Overwatch players are upset Blizzard isn’t offering drops for watching Contenders
Blizzard gave fans the chance to earn exclusive Ana sprays over the next few weeks by watching Overwatch Twitch streamers for a certain amount of time, but the drops weren’t offered on the official Contenders stream, which has some fans upset.
Contenders is the second tier of competitive Overwatch, just one level of competition below the Overwatch League, whose teams manage a number of Contenders squads.
Blizzard has faced plenty of criticism for apparently not caring about Contenders before, and not including the leagues competition in the Bastet Challenge seems to have struck a nerve in the community.
Blizzard is running drops for streamers while multiple Contenders Playoffs are running instead of running them on the Contenders streams if you ever wanted more proof they don’t give a fuck about you.
— Jacob Oyer (@Psycho_Waffle) January 8, 2019
One former Overwatch pro, Jacob “PsychoWaffle” Oyer, said not enabling drops on the Contender’s stream proved Blizzard didn’t care about the competition.
In a thread on /r/CompetitiveOverwatch, user solidus__snake speculated that Blizzard wasn’t concerned about Contenders viewership because “they primarily want casual viewers watching OWL.”
“OWL has top tier gameplay and production value, and has the localized teams that casual fans can relate to,” Solidus wrote.”It’s relatively more risky to push OWC games on a casual audience when they’re less likely to stick with OW esports after watching (they’re trying to keep fans long-term here).”
You don’t often see other major leagues like the NBA or the MLB advertising their minor leagues too much either, they added.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/ady7a9/why_are_blizzard_not_enabling_drops_to_their_own/edl0j91
Fans are obviously upset they can’t earn the new sprays for Ana’s Bastet Challenge from watching Contenders, which naturally seems like it would qualify as an Overwatch stream.
To stay relevant these days a game needs a presence on Twitch, and to have a presence on Twitch, you need to have streamers playing your game. Blizzard is clearly trying to support the game’s streamers and keep them playing, but some people are still wondering whether there’s room for Contenders, as well.
Ana’s Bastet challenge runs through January 28 and all players have to do to earn to new skin is win nine games, there are also five unique sprays available for watching up to six hours of any Overwatch stream, except Contenders.
