Mike Morhaime, president and a co-founder of Blizzard, has high hopes for the future of esports and the Overwatch League.

In a recent interview with Polygon, Morhaime outlined several aspirations he had for his company’s marquee title. Chief among them was the hometown team model of which OWL is built around.

Unlike most other esports, OWL has regionally-based teams (though they all play in Los Angeles for now).  Morhaime’s hope is that this model will lead to more fans and more revenue for the teams’ owners. 

Regional teams are a tried and true method in traditional sports, but Blizzard is the first to try it in the esports arena. So far, it seems to be working fine, but the real challenge will be when teams actually try to play in places other than Los Angles. 

Travel, especially international travel, is a big barrier in traditional esports. Long distances and the changing of time zones have a real impact on players both mentally and physically. This is a primary reason why there are no major intercontinental sports leagues. If OWL wants to be the first, they’ve got a lot of logistics to get figured out first. 

Morhaime is unsurprisingly confident about the future of the Overwatch League, but he’s also certain that esports in general have a bright future. ”With esports, we’re at an inflection point right now,” he says. Morhaime sees OWL as an opportunity for Blizzard to “fix some of the problems that exist” in esports.

One things for sure, Blizzard isn’t afraid to put its money where it’s mouth is. The company has poured money into OWL at an almost alarming rate. From building a new dedicated stadium to a seemingly endless stream of promotional materials, it’s been hard to avoid Overwatch for the past couple years.

The success of OWL is far from guaranteed, but Morhaime and his team have done everything they can to set it up for success.

The first half of the inaugural OWL season ended recently, and Stage 2 is already underway. The finals aren’t until summer and we’ll likely have to wait at least until then for Blizzard to maybe release official numbers on the season. Even then, the company is notorious for keeping quantifiable stats off the table. 

That being said, if you look purely at Twitch viewer ship, it’s clear that OWL has seen some drop off since its first week. 

Still, it’s too early to call the first season of the Overwatch League a success or a failure.