MORE INTERNATIONAL TEAMS
Currently in the Overwatch league there are 12 teams, one from China, one from South Korea, one from the United Kingdom, and the remaining nine from cities scattered around the US. Obviously Overwatch League is attempting to make esports a more popular thing in the west, but it would have been better to have seen a bit more variety around the team locations instead of almost 80% of them being based in the States.
If we look at the player list on the official Overwatch league website, we can look at all the home countries of the players in this season of the league. The country list and number of players goes as follows:
- South Korea: 44
- USA: 17
- Sweden: 10
- China: 8
- Canada: 7
- Finland: 6
- France: 3
- Spain: 3
- Belgium: 2
- United Kingdom: 2
- Russia: 2
- Brazil: 1
- Denmark: 1
- Ethiopia: 1
- Israel: 1
- Mexico: 1
- Puerto Rico: 1
- South Australia: 1
- Thailand: 1
Therefore, since nearly a forth of the total players come from somewhere in Europe, it would seem fitting to have at more than one European team besides London Spitfire for players in Europe to root for. Even if Blizzard was solely trying to focus on the west, it would have made sense to have a team for Canada as well. As a Canadian, I would have really appreciated a team representing, say, Toronto or Montreal to root for, and with seven players coming from Canada (only 10 less than the USA that has nine teams) it would have made sense to give Canadians some love as well.
Of course, the teams are not determined solely by the hometowns of players, as any professional sport will tell you. It just would be nice for the locations to branch out a bit to include a bit more variety than just the USA by possibly including another European team and/or a Canadian team next season.
