It was with excitement that Overwatch League fans sat down to watch the stream of the Opening Weekend of the 2020 season, and it was with frustration that fans watched the first match... and the next, and the next -- the broadcast was terrible.
In a departure from the previous two years, Blizzard made a deal with YouTube Gaming for YouTube to be the sole service used by Blizzard to stream all its professional games and tournaments -- Overwatch League included.
Perhaps it was the new platform, or having to stream from a place other than Blizzard Arena, or just simply technical problems, but from the get go, Opening Weekend was full of irritating and unprofessional mistakes.
Transitions came at the wrong time fairly often and the broadcast cut to an ad in the middle of the halftime show of the first match, leaving the analysts confused. Ads were replayed one too many times, often bringing the broadcast back in a full minute or so after the round of play had already started.
At one point, the visuals cut away from the action entirely, taking the viewers to another ad screen. We could hear the game and hear the commentators, but that chunk of the game wasn't shown -- and apparently wasn't recorded, as the mistake remains in the VOD. And good luck if you're trying to watch the VOD from Day 2. The video is missing the entire WatchPoint Preshow, and starts just barely in time to watch the first match.
Even with all of these mistakes, the matches were incredibly fun to watch. It's been a long time since the Grand Finals of last year, which means a long time since we were able to see live, professional Overwatch. Fans were just as excited as the players for the season to start again. With a new patch as well as many roster and staff changes on every team in the League, no one knew what to expect. And it was all delightful -- the parts we were able to watch, at least.
Hopefully, the broadcasting mistakes were simply first day hiccups as both OWL and YouTube are getting used to this new partnership. However, if production continues the way it has, then it would be in Blizzard's best interests to return to Twitch.
Sources: Overwatch League