B/R Weekly Rushdown: Major Overwatch Update, 76ers' Plans for Team Dignitas
It's been a nice, restful week in the world of esports. No major tournaments. No huge financial upheavals. No public bridge-burnings. Just a nice, calm week.
A few announcements came out, some patches dropped, and some rumors swirled. Here is your weekly rushdown of this week's biggest esports news.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Philadelphia 76ers Doubling Down on Esports
The Philadelphia 76ers shook up the esports universe when they bought out prominent European esports organization Team Dignitas last month, and they're not taking a hands-off approach to that investment. Speaking with Thomas Barrabi of Fox Business, Dignitas President Michael "OD" O'Dell discussed some of the positive changes the new owners had in store for the team. including coaching and specialized health care:
"In the past, we have not had access to anything like that. Coaches have only really come in the last few years. Sports psychology and nutrition, that's only really starting to happen. This is a big reason for me for wanting to partner with the Sixers, having access to their ability and their knowledge in that respect is really important to me.
"
While esports is growing rapidly, an unfortunate number of players do lack the kinds of basic benefits conventional athletes have, including health insurance and mentoring. What's more, the "eat what you kill" approach to tournaments sees players sinking enormous amounts of time into traveling the world to compete in tournaments. The result has been fast burnout among players, who will often retire before 25 years old even with major paydays at their fingertips.
The 76ers hope to change that with Dignitas, and if they can, the entire esports scene will likely benefit.
Major Overwatch Update Hits
The big news coming out of BlizzCon for the buzzing FPS Overwatch was that the long-rumored character Sombra was both real and would be launching soon. The update hit Tuesday morning, and while the Mexican hacker character was the centerpiece of the patch, she wasn't alone.
With a stagnant competitive scene that boils down to a few must-pick characters, sweeping balance changes were implemented that will (hopefully) lead to less monotonous team compositions. Additionally, the frequency of ultimates is being scaled back, with each and every one now charging 25 percent slower.
The list of changes is too long to go over here, but the complete patch notes can be found on the official Battle.net forums.
Roster Shake-Ups Ahead of the Dota 2 Boston Major
The teams are set for December's Boston Major, but the rosters aren't set quite yet. A number of roster shake-ups have occurred across several teams set to appear in the tournament that could change the face of the event.
Two seemingly retired players, Clinton "Fear" Loomis and Chen "Hao" Zhihao, have been added as substitutes to Evil Geniuses and Newbee, respectively, with the latter having a decent chance of returning depending on what happens with Newbee's visa applications (via GosuGamers.net). On top of that, Digital Chaos has bumped wacky reporter Jake "SirActionSlacks" Kanner from their sub position in favor of former analyst (and current coach) William "Blitz" Lee.
More interesting, however, is how teams seem to be actively lending or trading players away for the Boston Major.
Lee "Forev" Sang-don, who famously defected from South Korea's MVP Phoenix to join Europe's Team Secret in August, has seemingly rejoined his old squad, bumping Lee "Reisen" Jun-yeong to the sub spot in the process. On top of that, LGD seems to be using the new sub rules in a creative way by trading members between its teams, with LGD Gaming's Lu "Maybe" Yao sliding in as LGD Forever Young's sub.
It's an interesting development, and one that makes it easy to question Valve's current roster rule set given the level of gamesmanship we're seeing from teams at the moment. Either way, the Boston Major kicks off its group stages December 3.
Smash Bros. 4 Port Headed to Nintendo Switch?
The Nintendo Switch is still a mystery outside the general concept. One small bit of known information, however, is that the game will feature ports of prominent Wii U titles.
In addition to the ports of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Splatoon that were shown in last month's teaser trailer, according to Laura Dale of Let's Play Video Games (via PVPLive.net), a port of the Wii U version of Super Smash Bros. is also in the works:
"According to a pair of sources who we have used in the past when reporting on Switch news, we have learned that the Bayonetta and Cloud Amiibo...are now being held back to launch alongside an upcoming Switch port of Smash Bros.
According to our information, the port will not be a launch day release for the Switch, but is targetting (sic) a release in the first six months after the Switch hits shelves. We have not heard any confirmation that the port will contain any new content, but we have been told it will contain all DLC from the Wii U version of the game.
We have not heard anything regarding Gamecube Controller support for the port.
"
The news isn't particularly surprising given the standing of Smash Bros. as one of Nintendo's most popular series. This does, however, suggest Nintendo has no current plans to create a fifth installment to the popular fighting game series.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
