Finally, the Overwatch World Cup in-game viewer is live and ready for Blizzcon! So many people have been asking for this, but how do fans use the viewer?
Take control of your Overwatch World Cup viewing experience.
The Overwatch World Cup Viewer puts professional esports observer tools at your fingertips. Pre-download available now.https://t.co/OBvqY21miL pic.twitter.com/cLWxQZR6GE
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) October 31, 2018
Many people have been wondering when Blizzard and Overwatch would release this feature, and now, the day has arrived. The Overwatch World Cup Viewer puts all the action at the hands of the fans. All you need to do is go to your Battle.net and download the program. As long as you have an Overwatch license on your account, you can use the viewer! The download is available right now, where you can pre-download it before the start of the Overwatch World Cup on November 2nd. Also, if you missed any of the games, the VODs will be available for playing in the viewer for a month.
Features of the Overwatch World Cup viewer
What can this program do for you? From what Blizzard has told us, this viewer is a custom-made spectator mode for every Overwatch World Cup game. Blizzard would explain the viewer on their blog post, saying:
We’ve taken professional esports observer tools from the big stage and put them in your hands at home so you can curate your viewing experience. Watch live games alongside hundreds of thousands of other players around the world from all of the first or third-person, birds’, or worms’-eye views that are most important to you. Curious how South Korea’s Widowmaker landed the seemingly out of nowhere headshot on Australia’s Mercy? You can simply watch from her perspective as she lines up a pixel-perfect shot to secure the elimination before seamlessly snapping your camera back to the main teamfight on the payload.
There are multiple buttons that are available for use during the game, all to control your personal viewing experience:
- N: Show/Hide media controls
- Scroll Wheel Up: Increase playback speed
- Scroll Wheel Down: Decrease playback speed
- CTRL-P: Play/Pause
- Spacebar: Toggle between first-person and third-person view
- Left/Right click: Detach from first-person and third-person view to free camera
- WASD: Standard camera movement
- Q & E: Move camera up/Down
- F1-F12: Spectate players (corresponds with player list in media controls)
- 0: Snap to the objective
- CTRL-I: Show map overlay
- CTRL1-CNTRL9: Save bookmarks
- 1-9: Restore camera bookmarks
Although it may look complicated now, it should be relatively easy to master by the time the games roll around.
Learn from the Pros!
With the new spectator system, fans can now watch the Overwatch World Cup games however they wish. For example, if a person wants to learn how a certain pro plays a certain champ, they can spectate them in first-person mode. The camera will never leave the player unless the fan wants it to. However, you can also spectate individual players on the entire team, and you can switch from player to player with ease. This will help people understand how to react against certain compositions.
If someone wants to learn the ins and outs of professional team play, then the map overlay is the way to go. This will send the camera up in the sky for a birds-eye view of the map. Each player will have individual hero icons that tell you exactly what is occurring to that player with status indicators. You can even set up static cameras across the different maps so that you won’t miss any of the action. Viewers will have to bookmark where their camera locations are though. People will also have slow motion available for video montages, which is a nice touch for the viewer.
Note that all of the technology available is in beta, and bugs should be expected with the product.
What are your thoughts on the Overwatch World Cup Viewer? Let us know what you think in the comments below! If you want more Overwatch coverage, check us out here!
