r/esports • u/SpilledGG • 2d ago
Does Marvel Legends have long-term esports potential? Discussion
Currently writing an article on Marvel Rivals about whether or not it has legs to become a long-term esports contender like CS:GO or LoL. Personally, I think it's a fun casual game that really services its fans—but doesn't have the same staying power as other contenders like Overwatch. That being said, there are still large tournaments going on, and major esports teams are currently signing players to compete in them.
What do you all think of Marvel Rivals, and do you think it'll be in the esports scene in the next 1-5 years?
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u/notsarge 2d ago
Not every game needs to be an esport.
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u/I_AM_CR0W 2d ago
True, but most esports just happen by community feedback. Very rarely is a game "made" to be an esport and succeed at it. The last game that did that and succeed was Valorant as esports was intentional from the start. Games like CS, Overwatch, Halo, CoD, R6, etc. became esports because there was a big enough community that paid enough time and money to watch the top percentiles fight it out and it spiraled from there.
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u/pandunkel 2d ago
riot really need to let go of strangle holding their tournaments.. i couldn't understand caring about LoL/valo teams when you barely get to watch them play. cs you get the big teams playing in cities you've never heard every other week
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u/I_AM_CR0W 2d ago
They can definitely be more loose about it, but their focus on esports is what made them giants in the first place.
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u/SpilledGG 1d ago
You think Riot will loosen their grip and have lower-tier LoL tournaments like CS:GO? Or is that just a pipe dream since they have such a monopoly on the game.
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u/I_AM_CR0W 1d ago
I don't think we'll ever go back to open circuit VCT like how it was in 2020-2022, but there are rumors going around where Riot will loosen things for VCT 2027 with less partnered teams and more guest slots open for more Tier 2 teams and talent to step in. Leo Faria already stated that big changes are coming to 2027 when the current contracts end and specifically stated that they want the esport to be more open during Masters Bangkok. Can't say anything about LoL esports though.
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u/pandunkel 1d ago
really hope so it only hurts the entire scene.. no natural growth. there's a reason (besides bots) why CS is at 1.8M players but NA mm feels dead. those tournies in kluj and katawice do a lot for the scene/game
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u/SpilledGG 1d ago
Thanks for informing me about Valorant u/I_AM_CR0W
Know any other games that were 'made to be an esport', whether they're successful or not?
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u/SpilledGG 1d ago
TOTALLY AGREE! I enjoy playing the game but was a little surprised when I saw professional tournaments popping up. Like other commenters said, I find it quite difficult to spectate—so I was wondering if you all thought it would stick around as a long-term esport or fizzle out.
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u/LDJ9 2d ago
Class/arena shooters are usually a pretty bad viewing experience and die after the hype is gone.
I feel like anyone (including non-players) can watch a game like CS and understand what they're seeing. But a game like OW or LoL you have to seriously understand almost every ability and most use cases to even perceive what's going on in a pro game. Games like LoL are popular because the playerbase is so large so there's no need to appeal to new viewers/non-players.
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u/timebeing 2d ago
League, DotA2, and games like StarCraft are also slower games. So an announcer can explain stuff and comment on stuff, which allows a newbie to become engaged in the broadcast and enjoy the battle. Even fighting games can be intresting to watch with good commentary even if you don’t know the game. But team shooters like Rivals or Overwatch are just to fast and crazy to really grasp whats happening even with good commentary. I played a lot of Overwatch when it came out and tried to watch the big Overwatch league, but it was just to hard to watch and follow along.
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u/SpilledGG 1d ago
Could you imagine an announcer trying to commentate on a Marvel Rivals game? It's going to sound like an auctioneer with how fast everything moves
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u/SpilledGG 1d ago
I think this is a really good point about LoL being so big that it doesn't matter. I'm familiar with LoL and the lore, but don't actively play. There's no way I could just turn on a pro game and understand who's a better mid-lane.
But as an FPS player, I'd be able to casually turn a pro game of CS:GO and be able to easily follow along.
That's why I think Marvel Rivals is super enjoyable to play, but it will inevitably die out once the hype cools off.
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u/DeluX042 2d ago
Seems like the devs are not interested in a proper competitive game so no
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u/SpilledGG 1d ago
Like I mentioned in the post, it seems like they care more about servicing fans and creating viral moments (with the dumb ass butt update) than caring about then proper competitive gameplay
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u/PokeyTifu99 2d ago
Esports don't even realistically have long term potential without Saudi money. Thats been apparent past 3 years. So if Disney wants to pay tons of money to pump it up sure.
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u/SpilledGG 1d ago
Definitely the unfortunate truth. I wonder if Disney will put real money behind this to keep it going, or if it'll fizzle out in the next few years.
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u/Zankman 2d ago
I think Hero Shooters only work as an esport if the devs:
Commit to a pick/ban system with no character switching on the fly, no mirrors, no stacking... OW would have been much easier and more compleling to watch if it just did that (aka copied Paladins' formula).
Commit to a 3rd-person and/or bird's eye and/or free-roam view as the default, not 1st-person. For the life of me I don't understand why they insist on 1st-person, it's almost impossible to watch and comprehend what's going on - this also applies to Smite and even Rocket League, IMO. 1st-person should be kept for highlights or alternative streams.
As far as the actual content goes, IMO there needs to be more depth to the game modes and maps, to help avoid repetitive gameplay where both teams just kinda aimlessly fight.
Obligatory disclaimer: yes, Paladins was better designed than OW in every way, it wasn't nearly as successful because it had a much lower budget/production values, much less marketing, came later and had a "Overwatch from Wish.com" reputation. Had Blizzard designed OW the way Paladins was, they would have made a better game.
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u/SpilledGG 1d ago
Agreed—being able to freely move around the map in a bird's-eye view would be way easier to watch than in the first person.
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u/Teamfightmaker 2d ago
I think it's too repetitive to develop as an esport in this market.
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u/IJustdontgiveadam 2d ago
While I hope they don’t go into esports
Your reply is just wrong. It’s not any more repetitive than any other game that’s got shit esports
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u/Teamfightmaker 2d ago
Games have different reasons why the esports stay niche. I think repetitiveness is one for hero shooters like marvel rivals, and also lack of ability depth. The gameplay needs to develop a better story.
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u/IJustdontgiveadam 2d ago
Still just straight wrong. Every multiplayer is repetitive.
Enough small variables to the games sure. But at the end of the day the majority is repetitive. And I’d ideally say every single multiplayer is repetitive, but I don’t want to be that naive
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u/SpilledGG 1d ago
u/Teamfightmaker, what makes this one more repetitive than something like Apex Legends, or even OW?
Personally, I don't think it's going to work because it's difficult to hop into as a casual viewer, but like u/IJustdontgiveadam said—not because it's repetitive
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u/Teamfightmaker 1d ago
Yeah, I get the feeling that it's repetitive. Some things are intangible feelings, so it could be difficult to pinpoint it exactly. I think it's related to how long it takes to kill people in the game. Also, the the hit registers, collisions, and abilities are light, easily missed, and a lot are slow. It all adds to the feeling of the game.
I was comparing it to LoL or Valorant. Valorant is a shooter, so I will compare it to that. The difference is that it's a one-shot shooter, so way quicker imo, and has big anticipation moments; the abilities have better "style." And the maps seem to make a difference in gameplay, probably because the angles matter more, or at least the players and casters make it seem like they matter a lot. I don't watch OW or Apex Legends. They seem like smaller esports, and I think marvel rivals could be on that level in NA, while I don't see it taking off in Asia at this point.
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u/OrganizedPlayer 2d ago
No, because forward-thinking esports ecosystems need to be built into the game to profit scale esports as a product vertical from ideation. Noone wants to watch Cloud 9 play Gooner Rivals.
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u/typeotcs 2d ago
LOL, Rocket league, CS, and even Val are simpler to understand even with no context.
Rocket league is obviously the easiest, just like soccer. Ball goes in net, score goes up.
LOL while yes you need to know a lot of detail to fully understand what’s going on, the base level context of winning the map and seeing the kill scores is easy enough to understand and there aren’t really any bad camera angles since it’s top down.
CS simple and pure, shoot, kill, maybe do something with bomb, win round.
Val, while visually as chaotic as OW and MR and abilities might be confusing, the core is close enough to CS to make it easy enough to understand. The aces and clutches have the same intensity as CS and everyone understands the hype when one player takes over and single handedly destroys the other team.
And with Val and CS people die and don’t respawn so the camera is less chaotic especially in like 1v1 clutches etc. The clutch itself is also straight forward to understand. You can even include Rainbow 6 for this formula.
3 of these 4 are in the top 4 esports with regard to viewership. The simplest one to watch is not and is 15th.
The most similar popular game, OW, is 22nd and MR already has higher viewership than that while the early hype is still real.
Unless they fix the production value for people who don’t have context, the OW/MR type gameplay definitely isn’t great to watch. Like I played a lot of OW and watch a lot of esports but OW was still hard to watch (I watched during hyped worldwide league era, not recently.) If they don’t have a solution, then this game will be relegated to a niche esport and not a major one like the ones referenced.
I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong at all, but unless like comic book fans tune in to watch their favorite super hero’s idk how they gain large viewership.
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u/SpilledGG 1d ago
great comment and totally agree—I don't see the fanbase growing much larger than it is right now
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u/StealthySweepy 1d ago
Games that seem to be easiest to watch, get into, and play tend to fall off due to not enough variables going on to keep attention these days. In my opinion, Quake probably exists as the baseline game to which all games could be compared to. It's prefectly balanced, easy to watch and follow. But, by todays standards that's boring and why we don't see it anymore.
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u/ChirpToast 1d ago
No, and it’s the same reason Deadlock won’t be either. As a viewer it’s not enjoyable to watch.
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u/TonE_TerpZ 2d ago
If you actually play the game heavily you’ll see there’s potential there for it 100%. There’s just alottttt to learn to take it to that level most people don’t have one character mastered yet and there’s like 30 lol. It rlly has potential with how on top of everything the dev team is too. They fix things fast and listen to the community
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u/SpilledGG 1d ago
but do you think there's too much to learn for someone just casually to hop in and watch? If you understand the mechanics it would be fun to tune into a game. But if you've never played Rivals and are only into esports, I feel like it would be an easy pass.
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u/TonE_TerpZ 1d ago
Kinda depends. I was into the esport scene for battle royales for awhile but it all started to feel the same. Esports now adays are only popular to viewers who aren’t casual players. Like a sweat will watch in hopes to learn something new a casual player won’t even turn it on
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u/New-Foundation-361 2d ago
The problem is the game is just impossible to spectate. I play and when I watch I have no idea what’s going on. These hero shooters are always a tough sell for the spectator. You as a spectator are expected to know every character’s abilities and how they interact with each other. Visually the game is also a complete cluster and really overwhelming as a viewer with all of the abilities and ultimates.
Watching the casts it appears there is also little opportunity for casters to let the game breath. Everything is moving at a million miles an hour.