Overwatch League tokens are back for 2023, but not as they were in seasons past. Here’s the various rewards offerings coming next week.
Praise be, all of our bellyaching seems to have worked! Missing from the entirety of the OWL Pro-Am West--minus a lame token "giveaway" in chat--it appears Overwatch League tokens will their 2023 season return next week. Blizzard detailed the various giveaways for the start of the season and the Spring Qualifier stage
It's also not super-clear as to how long players will be able to earn tokens. Always a catch with these guys.
Overwatch League tokens are back baybee
As in typical Blizzard fashion, the verbage isn't quite clear in regards to how long viewers will earn Overwatch League tokens. According to their website, "Fans with linked accounts enjoying the Overwatch League opening weekend matches from April 27-30 will receive 5 tokens per hour for all matches and double token drops for select matches."
That's great, but it also seems to allude that tokens will only be available for viewers on those dates. It says nothing about matches past opening weekend. Instead, it offers up rewards for viewing a certain number of hours of OWL.
For the Spring Stage:
- After watching 6 hours of the Spring Stage, you can earn the Genji Overwatch League home and away skins.
- After watching 10 hours of the Spring Stage, you can earn the Orisa Overwatch League home and away skins.
Misseason Madness and Summer Stage rewards will be reviewed later on.
Why the ambiguity?
If the wording on this announcement feels shady then you aren't alone. After all, the league made a big announcement about Overwatch League tokens being available during the Pro-Am, only for that to be in regards to giveaways. Is there a particular reason why it seems the amount of earnable tokens from the previous seasons is now different for 2023?
There's no official reason, but we do have one tinfoil hat theory: The amount of tokens required to purchase a skin in-game increased with the rollover of the new OWL skins a month back. The company may have decided that it was no longer viable to give away so many tokens when the game is now free-to-play.
Will this affect viewership numbers? Let's wait and see.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for esports news and more OWL info.