In recent years, the Overwatch League has been known for being the banner of Blizzard Entertainment’s competitive scene, being its main international circuit in the FPS market, as is the case with Ubisoft and rainbow six siege or with Riot Games and VALORANT.
However, over time, the multiple controversies regarding the directors of the California-based company slowed down its exponential growth, which was reflected in the massive loss of sponsors such as Coca-Cola, Pringles and T-Mobile. for their most recent seasons.
Although it was not known to what extent this affected the franchised teams and their players, we now have more details about what could be happening, since everything indicates that they are preparing to launch a class action lawsuit against the developer of Overwatch 2.
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Teams allege receiving false promises from Activision Blizzard
According to a report by journalist Jacob Wolf, most of the Overwatch League squads would have hired a British law firm to initiate a class action lawsuit. This after several years in which they reported high operating costs, with continuously broken revenue promises from Activision Blizzard.
According to sources close to Wolf, the firm that will handle the case will be the well-known Sheridans, which has extensive experience in both traditional sports and esports.
BREAKING: The majority of @overwatchleague Teams have hired a British law firm to collectively bargain against Activision Blizzard amid growing frustrations around operation costs, lackluster viewership and a distinct lack of a path to profitability. https://t.co/fPE8U7RGv7
—Jacob Wolf (@JacobWolf) January 18, 2023
The decision to organize collectively would be being led by OverActive Media, the ownership group behind Toronto Defiant, and those who previously worked with them on issues related to MAD Lions, a team belonging to the LEC. Negotiations between the teams, the firm, and Activision Blizzard have only just begun, and tensions are running high as the organizations weigh their 2023 budgets.
The goal is for the teams to receive some kind of financial compensation, after each franchise spent between $8.5 and $11 million to retain space and operating costs over the last 6 years. This translates into an investment of more than $16 million in a league that has a mediocre audience and no profitability in sight.
Along with this, we can add recent comments from team managers such as Lori Burgess, head of operations for the parent company of the Houston Outlaws, who in an interview spoke in depth about the income and losses of this for its franchise of the Overwatch League.
Burgess said the team pays some of its players more than $200,000 a year in salaries, and despite the $1.4 million they receive in ad sales revenue, the team is still operating at a loss.
Likewise, the CEO of Misfits Gaming and owner of the Florida Mayhem, Ben Spoont, spoke to the New York Times last November about Activision Blizzard’s promises: “We were certainly told that the growth of these leagues would be meteoric, and we all drank Kool -Help. What has happened is that the growth has not materialized as fast as we expected”.
For the moment we will have to wait how this strong case evolves between the main competition of Overwatch 2 and its developer, which seems to have no direction after losing its main sponsors and not having a guaranteed platform to broadcast its next season shortly after it begins.
But tell us, what do you think about the fall of the Overwatch League? Do you think he will be able to recover after everything that happened with Activision Blizzard? Let us read you in the comments.
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