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Overwatch News

Overwatch Weekly: New MMR System, Cloud9 Mixup, APEX Tourney

Hello guys, and welcome to a brand new weekly series. Similar to my Dota 2 and Counter Strike, I am starting a weekly Overwatch series as well. In this article, we will go over the latest news in the OW scene so you can stay updated in a short period of time. The purpose of this series if for information to be delivered quickly and concisely, so without further delay let’s get started.

 

New Seasonal Event

A new and exciting seasonal event has been released and we will cover it first up. The Overwatch uprising is a homage to early stages of OW. This game has many developers that aim to keep the content fresh and entertaining, and this event has been made to do just that. Featuring over one hundred collectibles, it is sure to enhance the Overwatch experience for many players. It features new game modes, new collectibles, and much more. If you have not checked out the update yet, be sure to play OW to try out this new event!

 

Roster Mixup

Cloud9 has had a huge roster mixup recently and is one of the first teams from the west to import eastern players. Cloud9 has benched both Ryb and Mendokusaii to make room for the new additions to their roster. The Koreans Xepher and Selly will be the first ever Koreans to compete for an American Overwatch team, and many have high hopes that their performance will lead Korea to further prominence in the scene. Bishop was also signed and will look to contribute to Cloud9 as well.

 

APEX

The APEX tournament is quickly growing into a major force in the Overwatch pro scene. This Korean based competition is extremely popular and usually invited a few western teams each season. Only two made the cut this year, with the lucky squads being Rogue and NRG. They eliminated two foreign spots to promote further growth in the local scene and to make spots for two lower tier Korean teams. This news was met by disappointment from western fans, but those from the east love to root for the local talent. Nevertheless, APEX is an exciting event that you should watch, as it could soon develop into a major competition as the OW competitive scene grows exponentially.

 

Pit Championship Playoffs

The Overwatch pit championship playoffs got started earlier in this weekly, and already there have been many upsets. Teams such as Misfits and NiP were eliminated by Dignitas in the European playoffs. Dignitas do end up being defeated later on by eUnited, but they showed a good amount of fight. On the North American side of things, Liquid manage to breeze through the lower brackets by eliminating CLG, FaZe clan, and LG Evil. The playoffs for both divisions will continue to rage on throughout the week, and you should definitely tune into the exciting matches!

 

New MMR system

Blizzard has completely shaken up the MMR system, and this change has gotten mixed feedback from the community. Basically, Blizzard decided to greatly reduce the impact of streaks. What happened before was that results that took place consecutively had more impact that results that were broken up. What that means is that if you lost six matches in a row and won the seventh, you would lose a lot more MMR than if you lost three, won one, and lost three more. This worked with wins in the same way. This streaks idea was added to help users reach their “true” ranks faster, with the theory being that if you won a lot of matches in a row you were on a higher skill level and vice versa. However, a streak of bad or good luck can drastically change your rank, so Blizzard had to do something. The system is now completely changed up so that the multiplier activates after big streaks only, and that the effects are lower than before.

 

Seagull is Going to Stream

I mentioned earlier than Cloud9 has decided to bench Mendokusaii. Well, he has found a better offer to join NRG, the crew that was invited to APEX in Korea. Seagull, the captain of NRG has decided to take a short hiatus from competitive OW to focus on streaming until Overwatch League begins. Seagull is widely considered the most popular streamer, and he has decided to focus on streaming due to a difficulty in doing both simultaneously. While this is sure to disappoint many NRG fans, fans of Seagull as well as Mendokusaii are both very happy with this roster mixup.

 

From MLB to eSports?

Finally, let’s finish with a surprising story. We all know that while eSports are gaining popularity, traditional sports are where the money is at. Most athletes love to play videogames, but wouldn’t dream of doing both. Trevor Mays, a professional MLB player, however, has decided to competitively play Overwatch as well as continue his MLB career. This surprised many people, but it also offers an opportunity for more recognition towards eSports, and particularly OW. With a rising popularity and fanbase, it will not be long before we are seeing players earn millions just like in real sports! Mays plays for Luminosity Gaming in case you were wondering.

Thanks for reading my article and sticking around till the end. I hope the content was enjoyable as well as informational. This series will be published weekly so be sure to lookout for future articles. I will see you next time, but bye for now. Good luck!

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