Sideshow Josh Wilkinson
Country: United Kingdom
Registered: November 1, 2015
Last post: December 23, 2017 at 6:19 AM
Posts: 463
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Joonas, Joona, Jonas, Jiri, Jani, and (ben)Jamin

please cut davin for the name meta

posted about 7 years ago

If this is 2-2 Rogue should throw in the towel and rebuild with a more balanced roster. I don't think they'll lose to anyone other than Immortals/EnVyUs though, barring some crazy shuffles from Kungarna or something.

posted about 7 years ago

Top 10 in the West perhaps

posted about 7 years ago

Yes, I confirmed with Alicus after writing that Linepro was not included in the move to C9.

posted about 7 years ago

Mistakes is one of the hottest free agents imo. The dude's sick, I wouldn't be surprised to see him on an OWL roster.

posted about 7 years ago

Really that points at Zebbo, Nevix, or Manneten and since only one of those is a leader figure afaik it does seem to point at Zebbosai.

posted about 7 years ago

what a disappointing name change

posted about 7 years ago

Presumably NRG will broaden their coaching staff underneath Brad for OWL, hopefully they build a decent roster.

posted about 7 years ago

Top Chinese teams have a smattering of women, one in APEX, definitely seems to be more women near the top in ow than most esports.

posted about 7 years ago

xd please no master

posted about 7 years ago

Good read kophee, well written account of the struggles of players right now.

Cultivating the level below OWL, including a very healthy off-season with international tournaments (like OWO, ESLAS, DHW, APAC, etc) is hugely important. It's how most of the scene will compete and it's where the stars will develop. They must have enough competition to justify orgs coming in, allowing players to grind.

Contenders + standalone off-season tournaments should do this. Had to do this.

posted about 7 years ago

http://i.imgur.com/EqKsTdm.jpg

My setup atm

posted about 7 years ago

Yeah I mean APEX S4 is a different beast imo because the Western viewers will not be as interested overall - though many will still be I think, especially for playoffs.

But the comparison between 2 and 3 is very valid and the comparison of Korean/Chinese viewers throughout is also valid through to S4 and beyond.

posted about 7 years ago

Undeniable dip for APEX Season 3, seems legit. Will have to see if it continues, very worrying if it does.

posted about 7 years ago

This one utterly ran away from me, I have written over 15k words on the team. It took me two weeks to get a grasp on it, interview them, write that up, collect the timeline properly, and write it into coherent English. The end product is complete but not as humanizing as I'd like, but it is my first time tackling an in-depth historical piece. Concision is a fine art and I'm awful at it.

I will do it for other teams but unlikely to be in this detail as I feel it's unnecessary (also long af to write) and actually detracts from the overarching story of the team in some ways. It's an experiment. Learning experience for all!

posted about 7 years ago

That's so weird. Both in the UK too.

posted about 7 years ago

This doesn't mean that OWL is somehow granting them the power to void their current contracts. The phrase "legally able to join" applies to the limitations of current contracts as much as their age etc.

posted about 7 years ago

+1

posted about 7 years ago

dafran is Overwatch's mini Apdo

posted about 7 years ago

Upgrades!

posted about 7 years ago

If you have never been in a situation where you feel trapped by your own inability to stand up for yourself then good! For a lot of people though, the conveyor belt of life can drag you into situations that you're not prepared or able to deal with.

Quitting or having adult conversations about life aspirations / tough circumstances / whatever requires confidence to pull off and the right frame of mind. It's very easy to get sucked into a situation by just going along with stuff and then realising you're in pretty deep and never wanted to be there.

A very common response at that point is to self-sabotage and have external forces remove you, rather than face the situation yourself.

This seems like a classic case of self-sabotage rather than "haHAA I was only pretending to be retarded" to me. Hope he's happy and I actually hope he returns at some point because that kid has skills.

posted about 7 years ago

Hoon was always given massive resources by his team though so I think that's an unfair comparison, though he's obviously sick. They built the whole team around him.

There are lots of good zaryas though, or at least used to be. Kryw and poko were both very good too. Miro played some v good games on it.

Back then people would spam constantly as well and feed charge, plus the bubbles have been nerfed. Hard to tell between then and now but Zunba was just consistently good at getting charge/damage/blocks with his timing, aim, and positioning.

posted about 7 years ago

League is the most popular game in China and there's tons of people playing video games. Yeah I think it's very reasonable to say just under 5% play League - bearing in mind this is based on account numbers rather than raw people. Data pulled from active accounts shows that (if every account was owned by 1 person) over 11% of the Korean population plays League, so clearly it's within the range of possible numbers depending on how avidly China has taken up playing the game. Some of these will be smurfs etc so reduce it by a chunk, but I do not think it's ridiculous to claim that if the game is popular in China it will be played by a metric FUCKTON of people.

posted about 7 years ago

I don't agree with your numbers at all. Almost every source I can find when discussing the argument in LoL puts China at MASSIVELY the #1 playerbase in the world, at somewhere around 70-90% of the overall playerbase. Estimates either from Riot or from server data puts them at like 80-100 million players out of the global 110 mil estimated. Unless I'm too unfamiliar with LoL to tell I'm being hoodwinked, that seems pretty clear.

That's like 5% of china's population btw. You're way overestimating how many people in Europe/US are into Overwatch - 99% of people with internet connections have no interest.

Access to internet is not the biggest factor, it's being a player of Overwatch. Overwatch player numbers correlate way way way closer with viewing figures than internet access - random people who don't own the game are an insignificant proportion of viewers (unless on TBS or Aus television I suppose).

posted about 7 years ago

As far as I'm aware it's not been proven that Chinese sites have a set proportion of viewbots, it's just that most people don't believe there are really that many people watching. Keep in mind that there are millions and millions of players in China, it's a huge region in itself with a massive potential viewerbase that probably eclipses EU and NA in terms of players. Viewership figures for other esports (like LoL) use them at face value when creating their metrics afaik. You can't simply remove the viewing figures for one of your key regions and still compare like to like. Overwatch is building to capture a huge chunk of the Asian audience, which includes the millions of players in China, so they should be included.

posted about 7 years ago

Chinese scene is definitely catching up but remember the reason it was so impressive before that KR was slamming these cups: they're on Chinese servers. Korean teams are playing at a ping disadvantage compared to all of the cn teams in Shanghai. We'll have to wait for APAC to see a true test for CN, or you can extrapolate from their world cup performances against people I guess but it's not a set team.

posted about 7 years ago

Muma shotcalls I think, mouz used to for cyclones afaik, probably tons more that we're not aware of since the winston meta. Calling engages with your tank is p viable.

posted about 7 years ago

I think Aus and Taiwan are both favourites for their group, Taiwan very much so whereas Sweden may be able to bring it to Aus.

I'm still going with Rogue overall for the win though, I think unless there's a big meta change away from dive the constant practice will overcome the Korean side.

posted about 7 years ago

Because it's a top20 world team against a tier 4/5 EU mix

posted about 7 years ago

Should be much closer imo, Uncia were in a swamp of awful play during groups and they aren't now. I think AFB should win but this is a new look for Uncia, trying to get back into being a solid tier 2 team in Korea.

posted about 7 years ago

Zappis is playing D.Va for RiP as far as I know, so I imagine it'll be similar here. Only difference to RiP is that Davin plays Tracer while Taimou normally plays S76. Pretty big difference though! Maybe they go triple dps the whole time with zappis on tracer or run more rein comps.

posted about 7 years ago

I really liked making this one because it's such a clear demonstration of good macro play and ult economy. Would recommend.

Rewind! Ultimate economy perfection from Immortals

posted about 7 years ago

I definitely appreciate the love for flash wolves and the only reason they're not in is the lack of a channel of communication between them and every other scene in Overwatch. That's the only reason. Its impossible to tell where they rank because OPC is so isolated from the rest of ow. Otherwise by form they'd be in around 9 or 10. As for Liquid, you should try collecting their results over the last 3 months. They have losses across a range of teams like TO, Gale Force, CLG, etc.without the wins that ARC6 have.

posted about 7 years ago

VoHiYo

posted about 7 years ago

One each day for the next week or so.

Here's: Immortals baits ult with a disengage

posted about 7 years ago

Not as far as I'm aware. I've heard of Movistar Riders players trialling for a number of teams, heard of a couple Selfless players trialling. Seems unlikely but maybe a few of them might stick together?

posted about 7 years ago

I'm pretty sure a lot of that is that other Tracers have stepped up massively since November/December 2016. He had very little competition back then - even at the beginning of 2017 - but there are others who have reached and surpassed him by now for sure. I'm not sure his personal level has gone down significantly. Others have become used to playing around Tracers and have strong ones of their own to check him / outperform him.

posted about 7 years ago

I put zero stock in the showmatch to give any indication of how strong this roster is, and the team certainly doesn't scream "talent" to me, but given how successfully L-H #1 were able to keep up their skill and adapt, perhaps the org can do the same here. More interested in whether L-H #1 takes that Seoul spot and is transferred off elsewhere. There's no way L-H just made this roster to sit about. They don't have a spot for it in APEX unless L-H #1 disappears.

posted about 7 years ago

When you consider the combined might of all of the marketing arms of these ridiculously large companies or people involved, it'd be a travesty if the publicity was an issue. I think that will convert into viewership if the teams are good enough and they should be.

It seems likely that Seoul will use L-H, with their sister team replacing the current roster in APEX, Shanghai will field a relatively competitive Chinese team, Immortals have a solid base to work from with a genuinely strong team, and NRG and Misfits both have time to replace people as necessary to form a top team worthy of being in there. The two newcomers in Kraft and Wilpon will have the resources to either buy Rogue/EnVyUs (or possibly another Korean team but seems unlikely), or form their own idea of a superteam from Korean/Western pieces. That's before any other owners sign up as well with their opportunities to bring in good teams.

Anybody who fields a shit team to OWL will get roasted. Even though the level of competition is unlikely to match that of APEX in the past three seasons, where the best region played the best few foreign teams, it's gonna be global, competitive, and well publicised. It's also not gonna have any other more competitive league in the world other than APEX, which has stopped taking foreign teams so loses that charm.

Why would viewers not watch? It'll be promoted through in-game items, client announcements, social media everywhere, hopefully in the game itself (though not announced at all yet). I feel more confident now than I did before this announcement. Not saying they'll get hundreds of thousands for every match but APEX finals got something like 150k last season and this will be pushed harder with teams more people in the West care about.

As for your questions to locality robokun, your issues actually make no sense! The games are all happening in LA for the first season, so there's no problem with lack of attendance at local venues. When those are implemented, it will be Overwatch fans/players turning up to watch, same as any other esport - they are just ALSO likely to capture some small chunk of the local wider esports or gaming fanbase.

Would people in LA turn out to see Immortals despite their three Korean players? Fuck yeah of course they would! People aren't put off by watching others of different nationalities, and if they were then American CS:GO major tournaments (with majority European/Brazilian teams and players making finals) would flop in attendance. They're fans of the game, the competition, even the teams and players without that local connection. The locality of it only adds something to those who would otherwise be uninterested. To a 'hardcore' fan it doesn't add much but it crucially takes nothing away.

posted about 7 years ago

It's a secret algorithm of post quantity, upfrags, and ancient voodoo magic.

posted about 7 years ago

https://clips.twitch.tv/SpoopyInquisitiveJaguarFreakinStinkin

This clip made me love xQc, he's a straight baller. Idk why people in Overwatch get their panties in a twist over people who aren't bland, polite personalities. Give me some rivalry, banter, and passion any day.

posted about 7 years ago

Pretty interesting that a Korean former pro would coach an Israeli team that's sitting just under the level of top tournaments. Strange situation but I think x4ckers have potential, KAFEE and eqo are legit.

posted about 7 years ago

Watching their games in BEAT, the support duo looks really good. Gingerpop looks to be a strong Lucio, transitioned well, aggressively defensive with good mechanics. Custa has slotted into the Zen role admirably, easily fitting back in. They look to be the next team to contest the big guns in NA.

posted about 7 years ago

IMT and NRG are the biggest names only in the sense that they have the biggest cash. They're lower than Dignitas and Fnatic in terms of brand, experience, fanbase, history in esports, etc. afaik. Especially for NRG, Immortals have done a much better job but still have a very VC approach.

You seem to be defining tier 1 and 2 teams literally based on whether they've been dropped or not, in some form of circular reasoning, and your assessment of Movistar's "plummet" is quite ridiculous. Name another esport where teams are dropped after a "poor" performance in two tournaments after previously being one of the best in Europe (and even in their poor performances came top 4 at the biggest lan in six months and then lost to the eventual winner in contenders season zero and qualified for season one). It happens in esports where only the very pinnacle is sustainable. That's not a good thing.

Faith is fine but you have to be reasonable with where and why you throw blind optimism around. I agree with you that those orgs could drop but that doesn't mean it's "fine" or OW is still looking super strong without them. They are top teams! They could be winning NA tournaments. If orgs think they can't get value out of that in the knowledge that Contenders is a long-term system, with a view to the offseason and OWL potentially boosting viewership overall then things are getting a bit dicey.

posted about 7 years ago

didn't actually mean to release that today but oh well

posted about 7 years ago

Another three queued up for today, there is no stopping this train. Trying to break them down into 10-20min videos as well because anything longer is a bit boring to watch imo.

Here's the first today, looking at EnVyUs' Widowmaker composition on Oasis City Center.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV3j3fLv9eU

posted about 7 years ago

It was a close match, they played really well in the first two maps and could have taken those. Especially Oasis I thought they had in the bag watching it, two minor mistakes on City Center. Hanamura they got wrecked by KDP aggression, they were way more coordinated, and I feel like they'd lost the faith by the time Route 66 came around.

It's set up for an amazing final though with a super aggressive KDP against a defensive stonewall L-H.

posted about 7 years ago

I've started producing a lot of video content because it's great for breaking down plays / analysis with examples in a way that writing can't quite reproduce. Along with my talking head series discussing whatever comes to mind, I have videos recapping games or moments to provide analysis called "Rewind!".

I'll post a new vid on here whenever I publish a new one, or feel free to subscribe to the channel.

Sideshow on:

Series talking about shit, most recent one is breaking down the playstyle of AF.Blue. Before that it was Selfless adding Carpe and Midnight, predictions for Contenders, freecam thoughts, etc.

Rewind!

This is where I'm putting my analysis without it being limited in size. Some are tiny moments in the game that are important but weren't noticed by the casters or viewers, some is just breaking it down on a deeper level because I'm doing it via VOD. It's basically "what would be possible with an analysis desk and replays?" and running with that.

Most recent video is on eUnited vs Laser Kittenz looking at some of their play on Anubis and Oasis University using Sombra.

Next video will be a longer breakdown of the whole VOD of AF.Blue vs Lunatic-Hai on Nepal, going really in-depth.

Salty Tiers rankings

This is my personal addition to the World Rankings articles we put up on over.gg - breaking each major region into rough tiers based on recent performances. Another one is due on about the 8th July, one per month.

posted about 7 years ago

Should be a fairly close game, I think IMT will end up on top but I wouldn't be too surprised if Kungarna made it through to the finals.

posted about 7 years ago
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