Robot Chicken,now in its 10th season, featured the Overwatch League in a recent sketch that challenges the stereotypes of esports to hilarious effect. The short sketch, below, was posted this week to promote the new season on [adult swim].
The sketch stars a recurring character from the Robot Chicken universe, a generic and stereotypcial nerd character, who is competing in an alternate-reality Overwatch League with teams called the Sacramento Sasquatches and the Omaha Tripe Munchers. An announcer, via voice-over, explains that the game is being broadcast on ESPN, which is evidence (both IRL and in the sketch) that “esports are the future,” a common refrain both by journalists explaining the esports industry in fancy financial think pieces, and by kids explaining to their parents why their video game habit matters—and of course, likely the biggest reason this sketch made it to TV.
A brief depiction of Overwatch gameplay features some very well-made Bastion, Genji, Tracer and Widowmaker figures, before cutting back to the bizarro-Overwatch League stage for the remainder of the sketch to comment on present day esports culture, unfortunately giving us no further glimpses of these Overwatch characters the production team really killed it designing and making.
The sketch draws attention to the fact that nerd culture becomes mainstream, the mainstream is invading nerd culture. The “jocks” on the team put the gatekeeping nerd in his place, making him realize that video games going mainstream doesn’t justify his existence the way he thought it would. In the end, what unites us all is, ahem, appreciating Widowmaker. Hopefully next time the show can also address the gender bias in professional gaming by making the nerd confront his assumptions that his teammates were all male.
Longtime esports journalist Rod “Slasher” Breslau Tweeted the sketch, as well as a deserved criticism that its all-white competitors are not reflective of the diversity of the Overwatch League, with players that are predominately Korean. Other than that, the sketch surprisingly seems to get it, and will ring true to many gamers both veteran and new to esports.
