Let’s get it back to eSports.

The Eagles/Phillies/Sixers aren’t exactly lighting the world on fire, but your hometown Philadelphia Fusion had a fantastic season, finishing first among the 13 North American-based teams with 19 wins, 5 bonus wins, and only two losses. That’s a winning percentage of .905. In addition to regular season play, they reached the finals and semifinals of three different midseason tournaments that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They had early success in the playoffs and advanced from the North American bracket, which qualified them for the grand finals (basically the Final Four). However, they lost both of their games this past weekend, so it was a disappointing end to an otherwise good season.

Basically the Fusion are like Andy Reid’s Eagles. They’ve been REALLY close on a couple of occasions, but can’t get over the finish line. They made it to the finals in year one, then lost. They were meh in 2019 and then tore it up this season, but fell short in the end. They’ve got some total ballers, like Carpe, but don’t seem to put up their best performances in the biggest games. Sort of like Donovan McNabb.

It was a weird Overwatch League season because of COVID. You might recall that the Fusion played a home game at The Met, way back in February. There were other “homestands” scheduled, one which was supposed to be in Atlantic City, but they had to be cancelled, and the games were moved online instead.

The Fusion event at The Met was a huge hit, totally packed with Overwatch maniacs:

Photo Credit: Tucker Roberts

This was supposed to be the first season that each of the city-based teams in the U.S, England, France, China, Canada, and South Korea would play in front of fans. They only got in one of the homestands prior to COVID, and made the online shift from there.

The viewership didn’t drop off though.

From Forbes:

Saturday’s Overwatch League final between the San Francisco Shock and Seoul Dynasty was the most watched OWL match in its three season history, Activision Blizzard said Tuesday.

An average global audience of 1.55 million saw San Francisco capture its second straight championship with a four maps to two victory, a 38% increase from the Shock’s 2019 win over the Vancouver Titans in last year’s final. The match was shown digitally this year on YouTube, CC, Huya and Bilibili after the 2019 final was broadcast on ABC and held live in front of a reported 10,000 fans at Philadelphia’s (Wells Fargo Center).

Clearly, eSports are the future. We’ve got the new arena being built in South Philadelphia and the massive new Nerd Street Gamers complex is going up on Callowhill Street. Philadelphia might very well end up being the video gaming capital of North America.

I want to be a part of the esports movement in the Delaware Valley, but don’t have much to contribute at 36 years old. If, however, this existed back in 1997, I would have been the MVP of the Goldeneye 007 league. Undisputed. Remote mines in The Facility, Klobbs, or slappers only, it doesn’t matter. Name the map and the parameters and you’re still dead.