1 of 19

2020 Overwatch Season

Marketability

What Teams and Their Players are the Most Appealing to the Western Overwatch Audience at Large

2 of 19

How I got my Data

  • Data Collection
    • Created a Google Form with a survey with the questions about players and teams
    • I likely did not reach a Eastern audience because of my lack of reach ther
  • Distribution
    • Posted the survey on the r/Competitiveoverwatch page
    • Was able to have significant Overwatch YouTube community members (SI Not Found, Halo, Dividing, ATP Overwatch) to share my survey link via Twitter
  • Continued Distribution
    • People who then saw that repost and did the survey tended to like or retweet the original post with the link
    • The posts received more impressions and engagements than the following on my accounts.

3 of 19

OWL

Team

Data

4 of 19

OWL Team Popularity

Most Popular OWL Teams (423 Votes)

  • NYXL (48 Votes)
  • San Francisco Shock (40 Votes)
  • Dallas Fuel (34 Votes)
  • Atlanta Reign, Philadelphia Fusion (29 Votes)
  • LA Gladiators (28 Votes)
  • Toronto Defiant (26 Votes)
  • London Spitfire, Vancouver Titans (24 Votes)
  • Houston Outlaws (22 Votes)
  • Paris Eternal (20 Votes)
  • Boston Uprising, Seoul Dynasty (18 Votes)
  • Washington Justice (16 Votes)
  • Chengdu Hunters (10 Votes)
  • Florida Mayhem, Guangzhou Charge (9 Votes)
  • LA Valiant, Shanghai Dragons (7 Votes)
  • Hangzhou Spark (5 Votes)

5 of 19

OWL Team Popularity Reasoning

Popularity Reason Given

  • 40.5%
    • The Team has your favorite player (156 Votes)
  • 32.7%
    • They are the local team (126 Votes)
  • 9.5%
    • They are associated/operated by a Org you like or the Branding (40 Votes)
      • (Ex. Envy, Gen.G, NRG, Cloud 9, Envyus, Runaway)
  • 17.3%
    • Assorted reasons
  • 38 No Responses

6 of 19

Team Popularity via Players

  • New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Atlanta, LA, Guangzhou, and Philadelphia showed the highest levels of player association.
    • NYXL at 64.58%
    • San Francisco Shock at 65.5%
    • Toronto Defiant at 61.53%
    • Atlanta Reign at 58.62%
    • LA Gladiators at 57.14%
    • Guangzhou Charge at 77.77%
    • Philadelphia Fusion at 55.17%

7 of 19

Team Popularity via Geolocation

  • London, Paris, Boston, Washington, and Florida showed the highest levels of geographically association
    • London Spitfire at 70.83%
    • Paris Eternal at 70%
    • Boston Uprising at 55.5%
    • Florida Mayhem at 66.6%
    • Washington Justice at 56.25%

8 of 19

Team Popularity via Org Association/Brandings

  • Dallas and Vancouver showed the highest levels of Org association
    • 38% of Dallas Fuel Fans because of the association with Team Envy.
    • 41.6% of Vancouver Titans fans because of their past as Runaway.
  • Fans appear interested in teams that use non-orthodox color schemes
    • People that commented about colors were commonly fans of London Spitfire, Guangzhou Charge, LA Gladiators and Valiant, SF Shock, and Seoul Dynasty.

9 of 19

OWL

Player

Data

10 of 19

Player Popularity

Top 18 Most Popular Players (423 Votes)

  • Super (42 Votes)
  • Surefour (30 Votes)
  • JJonak (20 Votes)
  • Saebyeolbe (18 Votes)
  • Profit (17 Votes)
  • Ryujehong (14 Votes)
  • Soon (13 Votes)
  • Danteh (11 Votes)
  • OGE (10 Votes)
  • Dogman, Sinatraa (9 Votes)
  • EQO, Haksal, Stratus (8 Votes)
  • Carpe, Mano, Fury, Fusions (7 Votes)

​

​

Honorable Mention:

  • Moth, Custa, Jake, Fleta (6 Votes)
  • Hydration, Erster, Pine, Avast (5 Votes)

Photo via Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment

11 of 19

Player Popularity by Role

Of the top 22 most popular players:

  • 5 play Tanks
  • 13 play DPS
  • 4 play Supports

12 of 19

Most Popular Player By Team

  • Atlanta Reign: Dogman
  • Boston Uprising: Fusions
  • Chengdu Hunters: Baconjack/Ameng
  • Dallas Fuel: Taimou
  • Florida Mayhem: SayaPlayer
  • Guangzhou Charge: Nero/Happy
  • Hangzhou Spark: Guxue
  • Houston Outlaws: Danteh
  • London Spitfire: No Current Player
  • LA Gladiators: OGE

​

  • LA Valiant: Custa
  • NYXL: JJonak
  • Paris Eternal: Soon
  • Philadelphia Fusion: EQO
  • SF Shock: Super
  • Seoul Dynasty: Profit
  • Shanghai Dragons: Fleta
  • Toronto Defiant: Surefour
  • Vancouver Titans: Ryujehong
  • Washington Justice: Stratus

13 of 19

What Players Were Most Popular for Their Personality?

  • 100% of votes for Dogman
  • 97.2% of votes for Super
  • 61% of votes for Saebyeolbe
  • 60% of votes for OGE

​

14 of 19

What Players Were Most Popular for Their Talent?

  • 94.1% of fans that voted Profit
  • 85.7% of fans that voted for Carpe
  • 75% of fans that voted JJoNak
  • 62.5% of fans that voted for Haksal

15 of 19

Overall

Analysis

16 of 19

Examining the Results

  • Toronto would not be as popular as they are had they not signed Surefour, Agilities, Kariv, and co.
  • Despite Dallas’s lack of success, their fans still say around because of their long standing association with Team Envy and the team’s players.
  • While success has contributed to NYXL’s popularity, their players have the highest collective draw across Western Audiences.
  • The European teams followed the traditional trends of geolocational association with teams.
  • Philadelphia Fusion lacked one strong association point, but drew a UK audience because of their number of UK players (UK Mafia Real).

17 of 19

Examining Results

  • People like Dogman, Surefour, Stratus, and Super have endeared themselves to fans over more talented players on their teams because of their personality
  • While Carpe may be billed as the Philadelphia Fusion’s superstar, fans like him as much as the likes of Fury and EQO.
  • Soon, Fusions, and Taimou are the only European players to be among their teams favorite players.
  • South Korean players may not rank as high in personality rankings because western fans don’t understand them

18 of 19

Why Super Should be the Western Face of OWL

  • Super should be the Western Face of OWL
    • His Personality
      • He doesn’t care what other people think about him
      • He knows he is the best and acts like it
      • He has a swagger that most players don’t outwardly show
    • His Stream
      • He tends to stream with other popular western players
      • Has very clippable moments (Don’t exactly want to mention)
      • One of the highest view count NA OWL player streamer
    • His Playstyle
      • His hyper aggressive style is something people enjoy watching
      • He has large pop off potential

19 of 19

Link to the Data

​