Blizzard is hoping Overwatch 2 leads to a superb OWL season 5

theverge.com:

The fifth season of the Overwatch League is all about “new.” With opening day on May 5th, this season boasts a new 5v5 format, a new game mode, new maps, a new commissioner, and even a completely new game as players shift from Overwatch to the Overwatch 2 beta. But with this season of new comes old problems. The pandemic still impacts logistics like international travel and live, in-person events. And the League itself is struggling with waning popularity amid backlash against its embattled developer, a lengthy off-season, and beloved players and talent leaving the League for greener pastures. The Verge spoke with League commissioner Sean Miller who discussed the challenges, triumphs, and expectations of a radically new Overwatch League.

This season, the Overwatch League will be played on the Overwatch 2 beta. Matches will be scaled from six players per team to five, eliminating one of the two tank roles in the standard format of two tanks, two healers, and two damagers. The Overwatch 2 beta also brings with it a new game mode called Push, eliminating the much maligned (but honestly not that bad) Assault mode.

Sean Miller, the League’s new commissioner, who took over the role about six months ago, is banking that the new game will be critical to this season’s success.

The day after Overwatch 2 began its closed beta, the game enjoyed its most popular day on Twitch ever, amassing over 1.5 million concurrent views. The bump neatly coincided with a one-day promotion that guaranteed OW2 closed beta keys to viewers who watched at least four hours of select streamers. When the promotion ended the next day, those numbers fell off a very steep cliff. Though the one-day high doesn’t seem to indicate an organic increase in interest