Sources: Overwatch League teams tell staff to not push Pro-Am coverage
According to multiple sources, several Overwatch League franchises have told their social media employees to not promote the Pro-Am, a pre-season tournament between Overwatch League teams and teams from the second division Overwatch Contenders.
Sources from inside Overwatch League franchises, who talked to GGRecon under the request for anonymity to protect their employment status, have alleged that they were told to not post content about the Pro-Am beyond the bare minimum information such as team schedules. The sources shared that they were not given any specific reasons as to why this decision was made.
With only a day left until the start of the Pro-Am, even those OWL franchises set to compete in the first week of the tournament have not been active in the promotion of the event, with an average of only one to two social media posts since its announcement in early February highlighting it.
Sources advised that, at least for some of the franchises, a lack of promotional posts for the Pro-Am wasn’t a deliberate choice but a result of understaffed social media departments amidst a wave of industry-wide layoffs.
An esport in limbo
Click to enlargeThe information surrounding the Overwatch League Pro-Am has been sparse. Details on the platform it will be streamed on and the broadcast talent that will be accompanying it has yet to be announced. Some teams participating in the competition such as the Los Angeles Valiant have not announced a roster officially at all.
According to a report by the Jacob Wolf report from January, a majority of the Overwatch League franchises had organised and hired the British Law firm Sheridans to assist negotiations with the Overwatch League, seeking economic relief.
Disgruntlement with the direction of the League by its partner teams has bubbled up to the surface on several occasions. Last year, the Washington Justice had sold off a large part of its active roster due to a loss of trust in the League’s financial prospects during the ongoing season.
The League had suggested the integration of its Tier 2 circuit Overwatch Contenders to have cross-divisional play with the Overwatch League already in 2020 as part of its contingency plan for the 2021 season.
Only for this season did the League implement the plan, installing the Pro-Am in the North American region for the pre-season, while moving to an even more involved integration of the second-tier system in the APAC region by having the best Contenders teams face of against OWL teams at the end of spring split stage and even the season playoffs, opening the door for non-franchised teams to win the entire Overwatch League season.
We have reached out to the Overwatch League for comment.