The Overwatch Champions Series Dallas Major has started on the wrong foot as its first match was immediately paused and has set a record for how long play has been stalled.
OWCS Dallas Major kicked off on May 31 with the first match of the bracket with Team Falcons vs. ENCE. The players did not see any action at all before a pause was called in the first map of the series.
The pause was in place for almost three hours as tournament officials worked to fix the issue and broadcast talent attempted to entertain viewers.
That pause was only about 45 minutes long.
There are technical difficulties delaying the broadcast of the#OWCSMajor. We are working towards resolving this issue for our fans as quickly as we can and we will update you all as soon as we know more.Any impacts to our tournament match schedule will be communicated once we…
OWCS has said onsocial mediathat the reason for the pause is “technical difficulties.”
The coach for Spacestation Gaming, Christopher ‘ChrisTFer’ Graham who is at the tournament and slated to appear on stage,said on a co-streamthat players were dealing with ping spikes of up to 300.
He also claimed one of the tournament administrators accidentally turned on the April Fools settings at one point and “struggled for ages to turn it off.”
The players posted on social media about the situation, showing themselves trying tostay warm by playing against botsortaking a nap.
While waiting for the first match to start, viewersearned Twitch rewards for watching the eventwithout missing any of the action.
Teams qualified for the tournament after playing through two stages of competition across North America, EMEA, and Asia. This event, taking place at DreamHack Dallas, was supposed to be a triumphant return for Overwatch esports after the dissolution of the Overwatch League.
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The event, however, has not been the return many have hoped for.
Declan McLaughlin was a Gaming & Esports Writer on Dexerto’s US team, specializing in Valorant and League of Legends. He has bylines at Upcomer and Inven Global.
