2016 looks to be an exciting year for the esports scene. One month into the New Year, we have already seen fantastic tournaments and surprising announcements towards esports development. However, despite the number of games that are trying to make waves within esports, there are only five scenes that truly stand out to Esports Consulting. The rankings are based off of the potential impact these games can have on the esports scene in 2016.
5. LEAGUE OF LEGENDS
Out of the esports heavy hitters -Dota 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive- League of Legends is the only one to make this list. While League of Legends is already a well-established esport, Riot Games made massive adjustments to the 2016 schedule in North America and Europe, as well as bringing in popular personalities into the esports scene.
Riot announced a format change that will take place in the summer split of the 2016 League Championship Series (LCS). Teams in Europe will now be playing best-of-two series while North American teams will be playing best-of-threes. Unlike the current LCS schedule, teams will only play once a week in an extended series, mimicking how OnGameNet broadcast the League Championship Korea.
Outside of the changes to broadcasting, roster swaps and the formation of super teams shook up the LCS competitive scene. In Europe, Team Vitality, famous for Halo and Call of Duty, is joining the already stacked competitive scene. Meanwhile, North America is experiencing an influx of new teams such as Linkin Park funded Immortals and Rick Fox's new team Echo Fox. The league also sustained major roster shuffles including TSM and H2K restructuring into a super teams stacked with talent.
With the changes to summer split schedule, and new talent entering into the scene, League of Legends looks to be more entertaining than ever before. Riot Games international tournaments and IEM World Championships scheduled for later this year shows that League of Legends will continue its run of dominance throughout 2016.
4. ROCKET LEAGUE
Rocket League makes this year’s watch list as the dark horse entry. Rocket League launched on PC and PS4 in summer 2015 and has had outstanding success on both platforms. Rocket League developer Psyonix has continually pushed out updates to their game including adding new arenas, cosmetics, and a rankings system. Psyonix dedication to developing and growing Rocket League’s community has led to having 9 million players across the two systems.
However, outside of implementing a ranking system, Psyonix has done little to create competitive environments for Rocket League players. Instead, the players themselves have banded together on websites like Reddit and Rocket-League.com to promote community events. Major event coordinating companies such as ESL also picked up Rocket League, promoting weekly tournaments with cash prizes.
Psyonix also hinted at major events and changes for the 2016 esports calendar year. However, Psyonix has stated that they do not want to control Rocket League esports directly. Instead they want to promote community driven events, and support tournament organizers. And while Psyonix has yet to make any official announcements for events of their own in the upcoming year, one thing is for certain. 2016 may be the year that Rocket League boost up to the eSports giants, leaving its fuel trail for all to see.
3. HEROES OF THE STORM
Despite many writing Heroes of the Storm off as a simplified clone of League of Legends, it has a fairly large competitive following. The game takes away the micro-managing aspects of last hitting minions and replaces it with constant fights over objectives on a rotation of different maps. By removing the more tedious micro intensive mechanics from the game, Blizzard hopes to create an esport that is more enjoyable to watch than its competitors.
While Blizzard looks to reinvent the way that MOBA style games are played, Heroes of the Storm struggles to gain the player base its competitors maintain. The game competes in an oversaturated market and has struggled with branding itself as a new style of game within the genre. Blizzard has also had issues with balancing the game and creating a proper matchmaking system. Despite its troubles, Blizzard still looks to grow Heroes of the Storm, investing heavily into its esports tournament scene.
Blizzard recently announced that they are investing 4 million dollars into Heroes of the Storm’s esport scene. They restructured the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship Circuit, which now features a qualifier tournament in every major region. Top placement in these tournaments will not only secure teams a seeding going into the World Championships, but also net the team upwards of $100,000 in prize money. While the 4 million dollars that Blizzard has invested into Heroes of the Storm competitive scene may not compare to League of Legends 2 million dollar Championship prize pool, or Dota 2 ludicrous 18 million dollar International prize pool, it is more than enough to get the game the attention it deserves.
2. SMASH BROS MELEE/WII U
2015 ended on a high note for the Super Smash Bros competitive scene. Last year proved that Smash Bros is one of the most entertaining fighting games within the industry. The Smash scene was able to host three tournaments with over 1000 entries, breaking all previous records for entries with in Smash tournaments. With the community in Nintendo’s good graces, Melee and Smash 4 had its best competitive year yet, and it only looked to grow in 2016.
Super Smash Bros would go on to start 2016 in perfect form. On January 15th, the community kicked off the competitive year hosting GENESIS 3, a “National” Smash tournament that takes place once every few years. The tournament itself had over 1,828 entrees for Smash Melee singles and 1096 for Smash Wii U singles. With EVO 2016 announcing the return of Melee and Smash 4, and tournaments such as PAX Arena, POUND 2016, and B.E.A.S.T announced as well, Smash in 2016 is looking to have its best tournament year yet.
With Nintendo backing the smash community, it is likely to continue to grow throughout the year. GENESIS 3 showed that while the 5 Gods of Melee are still in top form, they are not infallible. Smash 4 showed off the rising power of the Japanese and South American players. The best part is that all this happened within the first month. With 11 more to go, who knows what brilliant storylines the rest of the year have in store for us.
1. OVERWATCH
Rounding out our list at number one is Blizzard’s up-and-coming shooter, Overwatch. Set to launch in summer of 2016, Overwatch is Blizzard’s attempt to merge the classic Team Fortress style shooter with MOBA-like character classes. The game has already been incredibly successful in its first phase of closed beta testing and Blizzard looks to add more game types in the next phase. Even with the game launching this year, it could still have a huge impact on the esports community.
Despite Overwatch still in beta, it already has a competitive community taking shape. Throughout the closed beta, Overwatch had a series on online tournaments including weekly King of the Watch (a variant of King of the Hill) and Gosu Gamers Weekly. ESL even put on an invitational featuring a lineup put together by the European organization Fnatic. While these tournaments were small, it is a positive sign of what’s to come in 2016.
Blizzard Entertainment, and Activison Blizzard, recently restructured around the creation of an esports division. Blizzard devs have hinted at major announcements and changes to the company’s approach on esports. And while Blizzard has yet to confirm anything regarding competitive Overwatch, I expect the latter half of the year will be filled with Blizzard-run events.
Overwatch made the top of this list due to the potential it can reach by the time it launches. With the competitive community already interested, teams might form competitive rosters before the official launch date. The game sits between the tactical excellence of Counter Strike: Global Offensive, while offering the quirky class based gameplay of League of Legends. With this unique combination, Overwatch looks to pull talent from both of these esports scenes. If Blizzard gives it the support it deserves, Overwatch could become the next esports giant.
Photo via Psyonix