OWL Season 1: A Reflection

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Hello! My first season of the Overwatch League has officially concluded now so I wanted to write something to sum up my thoughts about how it went overall. It's the least I can do for the adventure that changed my life. To be honest, I haven't written at all ever since I graduated high school and writing was never my strong suit in school so please bear with me.

To start, coming into the Overwatch League for me was like a dream. As cliche as it sounds, I was just a regular university freshman that was doubting whether I really wanted to pursue my major of Biology. When I got offered to tryout for an Overwatch League team, I dedicated all my time and effort into preparing for this so when I actually received the contract from Valiant, it was quite literally the most surreal moment of my life. After that, time passed like a blur and I formed so many new relationships and learned so much about the game and myself. Before OWL, the only team I ever played on was when I "trialed" for CLG and it only lasted for around 2 months so I was definitely a huge rookie coming into the league. Joining a team full of Overwatch veterans was a huge leap for me and adjusting to the life of a professional gamer was definitely not easy. Anyways, I've already talked about this shift for me enough in the past through interviews and whatnot so I'll address thoughts I haven't really been able to express yet now that the season's over.

Joining Gladiators mid-season was a good reset for my OWL career. My mentality was given a fresh start and I was able to grow with a new team. It was very needed at the time due to both in-game and personal life stresses/issues I was dealing with. With Gladiators, I didn't get to play too much on stage during the regular season, but after we made it to playoffs and the patch/meta change came, I was able to prove myself to the coaches and show them the hard work I've been putting in while the main roster was scrimming. Due to this, I was given a good amount of maps to play for playoffs and the period of time leading up to when playoffs begin was the hardest I ever worked in Overwatch. I grinded the game every day and night to improve my mechanics while also studying the new meta and how to better communicate with my team. It sounds silly to say but I think it was during this period of time that I truly realized and learned how to play Overwatch as a team player.

I acknowledge that many people think of me as a subpar DPS "bench player" and while it's true that I wasn't able to play a lot during season 1 of OWL on the main stage, I genuinely believe my true potential as a player hasn't been uncovered yet. Grinding for playoffs and getting playtime on 4/8 playoff maps (specifically Kings Row, Eichenwalde, Volskaya, and Dorado) was something I worked really hard for and earned. It was not given to me out of pity or any other subsequent reason. From this, our crushing 6-0 loss to Spitfire this past Saturday was all the more heavy of a defeat to me personally. The culmination of hard work I put in to prepare for playoffs felt like it was all for naught and that I had butchered my "redemption" and "final chance" to prove to people my potential as a player. I will not deny that I believe I heavily underperformed to both my own expectations and the results we were having in practice in these past two sets against Spitfire. Even as a team, I know we underperformed as a whole. However, something I've learned very well after coming into OWL is that ultimately, things will not always go your way in life. Pushing through these adversities and using them as learning experiences for the future is the best possible outcome for yourself. So yes - I am dejected through our loss but at the same time I am grateful for this defeat. I will never forget how empty, lost, and sad I felt after the match but it will be a permanent reminder and motivator for me to improve and continue grinding. I never want to feel like this again.

Moving on from here, I will continue to grind and practice Overwatch. I mean, I truly do love this game despite the amount of frustration it can cause me (haha ranked). This is just the very beginning of my career in Overwatch. So, to all of my fans who have supported me thus far and continue to support me, THANK YOU! Waking up to positive comments through all the different platforms of social media has truly kept me sane through the endless grind and I definitely would not have gotten here without your guys' support. To my ex-teammates in Valiant: thank you for taking me under your wing and teaching me the basics of what it's like to play professionally. It was a fantastic learning experience to play with all of you guys and good luck through the rest of your journey in playoffs. Win the entire season, I'll be cheering for you guys! To my current teammates in Gladiators: you guys are honestly like a family to me. Thank you for not only being the greatest teammates I could have ever asked for, but amazing friends as well. To the coaching staff, management, and marketing team of Gladiators, you guys have been incredible. There's honestly too many things I have to thank you guys for - the countless pieces of feedback I've received both in-game and out of game, the advice for interviews and how to better present myself, the countless little things I needed help with when first settling in at the Gladiator's house, I seriously could go on about all of these different things for hours. And finally, thank you to Blizzard for creating this league and having it be a reality. I am not lying when I say that the Overwatch League has far surpassed my expectations and it's only been the inaugural season. I'm so excited to see how much more this league can grow as I hopefully grow with it.

I guess that's everything I have to really say, this turned out being a lot longer than I had originally anticipated so for anyone who actually read everything up to here, I feel a little bit sorry for you. I do take pride in being the first player in OWL to have played for both Los Angeles teams, what a coincidence my two favorite colors are purple and green as well. Anyways, thank you for reading! It's currently 2:58 AM and I'm not tired in the slightest but I'm glad I was able to reflect and put my thoughts out onto paper. Sayonara!

-Ted

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