Overwatch Contenders teams ‘go on strike’ mid-broadcast

Blizzard Entertainment

The players in the regional Overwatch Contenders tournament are facing a different kind of problem. Players in the European Overwatch Contenders Summer Series refused to play after a competitive ruling ended a match early.

In the off-week of the Overwatch League as teams rest up from the chaos of the Midseason Madness tournament, a tournament was run by the company. The summer series is a double-elimination tournament with a winner's and loser's brackets. According to several players involved in the tournament, the game that would determine which team would go on to the grand final and which team would fall to the loser's brackets final was between the two teams.

It is not normal for matches other than the grand finals to be a best of 7. The winner of the finals match was assured that the match was best of seven by the player who reached out to the administrator.

There were two teams playing.

The score was tied 2-2 after the first two maps, but 01 Esports won the next two maps and brought the score back to 2-2. It is here when things get out of hand.

The game was supposed to be a best of five, not a best of seven, according to the administrators. The win was given to the team that was the first to play three maps. This caused a huge backlash against the company on social media as players from the two teams started sharing their conversations with the tournament admins to confirm that the match would be best of seven.

They coordinated with Ex Oblivione to strike since they were going to play in the loser's brackets.

pic.twitter.com/zMEZNri9S0

— Ex Oblivione (@ExOblivioneOW) July 28, 2022

Aron "ANJ" de Jong is a support player on the team.

He said that they had to play against Ex Oblivione in the loser's section. We made an agreement with them that they couldn't treat the players like that. We decided to play the game but not compete because we wanted to make a statement.

The players on both teams refuse to play the objective in the broadcast below. It is a fantastic bit of collective action that is also pretty funny as the caster realize that nobody is taking this seriously.

The broadcast was stopped after this demonstration. A tournament admin threatened to disqualify both teams if they refused to play if a player from Ex Oblivione sent a text message.

pic.twitter.com/M572a2zyzD

— Helv (@Helv_OW) July 28, 2022

When players and fans started using the #ContendersStrike to bring attention to the issue, it gained enough traction to become a hot topic on the social networking site.

Twitter / The Verge

The next steps were explained in a statement by the team.

Ex Oblivione and 01 Esports will not be disqualified for their demonstration and will be allowed to continue the match. Some feel that the miscommunication and subsequent backlash is indicative of a bigger problem with the company.

"Blizzard needs to own up to their lack of communication between their staff and the teams." It happens a lot that we don't have critical information.

Think of it as a minor league sport. It has its own structure and is run by third-party tournament organizers. Without a thriving amateur community, teams in the League would have a hard time finding talent to fill their ranks.

The out roar isn't the only reason, says a tank in a message. "Blizzard has done a poor job of communicating with the participants of thetenders."