Is there anything in this for the winner?

map drama incoming

over.gg got scooped

https://esports.hollywood.com/exclusive-rogue-misfits-and-luminosity-negotiate-three-team-trade-deal-5cf1a9a5b410#.3i9dhqjsl

Are any global events even scheduled? Ones where we can expect most of the genuinely best teams.

Top series of interviews. Nice that tf.tv people are providing some of the most in-depth Overwatch content.

Pretty entertaining for a Hanzo.

The r/competitiveoverwatch discord has PUGs. Can't vouch for them but they've been going a while.

Really like that Volskaya split defence, took NiP too long to adapt.

You can't claim to be better than someone if you got invited to tournaments that they didn't, unless you beat them in scrims, or your transitive results versus the same opponents were clearly better. The public don't have access to scrim results (also I don't think NiP scrimmed Rogue since before the Overwatch Open) and the only opponent they had in common was Misfits.

I think as fans we should be demanding better matchups.

Only Bo5?

https://twitter.com/followkirby/status/802207192359272448

^ it's not this, it's Lucio + something else.

Zeb thinks NiP were best on previous patch, Reinforce thinks Rogue clearly were best. THE FANS HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING. And the next four(?) LANs are invite-only, region locked, buncha nonsense.

Good interview, keep it up. :)

This ends with them turning the lights off and Sideshow doing a piece to camera.

They've... banned Sombra but not announced it so people don't ruin pubs? edit: No, they haven't.

Sombra + Mei bug?

Needs added to upcoming matches.

It's not infinitely harder to invite six non-Americans when you've already invited about ten. I really think they just forgot, like the right suits didn't meet each other at Blizzcon.

Seems like NiP will continue to dominate in the West.

Doesn't address the question of why have a region restricted tournament. I guess it's about some taxation law regarding how teams get paid, but then why not Rogue? Player nationality seems not to matter.

surprising so far

Really nice one.

Overwatch stats sites are impressive with how much they do with limited data. Imagine what could be done if we had match logs. I don't think Blizzard are against it so much as not even aware.

NRG will be not bad by then, I'd like to think.

Beta's over.

Shadowburn and numlocked moving to NA?

Missing possibly the best four teams in Overwatch for arbitrary reasons, but should be good for local fans.

Oof.

Nate Nanzer is talking about it now. https://www.twitch.tv/chanmanv

They're aiming for teams based in cities but won't start that way, sounds more like regional LANs at first.

I think they're seeing a future where sports bars show esports, because that's the main way a 'local team' means something. That's really ambitious, it's like science fiction. I like that.

I think the regional thing must mean something beyond a name, or you'd just support the team with your favourite players, as you always did.

Yeah but smart camerawork to just sit on Shadowburn when you aren't sure what else is happening.

City-based! Weird. Interesting. They've had a guy being paid full time to think about this for a few months now. Seems they're thinking about growing the spectators by creating regions of support like in American sports. Ambitious.

This seems the most plausible of the rankings I've seen.

Poke has pretty eyes.

Superteam!

Well.

This is the team I find most fascinating. Shrugger and Clockwork, yet not top tier.

Match of the Day. Let's warm up this cold war!

Good game. Shame Taiwan are in this group really.

Taimou threw both defences.

:O

Shadowburn could get as big as Dendi.

Good games.

Are NRG and Rogue going to zip back and forth between China and Korea?

NICE!

Ryb, Zebbosai and Hidan with the big win.

b4nny at home still comparing Overwatch to tf2 instead of comparing it to his day job.

Are the colours always wrong in the payload progress bar? Just thinking for a casual viewer that's going to be confusing.

Are they using season 1 coinflip rules?

God seriously? I know it's nice to suck rich people's cocks but network television is a wheezy dinosaur. This is a misstep.

When's this start?

started!

Now we've got a game.

3am in russia, gl sdb