I'm a big Overwatch League fan. I started out supporting the Valiant when I use to live in California and switched to NYXL when I moved to NYC. I went to Blizzard Arena during Season 1 and had an incredible experience. At the time, it really seemed like this was the future of esports.

With the New York homestand coming up this weekend, I'm really starting to worry.

As far as I can tell, one day before the homestand (an event people are paying hundreds of dollars to attend), there is still no information available online. What time do doors open? Can I bring a backpack? Will there be food? The most I can find is this page, which basically just links to Ticketmaster. I still don't understand what Andbox is.

Surely there must be some information available on Facebook? Nope, last post is from August 2019. Ok, Reddit then. Turns out r/NYXL (a sub with 3000 members) has been abandoned for r/andbox, which currently has a whopping 184 members. Keep in mind that NYXL is one of the most popular Overwatch League teams. Twitter isn't much better, though it looks like they will have some cool merch available only at the homestand.

Ok, so maybe NXYL is slacking, but surely the Overwatch League itself has some new content available on YouTube (the platform they just signed an exclusive streaming deal with)? Nope, the top video is a compilation of highlights from 2019.

Thinking back to the Blizzard Arena, I wonder how much of the League was being carried by the core team at Blizzard and the casters/analysts themselves. The Blizzard Arena was custom built for Overwatch - how are they ever going to replicate that in cities around the world? I suspect we'll see huge variability in quality depending on where the homestand is being hosted (and how capable the team there happens to be).

The whole point of having homestands was to allow teams to build a local fan base. That seems like a good idea in theory, but I wonder if the teams will actually be able to pull it off. Before, all they had to worry about was playing the game. Now they have to worry about hosting physical events, which is a totally different (metaphorical) ballgame.

Add this to much of the talent leaving, a bunch of homestands in China cancelled, no way to do drops on YouTube, and controversial new hero pool rotations? I think we're in for a rough ride.