The new beginning — the results of Overwatch League 2022 Kickoff Clash

Loading

June 5 marked the end of the first tournament of the Overwatch League 2022 regular season, the Kickoff Clash. This was the first event in the history of the Overwatch League that was played on the new Overwatch 2. The competition has become one of the most popular Overwatch League tournaments of the year, not in the least due to community casting. But at the same time, the audience kept decreasing throughout the event. Esports Charts will review the results of the tournament and the viewership statistics of the Overwatch League 2022 Kickoff Clash.

Tournament results

The Overwatch League 2022 Kickoff Clash playoffs were held on June 2-5, and the qualifiers for the tournament lasted almost a month, from May 5 to May 29. The final part of the tournament for American teams from the West Coast took place in the Esports Stadium Arlington, while teams from the East played the playoffs in an online format. The prize fund of the competition amounted to $225K for the West and $105.5K for the East.

The event was held using the beta version of the game’s new installment: Overwatch 2. The format has also changed: teams now played 5x5 with new maps and win conditions - as the usual 2CP (Two Control Point) format was gone. The competitions were held on the maps divided into four categories: Control, Hybrid, Escort, and Push.

The Los Angeles Gladiators won the Overwatch League 2022 Kickoff Clash in America, beating the Korean team Dallas Fuel with a score of 4:0 in the final. For the Los Angeles Gladiators, this victory was the second after their success at the Overwatch League 2021 - Countdown Cup last year. In the East, the Seoul Dynasty became the champions scoring a 4:0 victory over the Philadelphia Fusion. It should be reminded that it was the Seoul Dynasty that won the first tournament of the Overwatch pro season in 2017.

Viewership statistics

Overwatch League 2022 Kickoff Clash generated 7.3M Hours Watched in 146 hours of the airtime. 121K Peak Viewers gathered during the qualifier match between Los Angeles Gladiators, the winners of this competition, and the New York Excelsior, two-time Overwatch League champions. Notably, none of the playoffs games was featured in the top 5 most popular matches of the tournament; all matches from the top 5 took place in the first week of the competition.

As part of the new season, Blizzard announced that it would be possible to host community casting on YouTube for some matches of the opening week. The only conditions were to fill out an application and organize a stream exclusively on YouTube. Amateur broadcasts of matches were launched by notable celebrities – such as DrLupo, as well as Sideshow (a former commentator and analyst who left the OWL broadcast studio last year) and former pro player and current Kentucky Esports coach Samito. It was the matches of the first day (which were also covered by independent casters) that became the most popular in terms of Peak Viewers for the entire tournament.

The most viewed team was the Dallas Fuel, with a total of 1.2M Hours Watched. Dallas Fuel is a subsidiary of Team Envy, a rather popular (and media-present) organization in North America, primarily known for its Call of Duty roster.

The tournament, like all major Blizzard titles, was broadcast exclusively on YouTube in four languages, with English being the main one.

The tournament’s negative trend came from the viewership dynamics during the competition. While the matches in the first week gathered 121K Peak Viewers and 88K Average Viewers, the Peak Viewers figure of the second week decreased by half and amounted to only 63K, while the Average Viewers indicator decreased by 40%. Throughout the tournament, the viewership figures kept decreasing to 37K Average Viewers during the 4th week. The viewership increased slightly during the final days of the playoffs and amounted to 41.5K Average Viewers at the finals.

Different OWL conferences enjoy different levels of success with the audience. The Western final, which was held in the LAN format, gathered 52.9K Peak Viewers. The Eastern final gathered about 20% fewer Peak Viewers.

Most popular OWL events in 2021-2022

When looking at the Peak Viewers indicators of the Overwatch League tournaments over the past year, Kickoff Clash was second only to the Overwatch League 2021 Playoffs with its 134K Peak Viewers. But in terms of Average Viewers, the event became only the fourth, being 40% behind the Overwatch League 2021 Playoffs (watched by 85K Average Viewers).

Overwatch League Midseason Madness matches will start already on June 16. The playoffs of this tournament will be held without division into regions, which should increase the event’s Hours Watched.

The Overwatch League 2022 Kickoff Clash and the debut of Overwatch 2 allow slight optimism regarding the restart of the entire series. The successful debut of community streaming should be noted as well. If it is going to be present further at Blizzard tournaments, it will definitely help with expanding and enlarging the game's audience, the same way as it happens in Valorant and CS:GO.