Twitch is all aboard the Overwatch League train, which makes sense, considering that the streaming service reportedly paid $90 million for a ticket. Now itâs offering Overwatch players incentives to tune in.
Today Twitch announced that, in collaboration with Blizzard, itâs gonna start offering in-game rewards to Overwatch League viewers. If you link your Battle.net account with your Twitch account, youâll be able to earn League Tokensâwhich are a special Overwatch currency that you can use to buy OWL character skins, as opposed to regular skinsâby watching. Each completed map you view live will grant you one League Token, and âa percentage of viewersâ who see the final map of a broadcast will score 100 League Tokens, aka enough to buy one skin. Itâs a canny move, given that viewership tends to fluctuate and, sometimes, drop off over the course of OWL broadcasts, especially when the final match isnât meaningful.
While the above option is also available on MLG and Overwatch Leagueâs website, Twitch will be the only place that lets you âcheerâ with âbitsâ in order to unlock âcontent.â Bits are a for-purchase currency on Twitch that allow you to cheer for streamers in chat and, in effect, toss a few coins into their cup. Soon, youâll be able to cheer on Overwatch League teams and earn âin-game hero skins that will be exclusive for a period of time, as well as emotes and team-branded itemsâ in the process. There will also be a leaderboard to track the top cheerers, because Twitch loves gamifying everything, and I doubt they mind that gamifying team-based tribalism will earn them money.
