Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel has claimed the Overwatch League inflated its viewership numbers by viewbotting, and that it contributed to his determination to go away skilled play.
xQc was reacting to a 2019 video by which Mark Cuban stated the Overwatch League had reached a concurrent viewership peak of 300,000. Nonetheless, Lengyel pushed again on these figures and alleged the numbers have been artificially boosted – implying the actual viewership was nearer to 14,000.
“These numbers have been so botted,” xQc stated. “These numbers have been so botted, it’s comical. Brother, for a number of years, they tried to cover the numbers.”
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xQc claims OWL numbers have been inflated
Increasing on his claims, xQc stated he had heard completely different figures from a supply in the course of the league’s early testing part on Main League Gaming.
“They ran a check on MLG,” he stated. “For the preseason, they stated, ‘we’re going to run Overwatch League on MLG TV.’ And I had an insider whistleblower that was speaking to me. I’m not going to say who. And he instructed me the numbers of how many individuals have been really watching. And I went, ‘Yo!?’”
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xQc didn’t present proof for the declare and didn’t title the supply he referenced.
The previous Overwatch professional additionally stated the state of affairs influenced how he considered his personal future within the league, significantly when balancing streaming with skilled play.
“I had already signed the contracts to play within the Overwatch League. Once I heard that, I used to be like… I’m already beginning to set up my exit,” he stated. “How am I going to market myself as a 10k Andy to a 14k Andy stream?”
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He added that restrictions in OWL contracts restricted his means to stream throughout official matches, which factored into his decision-making.
“Why would I take days off to follow? Go to the workplace, follow. Do scrims. Do matches. I can’t stream, I can’t make movies, I can’t vlog. I wasn’t even allowed to stream when the video games have been stay,” he stated. “So why would I lose all the things with nothing to realize? It’s simply concerning the change of worth.”
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