Fnatic's cArn: Blizzard did "a tremendous job" with Overwatch

In London last week Fnatic announced their brand new League of Legends team, but the entire Overwatch team were also at the event as well. We caught up with Fnatic's Chief Gaming Officer Patrik "cArn" Sättermon to talk about Overwatch and his thoughts on Blizzard's game.

"Overwatch - super positive, super excited about this title. Obviously it went out in beta and alpha before, but early this summer it was released," he said. "I think Blizzard has communicated they have something like 20 million unique players already, which is remarkable. We obviously have the Overwatch League coming out in 2017, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, it's just a very cool concept, where you marry the world of FPS and MOBA together, and I think they've done a tremendous job on everything from the ranking, the arcade mode, the different game modes and all that."

"I'm just a bit mind-blown at how great the game has been from a very early point. Looking at CS:GO, a Valve title, with all respect, I built my career on CS, but it took a bit of time for that game to mature and to become like... I wouldn't say 'playable', but viable and accepted by the pro circuit. So yeah, Overwatch and Blizzard have done a phenomenal job."

We also asked whether he sees Overwatch lasting a long time going forward. "Definitely. It all depends on Blizzard and their partners," he responded, but added that it's not quite the same as other esports titles at the moment. "Now I kind of look at it to a certain degree as a casual game, meaning I don't think the conversion rate between an average player and esport is that great right now, which you have in League of Legends," he continued, "much thanks to the longevity of the LCS which has been around for many, many years now, and CS and CS:GO have always been native esports. I think Blizzard has a little bit of work to do in terms of making the esports side of things more comprehensive. I think they have everything they need to do that, but looking at subscribers on the Overwatch page, compared to the viewership on Twitch streams, you see the potential there as it's not tapped in as much as it could be."

What do you think of cArn's thoughts on the future of Overwatch? Let us know below!