Overwatch generated insurmountable buzz as the Overwatch League attempted to recreate the kind of attention other professional leagues have. Twelve franchises, with each representing an actual city, participated in the first season which split itself into 4 separate stages. The last stage culminated in the Grand Finals where the London Spitfire defeated the Philadelphia Fusion to be OWL Champions. Naturally, the event was streamed online for all endemic fans to see. But in a surprise move, the Grand Finals was broadcasted on ESPN also. People that only followed traditional sports now watched athletes compete with video games. In total, 11 million people watched the event live across all platforms. Although the event sparked initial backlash from those unfamiliar with esports, it brought about positive feedback over its growth potential. Regardless, this streaming move sent a simple message to the conventional sports world: esports is here and it is here to stay.
Counter Strike: Global Offensive provided the stage for one of the best matches it has ever seen at the beginning of the year. Cloud9, a team seen by many as an afterthought under the context of North America’s poor history in the game, worked their way through a gauntlet of foes to reach the ELEAGUE Boston Major Grand Finals. They then defeated FaZe Clan in an epic double-overtime showdown, capturing North America’s first ever CS:GO Major title.
After C9’s run, Team Astralis rose through the ranks to dominate the pro-circuit by winning a majority of the year’s Premier and Major contests. Unlike the other games where abnormality reigned supreme, CS:GO brought back order as a single team made the world their own thanks to players such as “dev1ce”, “dupreeh”, “Xyp9x”, “gla1ve”, and “Magisk”.
Starcraft 2 saw the rise of a new world champion as Finish player Joona “Serral” Sotala defeated Kim “Stats” Dae Yeob to be the first non-Korean winner ever. The game had basically been dominated by Korea for as long it had existed. No one could’ve foreseen the Korean reign to end, until it did. Serral thwarted 3 of the best Korean Starcraft players out there to achieve the feat. It will be interesting to see how Korea will rebound from their first-time loss on the world stage.
Fortnite ushered in the era of battle royale gaming when it became a hit during the Spring. Memes came out left & right, new celebrities arose from their live streams, and events started getting organized to see who’s the game’s best professional player. This was bolstered by Twitch streamer Ninja’s now-famous session with Drake and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster where they played the game in front more than 620 thousand viewers. And though Fortnite is only recently starting their journey in esports, if it continues to be present in today’s pop culture as it has been, we will definitely see more of this game in the future.
Based on everything that happened last year, esports fans have learned one big thing: expect the unexpected. The underdogs came out on top over the favored juggernauts. The competitive balance in many games was flipped over its head. Nothing made sense; but on the other hand, it all made sense. Upsets like OG and IG’s are customary in sports. It happens in football, basketball, and soccer, so why would it not happen in esports too? Even so, all this transpired last year. Who knows if these events will occur once again this year. Maybe the established hierarchy will rebound from their bitter failures, or maybe they won’t. In the end, 2019 will be an interesting year as new narratives are written to reflect the ramifications of esports’ major tournaments. Will the unanticipated kings of 2018 continue their momentum in 2019? Or will the old guard recapture their lost glory and return things back to where they were? We’ll see soon enough. May the competition be as ever fierce in 2019 as it was in 2018.
