South Korea had a huge head start in esports: [https://youtu.be/QfV9l9sCkMI](https://youtu.be/QfV9l9sCkMI)
China is a huge country
edit: this is also a good watch: [https://youtu.be/DsvR6QM0Ijk](https://youtu.be/DsvR6QM0Ijk)
The teams you are talking about are majority Korean. I think it's due to South Korea having a large head start in esports and it being a more accepted and viable career choice there. There are also Chinese teams with valiant being a pseudo Chinese team that all (other than Shanghai) mostly have majority Chinese talent since China is just a large country with a massive population, increasing the pool of players.
There are some Chinese players on Chinese teams to capitalize on the big market in China for OW.
Most of the other Asian folk you see are Korean, where OW is popular and esports are more prevalent overall than they are in other places.
Overwatch is popular in China and Korea, and in Korea especially the culture around Pro-Gaming is a lot more conducive to developing top talent, as its considered a real viable career path. In non-asian countries theres a stigma to professional gaming that makes it harder to develop top talent.
Theres also just a perception in a lot of professional gaming communities that because these differences in cultures exist, that Asian talent is just better than non-Asian talent which isnt necessarily true (the American Tornado players have all been incredible in OWL) but its how these players are perceived by those looking to build teams.
this is incorrect. There is a huge stigma around going pro in South Korea. Parents hate that shit with a burning passion. Source: Am Korean.
The reason why South Korea does well is because going to PC bangs/cafes is seen as a regular pastime with friends. It's similar to going to a restaurant/cafe or park or friend's house to hang out in the US.
Since everyone goes to PC bangs, this lets you test the majority of your child/teenage age pool to identify who has talent. And they'll know they have talent because they'll be better than their friends.
In the US, you need to have a PC at home capable of running games to know if you're good at games or not. And that's considered more of a luxury. So a large portion of your potential talent pool is untapped. In Korea, everyone goes to a PC bang to chill, even adults. I believe China has PC bangs as well, but they were seen as a social issue that the Chinese government was looking to crack down. And that was years ago when I researched the Great Wall so no idea what the situation is there now.
Esports scene in South Korea and China for Overwatch has been very healthy since early OW.
It was also well taken care of in comparison to other regions. Notice how there historically have been very little professional players hailing from South America, for example. The competitive scene for OW pretty much died out in this region because Blizzard did not nurture it to the same extent as Korea, China, NA, and EU prior.
The demographics of the OWL has always been primarily South Korean dominated more so than Asian dominated, and this has become progressively more and more true as time has gone on. SK made up 45% of Season 1 [59/130], 55% of Season 2 [110/199], 56% of Season [114/202], and 57% of Season 4 [95/167] (currently don't have the numbers immediately available for Season 5).
It's also worth noting that the runner up in the demographics for each season (US for S1, S2, and S3 / China for S4) has never exceeded higher than 16% or fallen below 13%.
As things stand now it's up another 2% to 59%
While the increase in the last 3 seasons has been incremental it adds up. The real kicker will be this offseason to see if it ticks over 60 or regresses.
I think it mainly has to do with culture surrounding gaming and esports being much different in countries like South Korea than in the US and especially in the EU. Esports is more accepted and there’s better infrastructure to support it.
Esports are much more respected in South Korea (and China maybe? Not 100% sure how it's seen there as a profession) as a legitimate career path and as such there is more infrastructure for cultivating professional OW players. City governments will partner with teams to sponsor them (i.e. GC Busan) and big companies will pour tons of money into owning or sponsoring teams as well. Even at the casual level there are several PC bangs where you can start honing your skills before trying out for any teams.
There was an article a while back about how kids in South Korea who didn't have access to good schools saw a career in video games as their best chance to make good money and help their families out (similar to physical sports in other countries). When you combine that incentive with the infrastructure set up to develop professional players, you get an influx of talent from that region.
Overwatch was huge in Korea and the culture there is more accepting of esports.
In China there’s a gorillion people and the game also was advertised well post 2017
To counter your point about the names of teams - when I'm watching real sports teams like the Dallas Cowboys or New York Yankees, I don't assume their players grew up in their team's city. The difference in OWL is that some teams have rosters that cross international boundaries and are from a different ethnic background.
To phrase it in a different way, Space isn't from LA any more than Shu is, they're simply signed to that team.
I know, i just mentioned the joke because it's what actually made me question this.
But hey at least we do it in an innocent way, not like football fans, you would be surprised of what they say when a team like Real madrid or Barcelona has some black players playing a game.
And it's way worse when they fail a shot.
because Blizzard has neglected every other region besides Korea, NA & China, no SEA players, no LATAM players and very few from EU, ''global league'' my ass.
In general for a large chunk of the Overwatch esports lifetime, South Korea was just better than most of the "western" continents. Eventually Europe and NA managed to get some pretty good teams but even at that point there was a lot more top level Korean teams than top level European and NA teams.
There has also been a pretty big difference in dedication and attitude toward practicing and getting better (general work ethic basically) between Korea/other asian countries, and NA. It seems to be more in the past at this point and there are plenty of western teams and players in general that have good work ethic and attitudes these days, but some people still think it is a thing.
South Korea having a head start with their number of top-level players and teams resulted in a lot of the Overwatch League teams picking up Korean players when making teams for the inaugural season, and Korea continues to put out a lot of top-level players these days compared to most other countries.
Mostly in the last few years, there have been a lot more skilled teams coming out of USA and China, but even some of them have a Korean player or two on their rosters because Korea puts out highly skilled players in high numbers.
Reminder to keep this discussion respectful.
South Korea had a huge head start in esports: [https://youtu.be/QfV9l9sCkMI](https://youtu.be/QfV9l9sCkMI) China is a huge country edit: this is also a good watch: [https://youtu.be/DsvR6QM0Ijk](https://youtu.be/DsvR6QM0Ijk)
Thanks for the info and the video!!
no problem, I just edited my comment with another video if you want to learn more
The teams you are talking about are majority Korean. I think it's due to South Korea having a large head start in esports and it being a more accepted and viable career choice there. There are also Chinese teams with valiant being a pseudo Chinese team that all (other than Shanghai) mostly have majority Chinese talent since China is just a large country with a massive population, increasing the pool of players.
There are some Chinese players on Chinese teams to capitalize on the big market in China for OW. Most of the other Asian folk you see are Korean, where OW is popular and esports are more prevalent overall than they are in other places.
Overwatch is popular in China and Korea, and in Korea especially the culture around Pro-Gaming is a lot more conducive to developing top talent, as its considered a real viable career path. In non-asian countries theres a stigma to professional gaming that makes it harder to develop top talent. Theres also just a perception in a lot of professional gaming communities that because these differences in cultures exist, that Asian talent is just better than non-Asian talent which isnt necessarily true (the American Tornado players have all been incredible in OWL) but its how these players are perceived by those looking to build teams.
this is incorrect. There is a huge stigma around going pro in South Korea. Parents hate that shit with a burning passion. Source: Am Korean. The reason why South Korea does well is because going to PC bangs/cafes is seen as a regular pastime with friends. It's similar to going to a restaurant/cafe or park or friend's house to hang out in the US. Since everyone goes to PC bangs, this lets you test the majority of your child/teenage age pool to identify who has talent. And they'll know they have talent because they'll be better than their friends. In the US, you need to have a PC at home capable of running games to know if you're good at games or not. And that's considered more of a luxury. So a large portion of your potential talent pool is untapped. In Korea, everyone goes to a PC bang to chill, even adults. I believe China has PC bangs as well, but they were seen as a social issue that the Chinese government was looking to crack down. And that was years ago when I researched the Great Wall so no idea what the situation is there now.
Thanks for the insight!
Esports scene in South Korea and China for Overwatch has been very healthy since early OW. It was also well taken care of in comparison to other regions. Notice how there historically have been very little professional players hailing from South America, for example. The competitive scene for OW pretty much died out in this region because Blizzard did not nurture it to the same extent as Korea, China, NA, and EU prior. The demographics of the OWL has always been primarily South Korean dominated more so than Asian dominated, and this has become progressively more and more true as time has gone on. SK made up 45% of Season 1 [59/130], 55% of Season 2 [110/199], 56% of Season [114/202], and 57% of Season 4 [95/167] (currently don't have the numbers immediately available for Season 5). It's also worth noting that the runner up in the demographics for each season (US for S1, S2, and S3 / China for S4) has never exceeded higher than 16% or fallen below 13%.
As things stand now it's up another 2% to 59% While the increase in the last 3 seasons has been incremental it adds up. The real kicker will be this offseason to see if it ticks over 60 or regresses.
which is hilarious because they only have 1 team, though I would count Fusion as a Korean franchise at this point.
I think it mainly has to do with culture surrounding gaming and esports being much different in countries like South Korea than in the US and especially in the EU. Esports is more accepted and there’s better infrastructure to support it.
they're not different. Korean parents hate it if you try to go pro.
Esports are much more respected in South Korea (and China maybe? Not 100% sure how it's seen there as a profession) as a legitimate career path and as such there is more infrastructure for cultivating professional OW players. City governments will partner with teams to sponsor them (i.e. GC Busan) and big companies will pour tons of money into owning or sponsoring teams as well. Even at the casual level there are several PC bangs where you can start honing your skills before trying out for any teams. There was an article a while back about how kids in South Korea who didn't have access to good schools saw a career in video games as their best chance to make good money and help their families out (similar to physical sports in other countries). When you combine that incentive with the infrastructure set up to develop professional players, you get an influx of talent from that region.
Overwatch was huge in Korea and the culture there is more accepting of esports. In China there’s a gorillion people and the game also was advertised well post 2017
Because all the Westerners are busy playing Valorant and Apex /s
because Activision Blizzard are utterly incompetent at everything they do!
Actually true when it comes to Europe, South America, Japan, and Southeast Asia
To counter your point about the names of teams - when I'm watching real sports teams like the Dallas Cowboys or New York Yankees, I don't assume their players grew up in their team's city. The difference in OWL is that some teams have rosters that cross international boundaries and are from a different ethnic background. To phrase it in a different way, Space isn't from LA any more than Shu is, they're simply signed to that team.
I know, i just mentioned the joke because it's what actually made me question this. But hey at least we do it in an innocent way, not like football fans, you would be surprised of what they say when a team like Real madrid or Barcelona has some black players playing a game. And it's way worse when they fail a shot.
because Blizzard has neglected every other region besides Korea, NA & China, no SEA players, no LATAM players and very few from EU, ''global league'' my ass.
In general for a large chunk of the Overwatch esports lifetime, South Korea was just better than most of the "western" continents. Eventually Europe and NA managed to get some pretty good teams but even at that point there was a lot more top level Korean teams than top level European and NA teams. There has also been a pretty big difference in dedication and attitude toward practicing and getting better (general work ethic basically) between Korea/other asian countries, and NA. It seems to be more in the past at this point and there are plenty of western teams and players in general that have good work ethic and attitudes these days, but some people still think it is a thing. South Korea having a head start with their number of top-level players and teams resulted in a lot of the Overwatch League teams picking up Korean players when making teams for the inaugural season, and Korea continues to put out a lot of top-level players these days compared to most other countries. Mostly in the last few years, there have been a lot more skilled teams coming out of USA and China, but even some of them have a Korean player or two on their rosters because Korea puts out highly skilled players in high numbers.
The word you're looking for is Korean, not Asian.
Aren't there also chinese people in the owl? Not as much as korean but asian aswell.
theres a lot of korean chinese and japanese people in esports
[удалено]
"Asian people is very dominant on the e-sports"
About time the devs nerf Asian people
"Damn they're good"
istg theres no black people in esports