{"id":15031,"date":"2017-11-15T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T17:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=15031"},"modified":"2017-11-29T11:30:18","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T19:30:18","slug":"the-bi-weekly-gamer-overwatch-lands-close-to-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2017\/11\/15\/the-bi-weekly-gamer-overwatch-lands-close-to-home\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bi-weekly Gamer<\/em>: Overwatch<\/em> lands close to home"},"content":{"rendered":"

When game developers Blizzard\u2019s smash hit Overwatch<\/i> hit online markets last year, no one expected how successful it would be. While the game\u2019s honeymoon phase went on, Blizzard cashed in big time.<\/p>\n

Then, as with most games, popularity began to waver and the community began to gradually get upset.<\/p>\n

While the game remained fun and had a decent amount of new content added over the months, the lack of balance updates and, in some cases, the developers doing exactly the opposite of what they should\u2019ve done\u2014like easing up on their rules for restricting chat and banning players\u2014caused people to feel neglected by Blizzard. On the esports front, spectator tools were terrible and viewership for competitive Overwatch<\/i> had plummeted drastically.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Bi-weekly Gamer<\/em> is a column about competitive gaming that appears in every issue of Nexus<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Enter the Overwatch<\/i> World Cup, Blizzard\u2019s latest attempt at reviving its viewership and remaining a top contender among esports. With the viewership low and the Overwatch<\/i> League concerning fans and investors alike, Blizzard had to use their now-annual event to show off to the world that they\u2019re listening and taking things seriously. Ultimately, Blizzard delivered by implementing new spectator tools in its system that allow for replays to be slowed down, paused, and properly viewed.<\/p>\n

But, for me, the real story behind the World Cup wasn\u2019t the spectator tools; it was the matches and results. I myself haven\u2019t played more than one or two matches of Overwatch<\/i> for months, but the allure of this tournament isn\u2019t lost on me. This was one of the only esport tournaments to properly have country-versus-country games; seeing that Canada had a team and had made it into the knockout stages made me really want to watch and cheer for my team, even if I hadn\u2019t been playing.<\/p>\n

Taking place at Blizzard\u2019s annual convention, BlizzCon, the World Cup matches sure did deliver. Canada made a strong push right through to the finals, where they came face to face with esports overlords South Korea. While Canada managed to take a game off of the giants, the team was unable to knock out the final boss.<\/p>\n

Overall, the final result didn\u2019t disappoint me; it made me proud to see my country\u2019s team get close and finally make a name for Canada in esports, after being lumped in with the USA for so long. Silver medals are nothing to be ashamed of.<\/p>\n

If this is how competitive Overwatch<\/i> looks, I\u2019m excited for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When game developers Blizzard\u2019s smash hit Overwatch hit online markets last year, no one expected how successful it would be. While the game\u2019s honeymoon phase went on, Blizzard cashed in big time. Then, as with most games, popularity began to waver and the community began to gradually get upset. While the game remained fun and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,202],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-november-15-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15032,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15031\/revisions\/15032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}