Activision Blizzard Set To Focus On ‘Online Esports’
Activision Blizzard, the developers behind the Call of Duty League and Overwatch League, has announced a restructuring of their company which will reportedly result in the layoffs of 50 staff members as they are looking to weigh more focus on online esports over offline.
According to Sports Business Journal, President of Sports and Entertainment at Activision, Tony Petitti, revealed that "the division is planning for a future where its business will look different and 'less dependent' on live events".
Petitti continued to say "We learned a lot last year in terms of how the leagues can be structured for online play, and we’ll look to carry forward the best practices from that", meaning that the cuts in staff will be to focus more on optimising the online presence of both the CDL and OWL, rather than looking to have full throttle live events when the pandemic fades and normality resumes.
Click to enlargeThe move follows the success of the CDL in terms of viewership and production, although some fans that were ever-present during the inaugural season online will have reason for concern. The CDL itself encountered many problems in the first season, such as a lacking ruleset in place for online technical difficulties, allegations of cheating and exploitation of bugs, and players being "booted" offline.
Petitti didn't rule out LANs and offline events altogether though, rather wishing for some live events once the pandemic blows over, although not as many as the previous season have seen. The original plan for the league format pre-pandemic had an offline event in each of the franchises' home cities (12 in total) on a bi-weekly basis. The online era has seen a shift to five splits, meaning it may be in Activision's best interest to intend to keep the group stages online before introducing LANs for the majors and World Championships.
As for Overwatch, their 2021 season is just weeks away, boasting a similar split format with four tournaments before the championships in August.
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