Blizzard and the Overwatch League have recently come under fire from former casters due to an unfortunate statement. Now the development studio is backpedaling and apologizing to the casters.
What happened: The vice president of the Overwatch League, Jon Spector, mentioned in an interview that he couldn’t be happier with the current casters and that they live and breathe Overwatch.
This upset the former casters, who had previously parted ways with Blizzard in conflict. For example, it was stated that Blizzard has no decency and that they too had “lived and breathed” Overwatch.
This is how Blizzard is responding now: Jon Spector has backtracked in a statement. He says that the context was missing and that it came across wrong.
“We are proud of the broadcasts in 2018 and 2019”
This is what Spector says: According to ESPN, Spector apologizes in a statement to the former casters. He emphasizes that he was proud of the events in the past years.
I would like to apologize for my comments yesterday. I did not intend to offend anyone, but I failed to provide an important context. […]
We are proud of our broadcasts in 2018 and 2019, and we have a good feeling about our lineup this season. We are incredibly grateful for all the talented voices that contributed to the launch of the first two seasons of the Overwatch League. Without your work, we would not be where we are today – thank you for all living Overwatch and supporting our League from the beginning.
Jon Spector in a statement
Spector is thus defusing his statement, which caused a lot of stir in the heated debate between the casters and Blizzard.
This is the situation regarding the casters in the Overwatch League: Blizzard and the former casters have clashed before the season. Currently, there are two viewpoints:
- The casters say they left because they did not agree with the new direction of the league. Moreover, poor payment was said to be a reason.
- Blizzard claims they left intentionally because they wanted to bring new voices into the league.
Blizzard indeed revamped the league significantly. It is now exclusively shown on YouTube, which initially led to a huge loss of viewers.
Moreover, some key staff left the Overwatch League and Blizzard has adopted a strict austerity course. Especially the leadership change did not sit well with the former casters. For instance, MonteCristo, one of the former casters, said that he could not work with this leadership.
A former Overwatch pro also has little good to say about the new direction of the league:
