Esports used to have this kind of magical, exciting feeling I couldn’t quite place. It felt like we were part of this crazy new thing that was not quite sure what the hell it was. Stumbling, authentic, raw, confused.

I’ve missed that feeling the past few years and couldn’t place my finger on why. What’s missing? Strangely enough, it may be the industry’s advancements that have caused it to lose what made it special.

I saw a tweet this weekend from Marvel Rivals caster Max “KEG” Tompkins that really brought it all back for me. The seemingly casual tweet felt a bit like one of those “shower thought” moments, but I think it explains what has really gone wrong with esports the past few years.

“People gotta realize that making esports shows perfect, sterile, and soulless does more harm than most mistakes or issues you could cause live on air,” KEG said.

And there it is. For the past few years, esports has been trying to become part of mainstream gaming, using over-the-top production and featuring popular content creators to appeal to more than just hardcore esports fans.

Between Ludwig Ahgren buying Evo passes to boost registration numbers for his own game and the overdramatic broadcast for one of the most serious FGC battles in history, esports is starting to feel very manufactured. The hype feels forced as esports attempts to be larger than it is.

I remember being very involved in esports when the Overwatch League was announced. What drew me into the scene was the passion and realness. Even though Blizzard implemented a franchised circuit (an attempt to increase mass appeal by adding hometown teams), it was evident that nobody really knew what they were doing.

It felt extremely chaotic, with players getting away with goofy walkouts and obscene gestures caught on stream, the broadcast accidentally showing empty seats on stage, casters making dirty jokes on air, and the gameplay itself feeling chaotic as observers failed to show us some of the match’s most important moments.

But it was so fun. We felt like we were in on a massive ongoing meme. Like we were just figuring it out and enjoying esports for what it was: nerds finally getting their moment to shine. It’s weird. I can still go back to old Overwatch League compilations and almost cry. It’s what I thought esports would always be like.

YouTube comments reflect this:

As the Overwatch League hype died down, I got involved in more esports titles. I went to the Call of Duty League Grand Finals in 2022, held in Los Angeles, and it was pretty hype. But it wasn’t the same for me. The guys walked out so seriously, fog rolling by, and the massive stadium with multiple screens just felt less intimate. It didn’t feel like a celebration of nerds. It felt like the CDL was attempting to say: “We aren’t nerds. This is cool. Right???”

And it’s only gotten worse from there. League of Legends broadcasts can apparently cost anywhere from $75,000 to $200,000 a day if we’re talking massive arenas. It’s all very professional, attempting to make esports seem legitimate to non-esports fans.

But I have never understood this desire to appeal to mainstream gamers and sports fans. Why are we operating at the red and experiencing massive financial loss in an attempt to be so big? We were happy when it wasn’t this over-the-top. When it was focused on the fans.

I come from the fighting game community, so maybe I’m a bit gate-keepy. But I’ve seen glimpses of that OG esports magic at FGC events. These tournaments are often the “wild west” of the esports industry, with pros offering money matches with fans in the friendlies area, people making bets during the Top 8, and winners breaking chairs and crying on stage. The broadcasts sorta suck and the venues are just a stage, a screen, and chairs. There’s no dramatic walkouts, no echoing play-by-plays from casters.

But even the FGC is being tainted by Saudi Arabia’s push to make esports bigger than it should be for its own agenda. Inviting content creators (who don’t really grind fighting games) to have showmatches at Evo is not really the end of the world, but it’s not the original spirit of the FGC. It screams desperation for views and validation rather than being for the true fans.

We miss the imperfections, the goofiness, the errors, the authenticity. The dramatic and engineered hype of recent broadcasts doesn’t hit the same. It feels like the esports industry is putting on a show for investors and the mainstream public, who are too busy thinking the Esports World Cup’s move to Paris is interesting. These are not real fans. Why are we catering to them? Why are we performing for them?

I think the esports industry would save a lot of money if it accepted it’s a niche within the gaming community and focused on the true fans. Lose the massive broadcasts and productions. Just have fun with it like we used to. I can’t be alone in missing how it once was.

Ever since the Overwatch League died, Overwatch esports have been a bit of a depressing talking point in the industry. The Overwatch Championship Series hasn’t hit the same. The hype has largely disappeared, although some exciting teams remain.

When I saw that the OWCS Champions Clash had such an incredible viewership jump — with 290,600 peak viewers (during the lower bracket final, weirdly enough) and 5.4 million hours watched, two times that of last year’s — I thought, “Wow, people care more about Overwatch esports than I thought.”

And some esports fans felt the same, noting the varied meta and how many heroes were played (41 out of the 51). The audience in Tokyo, Japan was also very passionate during the broadcast. But that’s just a small part of the story.

Most esports events have drops these days, which are in-game awards fans can earn by watching the tournament for a certain amount of time on Twitch. But most of these drops are somewhat lame. I mean, it’s free stuff so people still want it. But it has often been sorta throwaway cosmetics.

But the OWCS went super hard this time around. For the Champions Clash, the Twitch Drops included skins for Kiriko, Hanzo, and Mizuki, as well as esports loot boxes, and other exclusive cosmetics. These were huge, especially for those who collect skins.

When news broke that the Champions Clash had a ton of viewers, most fans admitted it was due to the improved drops. It really made all the difference.

But that doesn’t mean nobody likes Overwatch esports.

Ever since Overwatch 2 dropped the “2,” added a bunch of heroes, and made other massive changes to the game to bring it back to the spirit of the original, the game has been exploding. After the Season 1 re-launch, Overwatch had over 165,000 concurrent players at one point.

And they have stayed, with the player count often reaching six figures. With the gameplay changes and added heroes, the meta has felt a lot healthier and more entertaining. This has improved the Overwatch playerbase.

And with a larger playerbase comes more people looking for exclusive drops. They may not necessarily care about the esports itself, but they can’t pass up a chance at having these special skins and loot boxes.

However, the drops were just the initial draw.

“I know drops are a huge reason why, but this was genuinely one of the best majors in years. Diverse comps and metas, huge upsets on the final day, more individual hero plays than I feel I’ve seen since the original season of OWL, all of the broadcast talent was enjoyable, and for me, most importantly, the fans at the arena were really into it,” said one fan.

Another added: “My friends who never really watch Overwatch esports tuned in for the drops and then were actually thoroughly entertained by the games, despite not really knowing anything about OWCS. Was super cool to see.”

So… Is Overwatch esports back? Not yet… But I think this was a good start. While people came for the drops because they care about the game, that’s a good foundation for the esports side of things. Now that there are more players, more people understand the game enough to watch esports broadcasts.

Now that they’ve checked out the action, maybe they’ll want to see more. And that’s thanks to the exciting matches and talented broadcast talent at this year’s Champions Clash.

We can’t predict if these Overwatch players will stick around. But we can confirm that drops make a huge difference. And other esports events should take note.