What Happened To The Overwatch World Cup? - Remembering A Golden Age

[@Akshonmedia]

As with most esports leagues and events, the pandemic presented a series of unique challenges for organizations to overcome. The OWWC is one such event that has been at a standstill as Activision Blizzard prioritizes maintaining their flagship league and the launch of Overwatch 2 while remaining relatively silent on the future of this event. Do you think they will ever bring it back?

[@thadex454]

No OWWC probably cost too much to produce with how they did qualifiers around the world and a huge live event.

[@eyeden819]

probably if ow2 is big enough

[@GTOmegaZ3000]

@@thadex454 Not to mention the lawsuits and other shenanigans going on with Activision-Blizzard.

[@jonatanhellberg8399]

if ow2 makes it big it will most likely come back but they prob wont have it every year

[@ElmoRitter]

no one cares anymore

[@sacadeek145]

I miss world cups, I watched them all the time, more than owl in general

[@gion1988]

overwatch is too greed and corruption

[@sacadeek145]

@@gion1988 ik, I still love this game but the ppl behind it have to go, I don’t want this game to die even more Bc of corporate issues

[@skylineownzful]

@@gion1988 everything is. Every world wide event/competition is more or less affected by corruption. Whoever denies that, lives in a pink bubble with extra pink glasses.

[@BlazingIce]

bro overwatch should be more greedy, they definitely make no money from the game they gotta keep their company alive somehow and they still probably don’t make much from owl

[@gion1988]

@@BlazingIce they depend a lot on loot boxes and wants to make more money from overwatch 2. they are damn hypocrite. they have made a billion dollars from loot boxes and still not enough for them. stop supporting blizzard

[@zut8448]

The OW World Cups were incredible - The live audiences and casters made the events electrifying, not to mention the storylines and insane matchups. You had OWL teams break up and form their own team for their respective countries, leading to some amazing moments I really hope they do eventually come back with another OW World Cup as I think it is one of the best things OW has ever spawned, and the hype it had was unmatched.

[@0DD115]

leave got popular because of his performance in his world cup debut, and now he’s the mvp of the owl… i hope world cup comes back, so we can get crazy new players like leave into the spotlight

[@ThePaulodash]

leave got popular in Seoul cup when miraculous youngster played aganst peak lunatic hai and almost win.

[@MasoHQlC5GW5btFZ]

And guxue. That guy is a monster, the primal blade himself

[@dylanhoma3359]

In Calvin's words "Zarya, OVERWATCHU WORLDCUPPU"

[@jnd9109]

I miss Calvin more than i miss the world cup tbh.. calvinW

[@saqlifice6085]

@@jnd9109 btw what happened to him? i think he stopped streaming in general

[@argo4779]

@@saqlifice6085 he’s training to be an astronaut after he finished law school .

[@d3w222]

@@argo4779 fucking alpha upper echelon top tier of any game he touches + large brain + creativity + hopes and dreams

[@Petrichor206]

@@argo4779 woah that’s amazing

[@iAmCyberwaste]

One of my favourite memories in esports was being at the OWWC stop in Sydney, the final set between Australia and Japan is one of the most electrifying crowds I have ever been a part of.

[@YamacKocovali7]

I remember that. Ah different times...

[@orchidow5637]

That was good didn't watched though but it was when some japanese players were in that I hyped

[@pjckle]

I was sitting right next to the observers booth so I got to see all the views at once, but that crowd was insane. The second someone picked torb, the sheer sound was incredible.

[@erickim1739]

I forget the Japanese DPS players name but he was CRACKED. On top of that, I remember japan playing some very off meta comps which was super refreshing to see. I'm south korean, and born in the US so I was rooting for Skorea first, then the US but Japan stole my heart. They were sooooo fun to watch.

[@nobodyofnote6378]

@@erickim1739 aktm

[@thedofflin]

As an Australian in the crowd at the first event in Sydney, I'm still very proud of that weekend. It was so wonderful for the world to see a side of Australia they rarely get to see - we love our sports and root for everyone, and go fucking nuts when credit is due.

[@thadex454]

Australia should have had an OWL team

[@APerson-bn6cu]

@@thadex454 Australia Apex maybe? Idk I’m bad at coming up with names

[@Eos660]

@@thadex454 sydney sailers!

[@olivergames7783]

Miro 2017 got me into Overwatch. I'll never forget him.

[@zrosix2240]

My number 1 dream (as a gm tier 3 player) has never been to make it to the overwatch league, while that is a goal, but it has been to make it to the World Cup. There’s nothing I want more than to be able to play on team USA, and the fact they just stopped doing them out of nowhere, with no announcement or statement about it, just randomly shadow-stopped dropping them out, is incredibly disappointing and saddening.

[@yusaidit5311]

Gm? You tryna coach me 👀

[@PogU_4Life]

I think you should have also talked about the atmosphere that was present at the Paris World Cup Stages. The atmosphere and the french fans were absolutely amazing, one of the great moments of e-sports. The casters said they'd never ever seen such a crowd of passionate fans. This is to show that World Cup had a place in e-sports and was really enjoyed.

[@tstsdrtsdrtsts]

huh, i was literally just wondering this. maybe it was because i was watching nostalgiawatch and saw the “ZARYA WORLDCUPPU”

[@getfuzed1887]

The OW world cups have been amazing, by thinking back on Germany failing totally against USA, I'm getting a big smile on my face. So many nice reminders.... Germany has never really been a thing in ow, but at this world cups we made our way to compete against the best team in the world, back then (ok south korea, not usa) Thx for this video and the nostalgic. Rip Internethulk!

[@tsvh383]

Its the same for the netherlands for me :). Even though we didnt get too far we managed to put down a pretty impressive perfomance still even though we had a dps player filling in on tank. It was especially fun to see since the only thing outside of the world cup where weve seen anything dutch related to overwatch was the recent ish signing of Daan to the paris eternal

[@Shadow_Play3r]

World Cup was one of my favourite part about Overwatch

[@aqua2k210]

The World Cup matches were always my favorite. No overwatch tourney compares to the excitement and intensity of a World Cup. I hope they bring it back. Honestly the World Cup did a better job getting young players names out there than the path to pro

[@gion1988]

is dead coz of the blizzard scandal. good riddance of overwatch.

[@aqua2k210]

@@gion1988 and COVID. owwc got canceled way before the scandal happened

[@thadex454]

It costs too much money to produce so they’re hoping we forget about it

[@Dossenbach]

The best Overwatch game I’ve ever witnessed was in Overwatch World Cup, but not in Blizzcon. Finland vs. South Korea in 2018 preliminaries that went to five maps and almost saw Finland upsetting the unbeatable number one country at that time still sends shivers down my spine.

[@Wes1996]

We’re back boys, we did it 🥹

[@qutorial9415]

The 2018 OWWC was the reason I decided to play Overwatch more competitively, kinda sad they discontinued it

[@michaeltaylor815]

2018 OWWC was the best in my opinion, from the group qualifiers to the actual event

[@Nooter_]

ster was a incredible player, and it was so early in overwatchs life, i think he was a great choice. he even has a background in pro team play from tf2

[@hardfoil]

In Slashers interview with Ster after the cup Ster said that he felt frustrated with their performance because almost no one else wanted to practice even when the opportunity was available. iirc they just hung out and watched someone play Diablo II because "their hands were cold."

[@skyblue4986]

The sad thing is that with the end of the world cup there is no more overwatch tournaments in Poland. I know so many talented people who could find their place in contenders or even owl but now It's impossible 😔

[@dassvidania1969]

Lets hope tournamenths in EU will retrun with OW 2

[@skyblue4986]

You have exactly the same thinking process as I have. I really hope that ov2 is going to be a super popular game and overwatch esport will become more popular

[@gedster]

Okay, I have a story about the World Cup that I love to tell people whenever they say they want it back. (I also want it back, but you'll see what I mean) The night before the 2019 World Cup, I attended my local Esports Arena (Yes, it's a real place) for my usual Overwatch weekly. Now we never got enough players, even across all locations, to run a full 6v6 game, so it usually ended up being 1v1s. And I would ALWAYS get 2nd place to this one guy. I couldn't beat him no matter how well I played, he was just too good. But on this night, he wasn't able to attend, and I knew I could beat the rest of the players that would usually show up. About 20 minutes before we're scheduled to start, the staff member on duty that night called me over and said this to me: "Hey, there's a group that just arrived at one of our other locations, do you know about a Team Latvia?" Oh, fuck. The Latvian Overwatch World Cup team had crashed my weekly the night before Blizzcon. Long story short, I got my shit kicked in. YEARS later, I had the chance to talk to their tank player, Trustemix. He was a really nice guy, and he told me the story of what had happened that night. As it turns out, Team Latvia had received very little support from Blizzard. That tournament they played in? They were jetlagged. They had JUST touched down in LA that night, and had no money to feed themselves with because their minimal funding only covered the hotel. In order to feed themselves, several players from Team Latvia had to *find and win a small weekly tournament so they could buy themselves a pizza*. They lost in their first match to Team Mexico the following day, and were eliminated from the tournament. Look, I want the World Cup back as much as the next guy, but I also want it to be an even playing field. Look at Team USA, they had a giant fucking training facility that they got to play in for weeks prior to the start of the competition. I'm not saying Blizzard should fund EVERY team to that level (Although with the kind of money Bobby Kotick gives himself they definitely could), but at LEAST give them enough money to FEED THEMSELVES. Thank you for your time.

[@BlueIvory4]

I feel like Overwatch should schedule the World Cup & its qualifiers similar to that of Football (soccer). After each stage/tournament in the OWL, there should be an international break where teams compete in online/LAN qualifiers to get to the World Cup. There should be around 6-8 of these across a 2 year period. This should lead to at least 16 qualified teams for the final tournament. Then the World Cup should take place during the OWL postseason once every 2 years. I think the event should also be separate from Blizzcon and last 2 weeks. (First week - Group Stage, Second week - Playoffs)

[@BlueIvory4]

@@hertagerta6288 I understand that. When the Pandemic has obviously calmed down a little more

[@crossdaboss8914]

Honeslty a digital cup could be cool make a special playlist you must get a certain number on wins in with a specific list of players and can only que up with those players All players who met the requiments get put in a tornamanet bracket and the top teams compete in the digital world cup and all who compete are compensated with a spray a special skin and those who reach the top possible cash prizes and so on

[@hamad4760]

Where the heck is Mickie now? Is he on another game like valorant or something? Holy shit I never realized that I miss that guy

[@FahrenheitRUS]

Still plays some games at Twitch, but not pro lvl

[@satensaten9234]

He coaching thai pubg mobile team and stream sometimes.

[@hamad4760]

@@FahrenheitRUS what’s his name on twitch?

[@FahrenheitRUS]

@@hamad4760 mickiepp

[@thacool101]

As a leauge fan seeing that clip of monte show off the American flag t-shirt brought a tear to my eye 😂🇺🇲 then no the double turn

[@kenim]

The prep, the personalities, even if the gameplay was lower level compared to now, everything was such higher quality and vibrant. No wonder people call OW and OWL dead by now.

[@thadex454]

When they lost Monte, OWL was never the same again

[@MC_HANDROLLED]

Love the variety of eSports you cover! Thank you for doing these videos

[@housejira9143]

Look, the thing was Thailand team didn't lack of fund, but unfortunately we had a visa issue - the whole team was at Blizzcon 2019 not being able to participate in the tourney :(

[@Akshonmedia]

:(

[@atypicalpinetree4212]

The 2018 World Cup is still the only esports championship Ive watched entirely. It was so much fun and really got me into playing overwatch a LOT more competitively to the point where I didnt have a lot of matches were I was getting outplayed.

[@gameguy0101]

man seeing fragi walking around and flex his bear arms gets the waterworks goin man...

[@shenko_]

The Overwatch World Cup was nice as seeing other countries field rosters with players we have no idea who they are was fresh instead of the usual Team South Korea vs Team South Korea we usually see in Overwatch League. This is not to say I hate South Korea in Overwatch, but Blizzard really threw having a global esports league with international teams and franchises.

[@thadex454]

I was more interested in OWWC than OWL

[@yedrellow]

The world cup viewer was unmatched in viewing quality. Being able to watch the game pretty much live in-game is something that would have kept me glued to OWL.

[@antoniotrejo272]

I was part of the OWWC for 2019 social media team and yeah one of the biggest let downs was that as a country with "invitation" all the expenses were on your own, getting a sponsor "From outside" some was also impossible and by visa problems we couldn't have on our Roster Nomy and other players that could use that opportunity to show themselves

[@dankadis1304]

I really miss OWWC. OWWC was a good stage not only for fans but also for the players. In the OWWC, I was able to find talented players who were not famous. (example 2018 team UK) Those players used to advance to the Overwatch league team through the OWWC.

[@turkeyman631]

The more mainstream competitive OW got, the worse it got. Once OWL came out, everything felt soulless, but for one weekend during the WC, we got that emotional, compassionate Overwatch back that we havent seen since Apex. Would really love to see it come back.

[@Gxblaster]

WE ARE BACK IN 2023!

[@AngelBloxx899]

As someone who's been here since June 2016 with overwatch, seeing them run the game, it's tournaments, the league, and the world cup into the ground is disheartening, especially with the world cup. I went back and reviewed every world cup for tricks, I haven't seen a single OWL stream or vod that I didn't just have in the background

[@thadex454]

This was the olympics of esports

[@Kossestu]

I believe the best overwatch even I've been apart of was the 2018 wc qualifiers in Paris, the crowd was just insane and I think I screamed so much that I had a voice extinction the first day

[@traviswebb3532]

Just game or event involving international teams is so much fun to watch.

[@antoniospappas2575]

What's Activision Blizzard good at anymore?

[@BlueIvory4]

Sexual Assault 😪

[@NoriJun-kKj]

Destroying their company's reputation

[@kenim]

I swear they are going to surprass EA as most hated.

[@thadex454]

Money

[@bruh-hr1mt]

being a bunch of sexual harassers apparently

[@williamzhao2456]

I remember in the 2019 WC when ads were being played MIDGAME. That was just the worst

[@matiasclark-becker2689]

That xqc thumbnail is so nostalgic

[@anonymouszebra1239]

I always thought the World Cup was as cool, if not more cool, than the finals. Less competitive maybe, but the country superteams ands hype of the crowd made it special.

[@thibaultvoillequin6953]

french crowd 2017 was something else

[@basementboy1910]

Cant wait for the redemtion arc video on the dragons

[@trambus1144]

IT'S BAAAAAACK

[@moaro4859]

I loved watching OWWC. I remember watching Canada vs China and hoped that they would bring the in-game uniform skins for players to have. Sadly they never did.

[@mikemohawkmikebisson8802]

At 0:46 it's stated that the OWWC is the closest thing we have to an Olympic style esports event. Wanted to share that within the broader history of esports there have been many Olympic style events including World Cyber Games, Electronic Sports World Cup and most recently the Intel World Open which is still in consideration to run esports events at the 2022 and 2024 Olympics.

[@calypso]

No one cares

[@neffmonkey635]

Yeah the world cups need to come back properly, they were my favourite and loved rewatching them.

[@letsgo_inc]

Yeah the year with Jake and that USA squad got me in.

[@shacco1095]

I remember watching the UK vs USA game and was like if UK won this I would be amazed then they won and I have been a fan of fusions since

[@moji96]

Watching all countries compete was waaay more fun than OWL will ever be for me.

[@bodomow]

OWWC was the opportunity for T3 and T2 players to showcase their abilities against the best of OWL. We really need it back :(

[@squeegie]

Dude I didn't sleep for days because I wanted to watch the OW world cup and work and have a social life.... you know what though? It was worth it. It was so sad when it was announced they wouldn't have another one.

[@J-theSloth]

The time between overwatch launching and overwatch 2 being announced is shorter than the time between overwatch 2 being announced and now.

[@Shadvi7Z]

The only owl game i ever watched was shanghai win, though i did watch more ow wc since it was nice seeing a world style tournement

[@Kellexyz]

3:34 LMAO this reminded me about muselk playing in owwc

[@kenim]

Ahh the fastest 3-0 in history. That loss on Anubis was nothing short of epic.

[@thadex454]

Imagine telling new xQc fans this guy was the MVP of the tournament once

[@egirlcafemanager7119]

Honestly year 1 of owl and ow world cup was peak entertainment esports, maybe even year 2

[@greatrootbear]

hey! my jersey for team Hong Kong made it into the video :)

[@Energyswordsunday]

I hope to see this back one dau

[@user-dl2ou5wv6f]

i need it back man :( maybe even a european cup if covid is an issue.

[@fredericabernkastel8354]

A european cup would be amazing. I hope ow2 makes it possible.

[@Phobosz]

this video hits different after hearing that it’s back.

[@ronankvill9387]

it is a pity that this was the last championship

[@kreeze5911]

I'm just waiting for the analysis on the shock vs reign match up, even though I'll be reliving the loss as a shock fan I'll be more than happy to seeing the analytical view of the match

[@Soccer14Fan]

i personally think it should be a tournament outside of blizzcon with host cities and only allow 2-3 OWL players per roster to allow more unseen talent to be showcased and to give most OWL players a break/less pressure

[@thorwardpepega]

EYO EYO ITS BACK

[@Jereonn]

I really hope they will do one again someday, these were such a lot of fun

[@znksanti7407]

I understand that OW WC has been canceled cuz Covid Pandemic around the World. Maybe In Overwatch 2 and When Overwatch League couldnt be online matches

[@mr.izanami1796]

Ow2 copium. Blizzard and their respective games are going down the drain and will continue to do so.

[@Metacious]

At this rate there won't be OW 2 though :(

[@thadex454]

@@Metacious Didn’t the OW2 lead developer just rage quit and leave?

[@ZipDoomTide]

While I do agree that there were maintenance issues with the OWWC in 2019, we most likely haven't seen it return because of the pandemic. It was hard enough for nations to participate in the games because of Blizzard forcing countries to fund themselves that were outside of the top 10 in terms of Skill Rating, but the pandemic makes travelling and such pretty much impossible.

[@jimonaldo3108]

I think way more esports should have world cups and they should be held to the same competitive standard as any other event.

[@luismgoncalves]

I really wish we had more workld cups and I hope OW2 release gets one, specially since it'll serve as great scouting.

[@looppp]

I miss the World Cup sooooo much

[@maxospovat8959]

The OW world cups were awesome and I hope they come back

[@ceebeetan]

I miss OWWC!!! It was so good!

[@RickySama240]

Remember the "Let Torbjorn wall run" and "Let Zenyatta walk? Those were funny memes that Overwatch devs actually made a simulation of. xD

[@alexisdelapeyriere5300]

2019 team france was the best overwatch experience of my life (when they beat south korea)

[@conner_ow]

I hope Worldcup comes back one day

[@jeanpilgrim8575]

What happened with the Sonic Riders video ?

[@gringoespana]

Despite the bad format, presentation and the online parts..... The final matches were very well played. That last game was epic.

[@thiebautjoel]

I’ve always said Blizzard’s biggest mistake was to invest in a League with teams nobody would naturally root for, and drop the thing that actually gets casual players to watch their best national players play to represent their country. People will never root for an OWL franchise as much as for their own country. Also, I liked how it brought light to players that would never get it otherwise, thus bringing some diversity into the OWL’s nationalities.

[@strawpie4199]

when he said mickie i shed a tear

[@shiyang5414]

i miss OW world cup too

[@randomnoobpt]

To the sponsorship section there was a huge limitation from blizzard: teams can't have sponsors that collide with blizzard sponsors. Meaning for example that none of the teams could have a sponsor from coca cola or other beverage brand. Another really weird aspecs is the VODs. Bigger part (if not all) were deleted about 2 weeks after the tournament. And unlike in 2016 where fans uploaded VODs of the matches from their countries, Blizzard manually stricked anyone who did it with 2019 (can speak it from myself, when I uploaded Portugal vs Saudi Arabia) Hope the other format with multiple qualifiers come back, to give the community a proper chance to see the talent of their country play (likely at a friendly time in that timezone) and also avoid having teams going home right after a single loss

[@diegodm26]

I hope to come back in some point, the pandemic its finishing, as a ow fan i can't forget the Usa 2-4 korea or the hanamura map betteween cada and Korea in 2017, some playas like mangachu bomb on semifinals VS sweden And what to say about the hearthbraking 3-2 from Korea to finland on 2018 and UK taking to map 4 korea in the same year

[@kaisawhatever4443]

Eileen said backstage staff told him to get ready and go

[@nostalgicx7]

I ve been wondering that for Sooooo long

[@del46_60]

So why was the Sonic Riders video taken down?

[@armstrong2052]

I never watched it, but it looked like fun. Sad. Go Atlanta!

[@fabian7334]

"World Cups" are always the best tournaments.

[@burnsy96]

What does it say if I didn't even think anything was wrong when the Chinese flag was brought out in the announcement of the USA team?

[@Soundwave04]

The shrinking country roster was a bit of a let down. You read the 2016/7 article and you see all these different countries participating, then you read about 2019 and it lists about 5.

[@ritaamani6407]

For a asian viewer has no owl team in my region, World cup 2018 was my introduction to competeitve overwatch. First time seen players outside of twitch content creators made my jaw dropped so hard. Even the "low level" group stage is full of actions, shadow burn teamkill vs taiwan, hk moowe solo kill carpe's widow 3 times in a row, those moments still in my head 3 years later. It's also the first time I've seen now owl MVP player Leave, god this guy already a monster back then. For many sports that not “US focused ”, world cup is the greatest glory of all. It attracts people not interested in the sport, purely because they want to see how their nation doing in a global stage. Same reason Olympic has so many viewers, despite most of us don't care about competitive swim in daily life. I think it's a great mistake blizzard is giving it up, it's a huge loss to potential viewers of OWL.

[@SpikemcUHC]

I want this to come back so bad

[@kimpoke3450]

2016 Korea dominant 2017 Canada underdog story+crazy rivalry Korea vs USA (most fun world cup) 2018 Korea dominant (personal strongest dream team) 2019 USA dominant (personal favorite dream team) Which worlds cup was your favorite?

[@demonedante1148]

2017 and 2018 WC were unreal sad they destroyed it

[@sohkya27]

best thing of all the world cups was josh drinking an entire bottle of maple syrup live

[@oak3785]

2019 was a DISAAAAAAAASTER dude, i remember the viewing experience was garbage too and I knew they weren't gonna do OWWC anymore

[@milkots]

Why did your last video go private?

[@kafukiken7079]

let's hope in 2022

[@jinkwon8410]

The World Cup was actually the very thing that got me into Competitive Overwatch… Shame. Damn shame.

[@johnan3398]

2019 World Cup was such a disaster.