In compelling esports there is the roaring crowd,crisp commentary, the big financial stakes and incredible play. In the midst of so many intersecting stimuli, it becomes difficult to parse what is the essence of compelling competition. What is the element that can be pointed at as the acid test, which every compelling esport must have? … Continue reading “Esports is Run on Madness”

Yiska: Don’t leak it again. what if we do something with Discord as the chat client and the ability can we do something with that Eden: the ability? Yiska: Orb of discord Eden: ah Oh that’s actually good shit wtf London Spitfire Eden: So can you bring me up to speed on your feelings about … Continue reading “Orbs of Discord – “Before you ask, you can’t choose death””

  Eden: is “Leaked Chat Logs” a working title for now? Yiska: yeah we can think of one Eden: what, that doesn’t call down from heaven as self evidently the greatest possible? Yiska: it’s pretty whack but let’s start Eden: 3 2 1 DreamKazper Eden: So where did the idea that Boston was so good … Continue reading “Leaked Chat Logs 1 (20 minute read) – Yiska and Eden”

Ever since the initial exhibition of the overhead camera, the analyst community has been dying to get our hands on it. Many have expressed that if given access to this point of view, there would be very little use of the primary feed for reviewing VODs. There has been frustration that it was publicized that … Continue reading “Montecristo Announces on OverSight that Blizzard Withholding Overhead VODs”

With the final week of the first stage of Blizzard’s Overwatch League is upon us, we have a number of marquee matchups on our hands. Each of the ones listed below will affect the current standings and decide to a varying degree who goes to the Stage 1 Title Matches to fight for the hefty … Continue reading “NYXL vs Spitfire and three other OWL games you shouldn’t miss this week!”

It’s been a historic week for Overwatch Esports as Overwatch League got off to a hot start in week 1 and teams are going full throttle in some of the best gameplay we have ever seen. Here at Winston’s Lab we got to kick off Fantasy Overwatch for both 10-person leagues and weekly contests. Whether … Continue reading “OWL Fantasy Update Week 2, Main ’em or Wane ’em”

In many people’s estimations, Philadelphia fusion is a team which will most likely place in the bottom half of the first season of Overwatch league. However, in this article, I will argue that, despite their organisational shortcomings and what some consider to be a weak roster, they will exceed these expectations and may be battling … Continue reading “Why Philadelphia Fusion may exceed expectations”

The first season of Blizzard’s Overwatch League is set to start in January next year. Twelve organisations have picked up most of the best teams and players in the world. A staggering 45 of the 113 players come from South Korea and many would argue that it could have been even more. In fact, the … Continue reading “No excuses left to hide behind”

Displaying stats on broadcast has been a headache for all tournament organizers in the Overwatch scene. In some cases context is missing, in other cases crucial stats are missing and in others stats are just little fun facts with no real value. In this article, I am going to discuss three approaches from recently concluded … Continue reading “Broadcasters Struggling to Give Context and Meaning to Game Stats”

One roster has only six players going into the first phase of the Overwatch League–the Florida Mayhem. Whether this is good or bad is up for debate and only the match results will give us a clear answer, but I would like to take a moment and carry out a thought experiment: if they had a … Continue reading “If Florida Mayhem had a 7th player, Who Would it be?”

One misconception about players and rosters in the Overwatch scene, but not strictly restricted to it as it is evident in every sport and competition, is that you can take rosters or players, put them in different conditions and expect them to perform as they did before. For me, that is a misguided belief and I believe that … Continue reading “The Notion of “Plug ‘n’ Play” Rosters will be Challenged in OWL”

According to an article published on DailyEsportsKR, Blizzard is assuming control of the Korean tier 2 tournaments, like APEX, that were so far organized, executed and presented by OGN. It is still undecided whether the latter will handle the production of the tournament, though. The information shared so far reveals that the tournament, which is … Continue reading “APEX S4 was the last season OGN organized. Major changes coming in 2018!”