Overwatch subreddit rounding up highlight videos into daily threads

Taylor Cocke
That sick D.Va ult is going to have to be posted in the highlight thread (Blizzard)
That sick D.Va ult is going to have to be posted in the highlight thread (Blizzard)

Since its inception, the Overwatch subreddit has been inundated with highlight videos. More often than not, the majority of threads in the community center were clips from players’ games showing off their skills. While fun, some prominent members of the Overwatch esports scene were unhappy about the way things were handled.

Criticisms from people like caster Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles were aimed at the moderators of the subreddit, arguing that the prevalence of highlight clips drowned out discussion of the competitive side of the game. The result, critics argue, is that the drowning out of esports content is actively harming the scene overall and making it more difficult for Overwatch esports to catch the eyes of the more casual player.

Over the weekend, the r/Overwatch mods decided to have an experiment. For one week, rather than allow individual threads for each and every highlight clip, they will be creating a daily highlight thread for players to drop their videos/gifs/whatever into. The thread will be stickied to the top of the subreddit so that anyone looking for them can easily jump in and view to their heart’s content.

That way, content that isn’t highlight reels have a higher chance of making it to the front page.

The mods are aware that this is a huge change for the nature of the Overwatch subreddit:

“We know this change will have a drastic effect on the landscape of the front page, and we also know changes like this make the mobile app experience less intuitive, and a bit more difficult even for desktop users. We’re eager to hear feedback at the end of the week.

“Whether or not this change goes through depends on many factors, but we’d like to see how this trial goes regardless of our intent to pursue the change.”

No matter the result, the r/Overwatch mods seem committed to make things better for all types of Overwatch fans. And if they can help out the esports scene grow to where it needs to be, all the better.

In other news, changes to Hanzo, Orisa, and more are on the PTR. Plus, Overwatch has hit the 30 million players mark. For more, head over to the Yahoo Esports Overwatch hub.


Follow Taylor Cocke on Twitter @taylorcocke.