Overwatch League Commissioner Responds to Observing Criticism

Observing is a very difficult job for any esports title, but especially for Overwatch, as the game's first person perspective and frantic action can make it hard to decide what to have the camera focused on. While the Overwatch League has been very successful overall, there has been a large amount of criticism from the community regarding poor camera work from the league observers.  

This topic has spawned multiple threads on the competitive Overwatch subreddit with the majority of the community agreeing that there needs to be a major improvement. Viewers are upset that the observers consistently hold the camera on a character not involved in the fight, while a Genji with a Dragonblade is in a team fight getting multiple eliminations, for example. This does not always happen, but it has happened enough for there to public outcry about the issue.  

It's interesting to see that there is at least one explosive thread about the Spectating/Observing issues every single week of Overwatch League.

— Robin Kil (@tisrobin311) February 10, 2018

In one of these threads discussing the state of the Overwatch League Observers, Nate Nanzer, the Overwatch League Commissioner posted a very informative statement about the future of Overwatch League observing.  

"We appreciate all of the feedback we have received from our community on this topic. While the league is off to a great start, we are very focused right now on iterating and improving the show in all areas. As it relates to observing specifically, we are conducting an internal Observer Summit during the break between Stage 1 and 2. We’ll be conducting workshops focused on a variety of areas along with exploration of new techniques. Please know that we are always listening to feedback from our team, our talent, our players and of course our community and are focused on ongoing improvement of the overall Overwatch League experience. Thanks again for your constructive feedback." 

I know a lot of people were criticizing #OverwatchLeague spectating earlier in the year, but after missing most of last week and watching today, it's already worlds improved from where it was - especially at the end of maps.

— Barrett Womack (@TheDerrit) February 10, 2018

Commentators on the subreddit were very pleased with Nanzer's response, as it shows the league is looking at every way possible that it can to provide a better product to its audience. The league will be working hard to get the viewing experience up to the level that the community is wanting.  

Interested in more Overwatch League news? Check out our recap of the Houston Outlaws vs the Boston Uprising!