Overwatch Commissioner: League's Appeal Lies in Local Teams
*By Jacqueline Corba*
The commissioner of the Overwatch League has some thoughts on what makes the esports competition so popular: attaching teams to cities to get fans excited.
"What you see in esports is the fandom around Overwatch Leagueーaround these cities. It manifests in exactly the same way that you see fandom manifest in traditional sports," said Nate Nanzer in an interview with Cheddar from the Cannes Lions festival Tuesday. "We wanted to make an esport league that was really easy to follow and really easy to be a fan of."
And so far the strategy seems to have worked. The league, which was announced just last January, has already [inked a $90 million, two-year](https://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/news/2018/05/24/activision-blizzard-shops-new-deals-for-overwatch.html), exclusive deal with gaming site Twitch to stream all of the league's games. And the inaugural season's Grand Finals sold out more than 20,000 seats at Brooklyn's Barclays Center in a matter of days.
"We are excited to bring it to Brooklyn and show the biggest city in the world what kind of show we can put on," Nanzer said
Six of twelve teams in the league qualified for this season's playoffs: New York Excelsior, Los Angeles Valiant, Boston Uprising, Los Angeles Gladiators, London Spitfire, and Philadelphia Fusion. The Grand Finals take place July 27-July 28 at the [Barclay's Center](http://www.barclayscenter.com/events/detail/overwatch-league-grand-finals-2018).
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/inside-the-growth-of-esports).
Online retailer eBay Inc. will cut about 1,000 jobs, or an estimated 9% of its full-time workforce. The announcement follows similar moves by other tech companies that ramped up hiring during the pandemic while people spent more time and money online.
Tony Drake, CFP at Drake and Associates, LLC shares thoughts on whether the record gains in technology will broaden to other sectors, the risks of the Fed keeping interest rates higher for too long, and the health of the U.S. consumer.
The Federal Trade Commission ruled that Intuit engaged in deceptive practices by running ads claiming consumers could file their taxes for free using TurboTax — when many taxpayers did not qualify for such free offerings.
WWE’s weekly television show, “Raw,” will move to Netflix next year as part of a major streaming deal worth more than $5 billion. WWE, which is part of TKO Group Holdings Inc., said Tuesday that “Raw” will air on Netflix starting in January 2025.
Propublica national reporter Peter Elkind shares details on his investigation into how scammers stole over $1 billion using Walmart's gift cards and financial services, and how consumers can protect themselves.
Ed Siddell, CEO and Chief Investment Advisor at EGIS financial explains why election years tend to cause bull markets, the latest inflation data, and why he’s concerned about the ‘debt bubble.’
