2, 2018, Atlanta Esports Ventures , a collaboration between Cox Enterprises and Province, Inc, acquired one of the expansion slots in the Overwatch League from Activision Blizzard . The purchase price was estimated to be between $ 30   million and $ 60   million. This acquisition had been

3724-456: The Grand Finals match . The play-in tournaments were two regional single-elimination tournaments that took place September 3–5. All match winners were determined by which team wins three maps. The winners of each first round match advanced to the second round. The teams that qualified for a bye into the second round each selected which opponent they would face between

3857-567: The May Melee tournament, Atlanta failed to advance to the regional knockouts after going 1–3 in the qualifiers. However, they found success in the June Joust , reaching the interregional tournament but ultimately losing in the lower bracket finals to the Shanghai Dragons . In the Summer Showdown , the Reign once again made it to the interregional tournament but were eliminated in the first round of

3990-565: The Origins Edition content as well as a statue of Soldier: 76, one of the playable characters, along with the game's soundtrack on CD and a source book. In honor of its first anniversary in 2017, Blizzard released a digital Game of the Year edition of Overwatch . It includes all content from the Origins Edition , in addition to ten free loot boxes . Blizzard had expressed interest in supporting cross-platform play between console systems in

4123-665: The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 virus a global pandemic on March 11, the Overwatch League announced that it would be cancelling all remaining scheduled live events in March and April. For the March and April matches, the league abandoned the Atlantic and Pacific conferences and instead divided teams into three groups based on geography – Atlantic, Pacific, and China – where teams would only play intra-regionally in an effort to reduce latency . Due to

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4256-423: The beta release of its sequel, Overwatch 2 , the next day. Overwatch was an online team-based game generally played as a first-person shooter . The game featured several different game modes, principally designed around squad-based combat with two opposing teams of six players each. Players selected one of over two dozen pre-made hero characters from one of three class types: Damage heroes that deal most of

4389-524: The crossover MOBA game Heroes of the Storm . Various toy and figurine manufacturers produced merchandise lines featuring Overwatch characters. These manufacturers included Funko , Good Smile Company , Nerf and its parent company Hasbro , as well as The Lego Group . Overwatch was not developed with any dedication towards esports , focusing on "building a great competitive game" first and foremost, according to Morhaime, though they recognized that

4522-456: The massively multiplayer online role-playing game Titan in 2013, a project that had been in development for about seven years. While most others assigned to the project were transferred to other departments within Blizzard, a small team of about 40 people, led by director Jeff Kaplan , were tasked to come up with a new concept for a game in a few months. After some brainstorming, they came onto

4655-447: The 2017 D.I.C.E. Summit in February 2017, Kaplan said that much of Overwatch 's narrative is now being borne out of the game's fans, adding "We love it, that it belongs to them...We're just the custodians of the universe." Kaplan recognizes that he himself is seen as an Overwatch character within the fan community, and following similar steps that Hearthstone 's lead designer Ben Brode has done, has continued to engage with

4788-422: The 2020 season, the league adopted a "homestand" model. Every team was to host two to five homestands throughout the season. Each team would still play 28 matches and would be responsible for the selection and operation of their respective home venues. In addition to homestands, every team would have been required to host at least three team events for the community in their respective home cities. The season marked

4921-871: The 2020 season, the majority of all OWL matches took place at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California. In the 2019 season, three homestand weekends took place – the Dallas Fuel Homestand Weekend hosted by the Dallas Fuel , the Atlanta Reign Homestand Weekend hosted by the Atlanta Reign , and the Kit Kat Rivalry Weekend hosted by the Los Angeles Valiant – in efforts to test how a completely localized match schedule would work. For

5054-459: The 2022 season, including Kai, Venom, Nero, Ojee, and Ultraviolet, and elected to retain Gator as their new head coach. With only Hawk and Vigilante remaining, the team made new signings to strengthen their lineup. The Reign signed experienced damage veterans Lee "Lip" Jae-won and Jeong "Stalk3r" Hak-yong to bolster their damage role. They also added rookie tank player Kim "D0NGHAK" Min-sung to the team. In

5187-491: The All-Star Weekend. The tournament would have featured the Atlantic and Pacific Conference leaders as well as the next best two teams, regardless of conference, based on the regular season standings through Week 10. In the prior seasons, the winner of each match was determined by a best-of-four map series, with a fifth tiebreaker map, if necessary. The league announced at BlizzCon that match winners would be determined by

5320-502: The Asia region, four teams qualified for the Asia Bracket. Each playoff bracket is a double-elimination tournament . However, the winners of the upper and lower finals in each respective bracket did not face each other. Instead, they qualified for the Grand Finals bracket – another double-elimination tournament. The winners of the upper and lower bracket in the Grand Finals bracket will play in

5453-660: The Chengdu Hunters in the first round but made a run in the lower bracket, defeating the Washington Justice, Los Angeles Gladiators, San Francisco Shock, and Dallas Fuel. Their playoff journey led them to the Grand Finals against the Shanghai Dragons, where they were swept, resulting in a 0–4 loss. In the offseason leading up to the 2022 season , the Atlanta Reign made significant changes to their roster. They decided to part ways with four players, including Pelican, who

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5586-705: The North America play-in tournament , they defeated the Boston Uprising , 3–1, to secure a spot in the season playoffs . Their first match in the playoffs was a 3–2 victory over the Paris Eternal . They were later defeated by the Shock, 1–3, in the following round, moving Atlanta to the lower bracket. Their playoff run came to an end on September 11 with a 0–3 loss to the Florida Mayhem , resulting in their elimination from

5719-570: The North America All-Star Game will be played on October 3. Both games will be the culmination of their respective All-Star Weekend, an event that consists of the Talent Takedown, a Widowmaker 1v1 tournament , as well as other various skills challenges. Teams in the 2020 season competed for a total prize pool of US$ 4,775,000 across midseason tournaments and playoffs. By League rules, at least 50% of these winnings are split among

5852-789: The Overwatch Museum. A collection of these cinematic sequences played in movie theaters across the United States as part of the game's launch event. The first episode of the animated short series, Recall , was released on March 23. It centers on Winston and Reaper, and features flashbacks to Winston's childhood. Blizzard published three digital comic series during Overwatch 's 2016–2022 run: Overwatch , Tracer - London Calling , and New Blood . These comics were also printed on hard cover through Dark Horse Comics . Further Overwatch literature including an art book, cook book, short stories, and novelizations were also published. Overwatch characters and elements have been brought over to

5985-517: The President of the Universal Society of Hinduism (Rajan Zed) urged Blizzard to remove two of Symmetra 's hero cosmetic items from the game since they could be seen as inappropriate and not accurate towards the beliefs and practices of Hinduism . In Hinduism, devotees put their destinies in the hands of their gods and goddesses; this is a stark contrast to how he believes they are portrayed within

6118-581: The UN to investigate the situation. During this, an explosion destroyed Overwatch's headquarters in Switzerland , purportedly killing Morrison and Reyes among others. The UN passed the Petras Act, which dismantled Overwatch and forbade any Overwatch-type activity. Overwatch is set six years after the Petras Act; without Overwatch, corporations have started to take over, fighting and terrorism have broken out in parts of

6251-423: The Year at The Game Awards , D.I.C.E. Awards , and Game Developers Choice Awards , as well as several awards and nominations highlighting its game direction and as a leading multiplayer game. Several publications, including IGN , GameSpot , Game Revolution , EGMNow , GamesTM , The Escapist , Game Informer and Eurogamer , named Overwatch the best game of 2016, receiving 102 "game of

6384-496: The Year Awards. In the years since its release, Overwatch has continued to be nominated and awarded for its strength as an esports game, as well as the ongoing content added to the title. Overwatch 's fan base has been noted to be generally kind and supportive; Daniel Starkey of Wired wrote, "where many fresh games struggle with an endless stream of player complaints and developer-prodding, Overwatch 's community

6517-451: The awards for "Best Competitive Multiplayer" and "Best Shooter". At IGN's Best of 2016 Awards, the game won the awards for "Best Shooter", "Best eSports Game", "Best Multiplayer", and "PC Game of the Year". In IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, the game won the People's Choice Award for "Best Spectator Game", while Game Informer gave it the award for "Best Shooter as Service" in their 2017 Shooter of

6650-457: The canceled Titan project. Overwatch was unveiled at the 2014 BlizzCon event and was in a closed beta from late 2015 through early 2016. An open beta before release drew in nearly 10 million players. Overwatch received universal acclaim from critics, who praised the game for its accessibility, the diverse appeal of its hero characters, its cartoonish art style, and enjoyable gameplay. Blizzard reported over US$ 1 billion in revenue during

6783-450: The characters are balanced writing, "The big question with class-based shooters like these is whether or not the characters are balanced," expressing that "some characters are naturally better, but no character is so overpowered that their mere presence spells doom for their opponents." In June 2016, Vulture 's Joshua Rivera listed Overwatch as one of the "best video games of 2016 (so far)," writing, "It's hard to separate Overwatch

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6916-410: The community and adhere to standards for portraying a character according to their personality. Kaplan later stated that the team was already unsure of the pose and was thinking of changing it. The following week, a replacement pose was released, although it was noted to be similar to the original pose. The replacement pose was alleged to be influenced by Billy DeVorss cheesecake pin-up art . The pose

7049-514: The console's controls before introducing ranked play. The version has a game case for retailers in North America and Europe but does not include a physical Game Card , featuring a download code instead. The Xbox One version of the game received an optimization patch in March 2021, adding new performance settings when played using backwards compatibility on Xbox Series X/S , allowing the game to run at up to 120 frames per second on supported monitors. Before its release, Overwatch experienced

7182-413: The console's gyroscopic controls for some actions, such as controlling Junkrat's Rip-tire, and maneuvering Wrecking Ball in his spherical form. The version is equivalent to the existing version of the game on other platforms, including all heroes, maps, and game modes, although Switch players will not be able to participate in the game's current Competition season as to give players a chance to adjust to

7315-451: The converter. Some players have criticized the ability to use these converters, as players with them often populate the top of the competitive ranking ladders. Though Blizzard has appealed to Sony and Microsoft to either prevent such converters, or to detect when such converters are used as to be able to segregate players into servers based on this, disabled players have spoken out against such action, as many need to use such converters to play

7448-511: The course of a match, as a goal of Overwatch 's design was to encourage dynamic team compositions that adapt to the situation. The game's genre has been described by some journalists as a " hero shooter ", due to its design around specific heroes and classes. The game featured game modes for casual play, competitive ranked play, and for supporting esports competitions including Blizzard's Overwatch League . These modes were generally centered around sequentially securing control of points on

7581-440: The cultures of the characters they had created and would make necessary changes if they felt there were valid concerns. Kaplan commented that many players have responded positively to these outfits and feel they fit in appropriately with the idealized version of Earth. Later game developments showed that Pharah was set out as a half-Egyptian/half-Native American character, making such outfits appropriate in hindsight. In July 2016,

7714-510: The damage to attack or defend control points, Tank heroes that can absorb a large amount of damage, and Support heroes that provide healing or other buffs for their teammates. Each hero had a unique skill kit, defining their intrinsic attributes like health points and running speed, their primary attacks, several active and passive skills, and an ultimate ability that can only be used after it has been charged through dealing damage to enemies and healing allies. Players could change their hero during

7847-589: The design of the sculptures in January 2016, teams across the world, including Droga5 , Scicon, Stratasys and Egads, raced to print, finish and assemble the works in time for the game's release. Propelled by Overwatch , Blizzard had over 50% of the American advertisement share among gaming industry brands from May 16 to June 15, 2016. Overwatch was released for PlayStation 4 , Windows , and Xbox One on May 24, 2016. Blizzard allowed retailers to sell physical copies of

7980-450: The developers were aiming to avoid sexualization of the characters, there was some criticism of the female characters of the game during its development. In February 2015, Anita Sarkeesian commented on the lack of diversity in the female heroes' body types from the game's first twelve revealed characters, while Nathan Grayson of Kotaku remarked that " Overwatch 's women are mostly super slim and clad in cat suits." In March 2015,

8113-418: The development team revealed a new character, Zarya , who is a female Russian bodybuilder with a muscular body, and pledged commitment to diversity. Following promotional images featuring the female character Tracer in March 2016, a thread on Blizzard's official forums drew attention to one of Tracer's victory poses, which was criticized by a user as out of character and oversexualized. Kaplan apologized for

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8246-743: The ever-changing meta of Overwatch 2 . While tank player Gator didn't receive extensive playtime during the season, the Reign predominantly entrusted his counterpart, Hawk, with leadership responsibilities. The Reign made it to the 2022 playoffs , but they were sent home following two consecutive losses to the Florida Mayhem. In the offseason preceding to the 2023 season , the Atlanta Reign underwent significant changes to their roster. The team announced in November 2022 that head coach Brad "Sephy" Rajani would be leaving his position and move into an analyst position. They decided to part ways with several players from

8379-426: The fan community. Pornographic fan art of the game is popular, with Pornhub searches of Overwatch characters partaking in sexual activities spiking by 817% shortly after the release of the open beta. A large amount of such pornographic fan works are created with Valve 's Source Filmmaker tool and make use of the game's assets, which were ripped from the game during its closed beta and consequently spread over

8512-525: The final two teams in the Grand Finals bracket will play in the Grand Finals match. Source: The 2020 Overwatch League All-Star Games will be the Overwatch League's third edition of an all-star game that involves the All-Star players of the league. For the first time, the All-Stars will be split into two regions – Asia and North America. The Asia All-Star Game will be played on September 26, while

8645-526: The first esports team to officially represent the city of Atlanta. The team's ownership also extended to ATL Academy , a former academy team that competed in Overwatch Contenders , the developmental league for the Overwatch League. From their debut in the 2019 season until 2023, the Reign were led by head coach Brad "Sephy" Rajani. The team reached the season playoffs in every season of their existence. Their best season came in 2021 when they advanced to

8778-402: The first time that a major esports league featured a city-based, home-and-away format. In the 2018 and 2019 seasons, the Overwatch League equally divided teams into two divisions – the Atlantic and Pacific. With the large amount of travelling that was to take place in the homestand model, the Atlantic and Pacific Divisions were renamed to the Atlantic and Pacific Conferences, and each conference

8911-427: The first year of its release and had more than 50 million players after three years. During its lifetime, Overwatch was considered to be among the greatest video games ever made , receiving numerous game of the year awards and other accolades. The game was a popular esport , with Blizzard funding and producing the global Overwatch League . On October 3, 2022, the Overwatch servers were shut down in preparation for

9044-478: The following match, relegating them to the lower bracket. The Reign's playoff run concluded with a 0–4 loss to the Hangzhou Spark in their next match. Prior to the start of the 2020 season , the Atlanta Reign made changes to their roster. They released three players and signed five new players. Among the signings were tank player Xander "Hawk" Domecq and damage player Kim "Edison" Tae-Hoon. These signings brought

9177-446: The future, though initially had no plans for Windows-supported cross-play due to the precision advantage of keyboard-mouse controls over controller-based ones. However, in June 2021, Blizzard brought cross-platform play to Overwatch across all supported platforms, with a beta test launched at the start of the month before full release by the end of June. To deal with the control differences,

9310-417: The game a day before to help players prepare for the servers' launch. Two special editions of Overwatch were released alongside the base game. The Origins Edition , available both as a downloadable and retail product, includes the base game and five additional character skins, as well as other bonus items for other Blizzard games via Battle.net. The Collectors Edition , only available as retail, includes

9443-469: The game but can still compete fairly with others, and for expert players that can utilize the various heroes to adapt to the dynamic tactics of the game. Webster went on to cite the atmosphere of Overwatch as a reason for the game's approachability, writing, "The first thing that makes Overwatch 's world appealing and approachable is, well, its world. This isn't the dour brown-and-grey shooter you might be used to. Instead, it's bright and colorful, with

9576-430: The game for a long time. Bryant Francis writing for Gamasutra noted the speed and short match times of Overwatch make the game highly favorable for viewership, further supporting the game as an esports title. Just before the game's release, PC Gamer writer Stefan Dorresteijn contacted professional esports players and hosts for their opinions. Longtime esports host Paul Chaloner stated that "[ Overwatch ] needs

9709-578: The game from Overwatch the phenomenon—and why bother, both are fascinating." The online magazine Inverse , while expressing an overall positive reception for the game, pointed out the balance of McCree (know known as Cassidy), teams composed of only one character, issues with matchmaking, and the Play of the Game as problems that should be fixed by the game's development team. Gabe Gurwin of Digital Trends , directed criticism at Blizzard, for their decision to exclude

9842-410: The game had potential as an esports game through internal testing. Kaplan stated that while esports was not a design goal, they included and planned for features for the game to support the competitive community. This included the introduction of the game's competitive mode some months after the game's launch after seeing how players took towards Overwatch ; Blizzard saw the ladder-approach they used as

9975-446: The game on consoles lacking the ability to use a normal controller. After a year from its release, journalists observed that the player community was becoming more toxic, disrupting the enjoyment of playing the game. It was believed this came from the nature of the game that requires teamwork, and when teammates see players unwilling to switch to different heroes to balance the team or otherwise play for individual gains, this would cause

10108-511: The game's characters and maps, writing " Overwatch takes just about every possible opportunity to make its cast and locales seem like people and places rather than puppets and scenery." Ingenito added that the game has a "strong online experience that gets you into games quickly and reliably." The Verge 's Andrew Webster praised Overwatch and previous titles Titanfall and Splatoon as "friendly online shooters" that have room for both new and casual players who may not desire to master

10241-773: The game's competitive mode would still remain segregated between console players and computer players, but all other game modes would allow for cross-play on any combination of platforms, after users register their account via Battle.net. The game was announced for Nintendo Switch during the September 2019 Nintendo Direct , the Switch had the Overwatch: Legendary Edition and was released in North America and Europe on October 15, 2019, and in Japan on November 29, 2019. The Switch version, developed by Iron Galaxy , includes support for

10374-560: The game's diverse character roster, and colorful settings, as well as the unlockable cosmetics earned through level progression and the smooth server connection. Referencing its similarities to Team Fortress 2 , Minotti confirmed that "[ Overwatch has] distinct classes, the team- and objective-based combat, and a bright, cartoon-like art style," and that " Overwatch certainly takes plenty of inspiration from Valve online shooter series," but opines that "[ Overwatch is] just better." Daniel Tack of The News & Observer positively received

10507-650: The game's narrative, as well as continuously tuning how the individual heroes play by monitoring meta-game statistics and user feedback. New characters and maps were added regularly to the game since launch, expanding the original hero roster from 21 in May 2016 to 32 by April 2020. Since April 2020 however, no heroes have been released, as the development team is focused on creating Overwatch 2 . Overwatch 's development had been led by Kaplan through April 2021, after which he departed Blizzard. Kaplan's duties were taken over by Aaron Keller following his departure. Overwatch

10640-539: The game, expressing that "no matter what happens – win or lose – you're going to have fun," adding that "the game's strength lies in its simplicity and polish." Tack went on to praise the game's characters, writing "Unforgettable characters are the lifeblood and driving force of Overwatch ." The Denver Post 's Hugh Johnson lauded the game for its emphasis on characters, rather than focusing on traditional first-person shooter tropes, such as weapon load-outs and incremental level upgrades. Johnson went on to insist that

10773-486: The game. Zed has in the past commented on other video game depictions of Hindu-inspired gods, such as in the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game Smite . In Overwatch 's Asia servers, there were problems with numerous players using cheats tied to the growing number of younger players using PC bangs in South Korea that allowed them to play Overwatch on an inexpensive hourly rate rather than purchasing

10906-457: The game. As these players do not need permanent accounts, they can use disposable Battle.net accounts and employ game hacks without repercussions, and if that account is banned, they can quickly make another and continue playing. Blizzard continues to block these accounts at a rate of thousands per day, but have not been able to find a more permanent solution. Subsequently, Blizzard announced that players from South Korea would be required to log into

11039-485: The globe, and there are signs of a second Omnic Crisis occurring in Russia. The intelligent gorilla Winston , a former member of Overwatch, decides to begin reforming Overwatch to protect the peace once again despite the Petras Act, with the team members recruiting old friends and gaining new allies in their fight. It is revealed that Reyes and Morrison were not killed in the explosion resulting from their battle: Morrison became

11172-399: The highest-grossing paid game for personal computers that year. In Activision-Blizzard's quarterly earnings report for Q1 2017, the company reported that Overwatch revenues had exceeded one billion dollars, the eighth such property owned by the company to do so. In June 2016, Gametrics, a South Korean internet cafe survey website, reported that Overwatch overtook League of Legends as

11305-410: The hill [Control] is super exciting and fast-paced but then you have the payload [Escort] maps, which are just a snoozefest for everyone involved." Rosen expressed a need for tweaking to the maps used for the control game mode, as they are "just too prone to the snowball effect. The moment the attacking team captures the first control point they don't just have the momentum but also the last advantage for

11438-440: The idea of a hero team-based shooter, building upon the success of games like Team Fortress 2 and multiplayer online battle arenas . They started with assets developed for Titan to demonstrate the proof-of-concept and were greenlit to build out the full game, the first new intellectual property that Blizzard had developed since StarCraft . The intra-company experience of Titan 's cancellation served to help drive

11571-534: The inequity of the number of games played by each team, the All-Star Weekend was moved to the postseason, while the Midseason Tournament was canceled altogether. On March 31, the Overwatch League announced that they were abandoning the Homestand model entirely in favor of moving matches for the remainder of the season online. On April 26, the league introduced the league announced a new tournament structure for

11704-415: The internet. Blizzard made efforts to remove the works. Kaplan stated that while the studio does not want to infringe on anyone's freedom of expression , Blizzard is mindful that many players are not adults and would hope the community would try to keep such imagery away from them. Blizzard opted to tell the story of Overwatch across various mediums, rather than include a story mode; Chu stated, "One of

11837-508: The introduction of competitive mode that the whole of the Overwatch community has become more toxic, and they are continually adapting elements behind the scenes to help deal with aggressive players more responsibly, while trying to promote more enjoyable matches. A week from its launch, Blizzard reported over seven million Overwatch players with a total accumulated playtime of 119 million hours; Blizzard reported more than 10 million players by mid-June and has reported continued increases in

11970-470: The league announced its playoff format for the season. All 20 teams played in the postseason, with teams divided by the same two regions as the three midseason tournaments. The lowest seeds played in regional play-in tournaments. Twelve total teams qualified for the season playoffs split into two regional brackets. In the North America region, eight teams qualified for the North America Bracket, and in

12103-422: The league randomly selects one tank, two damage, and one support hero from a list of the most played heroes in the OWL from the previous two weeks of play; these heroes are then considered "banned" and cannot be selected during that week. Banned heroes cannot be banned in the immediately-following week. The hero pool system is only used in the regular season, and will not be enforced during the midseason tournament,

12236-478: The league, as part of a deal covering all Activision Blizzard esports events. The company also announced a deal to make Google Cloud Platform the preferred infrastructure provider for its game servers. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , Blizzard cancelled all four homestand events planned in China in February and March 2020. Four of the teams in the league are based in China, where travel restrictions and quarantines from

12369-577: The lower bracket by the Dallas Fuel . They also qualified for the Countdown Cup tournament but faced challenges with Pelican's health and were eventually eliminated by the Chengdu Hunters . Finishing the regular season with an 11– record, the Reign secured the fifth seed in the season playoffs . At the end of the regular season, Pelican received the Rookie of the Year award. In the playoffs, Atlanta fell to

12502-437: The map, or escorting a payload between points on the map, with one team attacking while the other defends. Other modes set aside for casual matches include solo and team deathmatch, capture-the-flag, and unique modes run during various seasonal events . More recent updates had enabled users to craft their own game modes with a limited set of scripting tools. Regardless of winning or losing a match, players gained experience towards

12635-530: The month of May called the May Melee. The league divided the 20 teams into two geographical regions, 13 in North America and 7 in Asia, where teams would only play interregionally. After three weeks of play, the top teams from each region played in their respective regional tournament. Teams earned $ 5000 for each win in the tournaments (with receiving a bye counting as a win) and earned a bonus win towards their regular season standings for each win after, and including,

12768-539: The most popular game played across 4,000 of South Korea's PC bangs at the time. In 2018, Overwatch raised over $ 12.7 million for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation , which they generated from selling a special pink-colored Mercy skin where all proceeds went towards it. By July 2019, total in-game spending in Overwatch exceeded one billion dollars as estimated by SuperData, the sixth Activision-Blizzard product line to reach this metric. While

12901-510: The narrative and setting. They created an optimistic vision of the near-future, some decades following the Omnic Crisis and the formation and collapse of the peacekeeping Overwatch group. This allowed them to create a diverse cast of characters, including non-human ones, and colorful settings from around the globe. The Overwatch team continues to support the game through free updates, the introduction of new characters, maps, game modes, cosmetic items, seasonal events , and external media to support

13034-562: The outbreak were enacted; the restrictions affected teams that were traveling to China to play matches there. Two of the Chinese teams, Guangzhou Charge and Shanghai Dragons, announced the relocation of their teams to South Korea, while the Chengdu Hunters remained in China. The cancelled matches were originally planned to be rescheduled in Seoul, South Korea during two weekends in March, with some matches being played during Seoul Dynasty's homestand event

13167-423: The play-in tournament, and the playoffs. The total prize pool remained unchanged at US$ 5,000,000, although the allocation changed due to the discontinuation of Stage Playoffs. The Midseason Tournament champions will win $ 500,000, the runners-up will win $ 250,000, and the third and fourth place teams will earn $ 150,000. The All-Star event will have a prize pool for the first time, with a total pool of $ 250,000. For

13300-507: The player base, with 60 million players as of April 2021 whilst possibly counting temporary free accounts. The NPD Group, a video game industry tracking firm, reported that Overwatch was the third best-selling retail video game (nb. discounting digital sales through Battle.net) in the US in May 2016 on the month of its release, and was the top-selling game in June 2016; the NPD Group later reported it

13433-527: The playoffs, dropping only one map, and emerged as the champions by defeating Gladiators Legion in the finals, securing their first Contenders regional title. Their victory in Season 2 qualified them as the top seed in The Gauntlet, an interregional Contenders tournament. ATL Academy reached the grand finals after a strong performance in the lower bracket. However, they fell short against Element Mystic, finishing as

13566-400: The playoffs. After a season filled with player substitutions, the Atlanta Reign made significant changes to their roster. They decided to drop a majority of their players, retaining only Edison, Gator, Hawk, Masaa, and Ir1s. The team then signed two new damage players: rookie prospect Oh "Pelican" Se-hyun and hitscan veteran Kai "Kai" Collins. In the first tournament cycle of the 2021 season ,

13699-431: The pose, stating "The last thing we want to do is make someone feel uncomfortable, under-appreciated or misrepresented," and confirmed that Blizzard planned to replace the pose. Kaplan's response drew mixed reactions from the gaming community, with many claiming Blizzard had forgone its creative control over the game and censored its content to placate one offended user, while others praised Blizzard's willingness to listen to

13832-467: The postseason earnings, the Grand Champion team will earn $ 1.5 million (up from $ 1.1 million), second place will earn $ 800,000 (up from $ 600,000), third place will earn $ 500,000 (up from $ 450,000), fourth place will earn $ 300,000 (down from $ 350,000), fifth and sixth place will earn $ 200,000 (down from $ 300,000), and seventh and eighth place will earn $ 100,000 (down from $ 200,000). Prior to the start of

13965-530: The quarterfinals. There were no hero pools for the tournaments, and winners were determined by which team won three maps, except for the finals, which were determined by which team won four maps. Following the conclusion of the May Melee, the league announced two more tournaments with the same ruleset for the months of June and July – the Summer Showdown and the Countdown Cup, respectively. On July 15,

14098-497: The regional finals in both Season 3 of 2018 and Season 1 of 2019, although they couldn't secure victory in those matches. The team also qualified for the Atlantic Showdown, where they finished fourth in the tournament. In Season 2 of 2019, ATL Academy achieved a perfect 7–0 win-loss record and a flawless 28–0 map record in the regular season, earning them the top seed in the regional playoffs. ATL Academy went on to sweep through

14231-430: The robotic uprising and brought many talented individuals to the forefront, a rift developed between Reyes and Morrison due to Reyes being the official leader of the group despite everyone viewing the more popular Morrison as their true leader. Eventually, Morrison was made the leader of Overwatch while Reyes was given charge of Blackwatch, Overwatch's covert operations division, fighting terrorist organizations like Talon,

14364-608: The runners-up in the tournament. In March 2020, ATL Academy announced their withdrawal from Overwatch Contenders and went on an indefinite hiatus. Overwatch (video game)#Esports Overwatch (retroactively referred to as Overwatch 1 ) was a 2016 team-based online multiplayer first-person shooter video game by Blizzard Entertainment . The game was first released for PlayStation 4 , Windows , and Xbox One in May 2016 and Nintendo Switch in October 2019, with cross-platform play supported across all platforms. Described as

14497-529: The same month. However, Blizzard later cancelled all South Korean events in March 2020, including the Dynasty homestand, over concerns of the outbreak. In March, French Health Minister Olivier Véran announced that all public gatherings of more than 1,000 people were banned in the country until April 15; the ban effectively cancelled the Paris Eternal homestand event that was scheduled to be held April 11–12. After

14630-490: The season, several of the shoutcasters for the League, including Malik Forté, Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat, Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles , Erik "DoA" Lonnquist , and Chris Puckett, left for various reasons ranging from dissatisfaction with their salaries to concerns over the new management of the league following Nate Nanzer's departure as league commissioner in 2019. YouTube has replaced Twitch as exclusive broadcaster of

14763-402: The second and final capture point." The first organized, prize-winning competitions for Overwatch started in mid-2016, a few months after launch. In November 2016, Blizzard hosted their own Overwatch World Cup , allowing users to vote for teams to represent their nation or region, with finals taking place during their BlizzCon event. Overwatch grew increasingly in South Korea since it

14896-528: The story from the game, which left players "with a great game, a great story, and no way to reconcile the two." Shortly after the game's competitive play mode was released, Kotaku 's Nathan Grayson stated that " Overwatch 's competitive mode [is not] all that bad, for how new and unpolished it is," but opined that "high-stakes competition and toxicity tend to go hand-in-hand, and Overwatch 's competitive mode already has an ugly toxic stain." Grayson concluded his piece with " Overwatch is, most of

15029-572: The support role, Atlanta secured the services of Han "ChiYo" Hyeon-seok and Kwon "Fielder" Joon from the Dallas Fuel. On June 18, the Reign won the Midseason Madness tournament, after defeating the Houston Outlaws by a score of 4–1 in the finals. Despite earning first seed, the Reign were the first team to exit the 2023 playoffs , suffering a 2–3 reverse sweep by the Hangzhou Spark , as well as

15162-403: The team announced their complete roster consisting of eight players. None of the players had previously competed in the Overwatch League; instead, the team sought talent from various Overwatch Contenders scenes. The roster included Jeong "Erster" Jun as the damage player, Blake "Gator" Scott and Park "Pokpo" Hyeon-jun as tank players, and Petja "Masaa" Kantanen as the support player. Additionally,

15295-507: The team are red, light gray, and charcoal gray. Rookie of the Year All-Star Game selections In November 2018, the Atlanta Reign announced that unsponsored Overwatch Contenders team Last Night's Leftovers would be competing as Atlanta's academy team . The team rebranded to ATL Academy and began play as an affiliate team in the North America region of Contenders in Season 3 of 2018. The team consistently performed well, reaching

15428-399: The team signed Dusttin "Dogman" Bowerman as a free agent to bolster their support lineup. The team later signed controversial streamer Daniel "Dafran" Francesca to their roster. The Atlanta Reign's first regular season match in the Overwatch League resulted in a decisive 4–0 victory over the Florida Mayhem on February 15, 2019. This initial success helped propel them to finish Stage 1 with

15561-448: The team with a stable and consistent backline throughout the year. Additionally, Venom and Speedily, who had showcased strong performances in the Path to Pro scene, made significant contributions in the frontline. A prominent figure in the Atlanta Reign's 2022 season was Nero, one of the Overwatch League's most veteran players. Nero's inclusion in the team's regular rotation was often dictated by

15694-515: The teammates to become angry and lash out at the player, become griefers and throw the match, or other harmful behavior that would spread over time, particularly in the game's competitive mode. Players are able to report malicious users with in-game tools, and Blizzard can ban players for egregious actions, but they do not attempt to segregate out bad actors from the larger pool (a method used by other developers in multiplayer games), instead keeping an inclusive community for all non-banned players, which

15827-481: The things that's really great is we're able to leverage the strengths of these different mediums to tell different parts of the story," citing Soldier: 76's appearances in fake news reports, an animated video narrated from his perspective, as well as the Hero short. In March 2016, Blizzard announced that they would be releasing comics and animated shorts based on Overwatch in 2016. The related media included plans for

15960-407: The time, a feel-good team game. Introducing high-stakes competition with a muddled message about the importance of individual skill drags the game into confused, oftentimes negative territory. If Blizzard wants this thing to work, they're gonna have to figure out a competitive framework that's true to Overwatch 's spirit, rather than just the spirit of competition." Kaplan acknowledged that with

16093-417: The total number of players on the roster to twelve. Throughout the season, the team achieved mixed results. They advanced past the knockouts in all three midseason tournament cycles but fell in the quarterfinals each time. In July, the Reign experienced the retirement of Babybay and the signing of support player Kim "Ir1s" Seung-Hyun. They finished the regular season in 12th place with a 10–11 record. However, in

16226-434: The week before release, Blizzard arranged to have three giant-sized boxes (approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) tall) of various Overwatch heroes, as if being sold as packaged action figures, put on display across the globe at Hollywood, Paris, and Busan, South Korea . The displays were created by Alliance Studios, led by Steve Wang , who has collaborated with Blizzard before on past projects, and Eddie Yang. After planning

16359-487: The winners of the first round (or the Toronto Defiant or Seoul Dynasty in the North America and Asia region, respectively). The winners of the second round advanced to the playoffs. The playoffs will be contested by twelve teams – eight from the North America region and four from the Asia region. The top two teams from each region's respective playoff bracket will qualify for the Grand Finals bracket, where

16492-672: The worldwide automated "omnium" facilities that produced them started producing a series of lethal, hostile robots that attacked humankind . After individual nations' efforts failed to ward off the Omnics, the United Nations quickly formed Overwatch, an international task force designed to combat this threat and restore order. Two veteran soldiers from the Soldier Enhancement Program were put in charge of Overwatch: Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison. Though Overwatch successfully quelled

16625-457: The year" awards across critics and reader polls. Giant Bomb gave it the awards for "Best Debut" and "Best Multiplayer", and put it in third place for "Game of the Year". Polygon and Slant Magazine also put the game in third place for "Game of the Year", while PC Gamer gave it the award for "Best Multiplayer". Besides "Game of the Year", The Escapist gave it the awards for "Best Shooter and Multiplayer". Game Informer gave it

16758-441: Was dispatched to arrest a notorious mobster with ties to Talon. After infiltrating the compound, Reyes chose to execute the mobster rather than let him buy his way out of prison. This action caused Blackwatch and their less heroic actions to be exposed to the public. Several allegations of wrongdoing and failures were leveled at Overwatch, leading to a public outcry against the organization and in-fighting between its members, prompting

16891-511: Was equally subdivided into two divisions, the Pacific East and West Divisions and the Atlantic North and South Divisions. The smaller divisions were implemented in efforts to reduce the amount of time and money spent on travel. With the large amount of localized play and travel, the season was no longer split into four stages. Instead, a midseason tournament was to be held at the same time as

17024-769: Was formally announced at the BlizzCon event on November 7, 2014; the game was playable during the event to all attendees, with fourteen characters available to select from. During this event, Blizzard released a cinematic trailer and an extended gameplay video for the game. A month after the BlizzCon event, in December 2014, Blizzard published character introduction videos to its YouTube channel and followed up on this May 2015 by posting weekly videos of game footage and character highlights. A closed beta period for Overwatch across all three platforms began on October 27, 2015. The closed beta

17157-459: Was put on "extended break" in December and brought back in February 2016. Following the March 2016 release announcement, Blizzard announced an open beta period from May 5 to 9 for any registered user of the Battle.net client. The open beta proved popular with Blizzard reporting over 9.7 million players participating, and as a way of showing thanks, extended the open beta period by one extra day. In

17290-553: Was released. It topped gaming cafes in Korea in terms of player count, surpassing that of League of Legends . 2020 Overwatch League season#Play-in tournaments An expanded 20-team postseason began on September 3. The Grand Finals bracket began on October 8, with the Grand Finals occurring on October 10. The San Francisco Shock won the Grand Finals over the Seoul Dynasty to win their second straight OWL championship. Prior to

17423-410: Was replaced during the game's beta period. Following the game's release, some of the alternative outfits for characters had come under criticism for using cultural stereotypes, such as a Native American headdress option for the character of Pharah , who seemed to be primarily of Egyptian origin. Kaplan noted that they had considered if these outfits were appropriate, and believed they were respecting

17556-418: Was the 7th highest selling game by revenue (excluding Battle.net sales) in the United States for all of 2016. With digital sales, Overwatch was the fastest-selling game during its release month. SuperData Research estimated that Overwatch brought in more than $ 269 million in revenues from digital sales worldwide in May, and over $ 565 million in sales on personal computers along by the end of 2016, making it

17689-522: Was transferred to the Houston Outlaws . They retained Gator, Hawk, and Kai, and also added rookies Lee "Venom" Dong-keun, Christian "Ojee" Han, and Benjamin "UltraViolet" David to the team. In addition, they signed damage veteran Charlie "nero" Zwarg. The Atlanta Reign's 2022 season saw the team rely on rookie talent to strengthen their roster, resulting in a relatively successful campaign. Notably, Overwatch Contenders standouts Ojee and UltraViolet provided

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