sad times in my esports Twitter TL today because of the Activision layoffs

bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

tagging #OverwatchLeague since it affects OWL (and also Call of Duty League)

Willow, a now ex-OWL observer I follow got laid off

why, you still need observers for a online-only league

I think I need to write down my thoughts about how the top-heavy model of esports like what Activision is doing is not sustainable long term and is essentially a bubble formed by investor hype to get into a market they think is gonna be real hot Soon (tm)

have been thinking about this ever since the OW tier 2 scene has been slowly falling apart at the edges because Blizz won't invest more resources into it

by top-heavy I mean Blizzard controls tier 1 and tier 2 levels with a iron fist

and the investor money comes in the form of expensive franchise slot buy-ins

high in glitz, glamour and money at the top level, not so much at the tier 2

there is a reason, people in the OW scene often joke about "Path to Poverty" as a play on Blizzard's "Path to Pro"

the OW pro scene can't flourish long term if the tier 2 scene is choked of air like this

@packetcat I love how all the balancing updates were to make characters play better in esports while overal making the game worse for casual players

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@packetcat oh, Tier 2 is still esports

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