The stage at Burbank Studios set up for Overwatch League competition. (Robert Paul / Blizzard Entertainment)
The future of entertainment and its historic past collide on a Burbank, Calif., soundstage, just north of Hollywood. Not even Carnac the Magnificent could have seen it coming.
Blizzard Arena was created to host the inaugural season of the esports Overwatch League, whose 12 franchises reportedly fetched as much as $20 million each. League owners have ties to traditional sports teams, including the NFL’s New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams, Major League Baseball’s New York Mets and Texas Rangers, plus a pair of monarchs — the NHL’s L.A. Kings and the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.
It’s the first esports league in which teams represent home cities, where they eventually will play their home games. Until then, the matches are played at Blizzard Arena, except for this month’s sold-out championship, slated for Barclays Center.
Four days each week, six-person teams compete onstage at the Burbank Studios, just a few steps from where Johnny Carson and Jay Leno held court on “The Tonight Show” for more than 30 years.
It’s a little surreal for participants and patrons, at least those of a certain vintage. After all, Johnny Carson retired in 1992, before the lion’s share of players, coaches and crew were born, and Carson died in 2005, around the time many of these folks were first picking up a game controller.
“It’s humbling. Unlike many of our pro players, I’m old enough to remember the wide-ranging cultural impact of the late ’80s: Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, and that’s a great North Star for us to shoot for in the Overwatch League,” notes Nate Nanzer, commissioner of the nascent esports league. “Just like those TV shows were touchstones in their day, we believe esports will be the same in the 21st century, and we want to live up to that legacy.”
Bry Gillman drove 375 miles from Jackson, Calif., to a recent match day at Blizzard Arena to support the Los Angeles Gladiators, one of two L.A. teams in the league. Gillman, 31, and some gamer buddies made the road trip to their first esports match, and Gillman gave the arena and experience a thumbs up, saying both were “cool and entertaining.” He was surprised and excited to hear of the arena’s “Tonight Show” connection: ”That’s nostalgic. I can’t wait to tell my dad,” he said as he whipped out his phone.
The competitors readily acknowledge that something special was produced onstage here, but 21-year-old pro gamer Jake Lyon, who plays for the Overwatch League’s Houston Outlaws, asserts that the stage “holds the same significance but to a different population. … We’re doing something different and being at the forefront is really cool.”
While a star for Carson’s monologue “mark” remains underneath the current floor, there is little beyond a mural in a backstage hallway harkening back to the studio’s prior TV life. But Overwatch employees joke about seeing sets for the soap opera “Days of Our Lives,” which still shoots down the hall near the league’s second soundstage, mostly used for an analysis show.
Staging esports is no small feat. In fact, Frank LaSpina, Overwatch senior producer, broadcast, says a fully staffed crew of 200 stages the show and livestreams it. The Overwatch broadcast producer notes there are over 500 LED tiles and more than 28 million pixels used to create the crisp, clear screen that provides the live studio audience a way to follow the onscreen action.
There are two separate audio mixes to keep teams from stealing strategy, and the league locks down peripherals (keyboards, headsets, etc.) to prevent teams from modifying their equipment.
Carson’s star may remain under the new floor, but LaSpina says everything else in the studio has been reconfigured or rebuilt: “We’ve kept everything that would be considered historic, with the ability to restore it,” including audience chairs and the original mirrors from Carson’s original dressing room. The seats were replaced with modern seating more conducive for watching six-hour matches.
Blizzard transformed the former broadcast control room into the Sky Box. It has a glass window affording views for owners and VIPs to see out over the crowd and down to the stage and screen. The league works with the arena and caterers to provide high-end food and beverage for the luxury box.
A modest gift shop greets fans entering Blizzard Arena, selling team jerseys, T-shirts, and vinyl figures from the video game. A small snack bar is down the darkened ground-floor hallway that opens up into a virtual world of lights and sound.
The giant screen provides a sellout crowd of 500 fans with a “free view” (an overview of the game action). During the regular season, tickets were $20 on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and $30 on Saturdays, with promotional two-packs and four-packs for some matches.
The teams each occupy one side of the stage, seated side-by-side at consoles. Fans generally cluster to the same side of the venue as their team. Audio blares from speakers with game action and livecasting (play-by-play for live streams on Twitch and corporate sister company Major League Gaming), reminiscent of traditional sports.
The league counts HP, Intel, Toyota and T-Mobile as major sponsors, with ads airing during the streams and also onscreen in the arena. The designated home team in each match can also run ads for its corporate partners.
The league’s match days are shot in front of a live studio audience, which demonstrated an intimate knowledge of the game at a recent match, cheering and beating thundersticks when its team attacked or repelled the enemy.
“The live audience adds organic energy to the broadcast you can’t get any other way,” LaSpina says.
Looking to the future of esports, Lyon would like to see new esports venues offer a more communal atmosphere with restaurants and other shared spaces: “You could bring people in earlier and keep them later and make the stage more meaningful instead of just a place to go watch a match. We’re all gamers, and fans are excited about video games generally. The chance to play all together would be very exciting.”