While the Overwatch League have had its share on issues, Overwatch Contenders seems to have more. These issues have ranged between max exodus of players retiring, academy teams disbanding, and lack of payments for months.
To address some of these concerns, Overwatch Esports Vice President Jon Spector took to Reddit to address some of these in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 scene. Spector stated:
I also want to talk a little about Tier 2 and Tier 3 competitive Overwatch. We’ve heard a lot of feedback from players, organizations, and the community about the Path to Pro ecosystem. While the system has produced many exciting OWL players over the last few years, we know it hasn’t met many other goals that we all have for this part of the pro scene. Our Path to Pro team is actively exploring potential changes to the model. One early idea we think has a lot of potential is running more community tournaments, as we believe the recent Breakable Barriers and Echo tournaments were very successful and fun for the broader competitive community.
