OWL VP Jon Spector talks Overwatch 2 training wheels, striving for healthy workplace

Releasing a popular video game too early can be a death sentence. Delaying a game can cause panic.

Like many in the gaming world, Overwatch League vice president Jon Spector was excited for Cyberpunk 2077. The game was released on December 10, 2020, but Spector still hasn’t bought it. He waits for all errors and misfires to be fixed.

“In years the game will be in a better place and then I’ll play it when it costs $ 20,” said Spector.

Overwatch 2 and cyberpunk aren’t even the same genre, so they’re not exactly apples for apples. But releasing any type of game too early can lead to a lack of confidence. Cyberpunk sold millions of copies, but was also flawed and downright unplayable for many PlayStation 4 users. The game had to be removed from the PlayStation Store.

Spector isn’t getting deja vu with Overwatch 2, which is slated to be used by pros in the Overwatch League in April 2022 for the start of season five.

Pros will be playing with an early version of the game, which means that Overwatch 2 will be released after league play has started, although a release date has not yet been announced. Still, the expectations are as high as the concerns.

Overwatch 2 has to land on its feet – that statement is far from a broken record at this point. Activision Blizzard is under fire and has been sued for poor workplace conditions for women and union busting. It takes the Overwatch League to land and rejuvenate a professional base looking to get a fresh taste of a familiar game.

Spector had a feeling that this was going to be delivered and that people would have a look at it soon. The grand final of the Overwatch League takes place on Saturday and professionals who have already been eliminated from the playoffs can test Overwatch 2 for themselves.

“We have a game that plays well at professional level, but I expect you will probably see some of it on Saturday at our big show finale,” said Spector. “I think the pros will find things that are overruled, overdone, or something that we’ve tested in-house that turns out to be broken if you (Lee“ Carpe ”Jae-hyeok) give this hero the chance. “

Leave it to professionals to spot Bastion with a shield or six Winston compositions are unbalanced. The message here is that stupid updates will be required, but the development team will have eight months notice from players who can abuse mechanics better than anyone else in the world.

Spector and the OWL team always have to look to the future, usually with three or four backup plans. He said the biggest lesson he’s learned from the past two seasons is that plans need to be flexible.

“The last 18 months have been on steroids,” said Spector.

Room for growth

As much as Reddit trolls love to spam that their most unpopular title is a “dead game”, the Overwatch League has managed to increase viewers despite the fact that no major updates have been made for over a year.

Add Overwatch 2 to the mix and OWL could be positioned for a huge fifth season if the game picks up the bells and whistles, but that’s not a certainty.

OWL cannot control everything, including whoever leaves or stays. Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny who led the development team is leaving Activision Blizzard, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. So the team rearranges the leadership and at the same time produces an expected game.

OWL is tied to what it can control: elements like the hosting desk and the seasonal structure. Spector was encouraged by the dramatic growth of the mid-season tournaments – in the case of the Countdown Cup, the average number of viewers at one moment rose 91% to 102,000 AMA.

Honestly, it’s so impressive how awesome the # OWL2021 desk was, especially since they weren’t really together, which is really important for any desk show.

They are all excited here in Hawaii and look forward to entertaining us all week! pic.twitter.com/T8dECGaz6U

– Jon Spector (@Spex_J) September 21, 2021

Stabilizing during a global pandemic helped OWL maintain its relevance, but the biggest factor could be the quality of the game. Popular teams like the Dallas Fuel, Los Angeles Gladiators, Houston Outlaws, and Chengdu Hunters are more competitive than ever.

The playoffs are stacked.

“I also think this is the highest level of competition we’ve ever seen. And the professionals in the league this year are amazing, ”said Spector. “In every game someone does something where you watch it and your jaw drops. And I think that’s an honor for the hard work our professionals have done, our teams have done. We think if you watch the show this year I think it’s more compelling than ever. “

The OWL playoffs should be a big event at Arlington Esports Stadium, with the championship in Los Angeles. However, traveling for teams in Asia like Shanghai, Chengdu and Philadelphia was risky.

Spector said the OWL team needed to consider bringing players to the United States if it meant getting them home tedious or impossible for another six months.

“They look at these kinds of restrictions and say that’s a risk we’re happy to take at this point,” Spector said. “I think we had a pretty straightforward decision after you sort of assessed the whole situation.”

The OWL team has the ability to send North America teams to Hawaii to compete overseas, gives them breathing space, but events aren’t the only reason they have to think about the future.

More than ever

OWL, which comes under the umbrella of Activision Blizzard during a period of legal proceedings, means the league has still suffered a blow despite individual successes. Sponsors running ads forced the desk team to clog more airtime than normal.

There is criticism of Activision Blizzard and the titles they produce and maintain on a daily basis. What can Spector do?

“We tried to really focus on what we can individually do to be good forces,” said Spector. “And we showed a little bit of it publicly, as if we were really impressed with an initiative that two of our teams, Outlaws and Justice, took.”

The Justice and Outlaws matchup on July 30th raised money that was sent to charities focused on helping women. OWL fitted in with that and Spector loved the general movement of the league teams.

Internally, it has been difficult for OWL to make drastic changes as they have been doing a lot of the remote work for the past 18 months. Listening to employees and helping them to be heard is a step, but Spector still thinks there is more.

“You don’t see all of the other executives in our organization because, to your point, I’m the person on Twitter more than anyone else,” said Spector. “But I was impressed to see how each of our leaders in this department are trying to move forward and make sure they are there for their teams and are now leading them to where I think this type of leadership is needed more than ever. ”

OWL can serve as a beacon when they get things right. It can instill healthy business practices and breathe new life into a game that requires high-level gaming.

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For more information on fuel, see the Dallas Morning News here.

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