Is the Overwatch League the future of esports?

I’ve never seen people so excited for esports in my life as I have the past few days watching people go nuts for the Overwatch League. It’s been two days as I write this and people have already formed strong team loyalties. Several people are getting upset when the team they picked to support doesn’t manage to win. That’s not to mention the fan art I’m seeing for the Dallas Fuel or the Los Angeles Valiant or the discussions I’m hearing as people go in depth about the strategies and metagaming. On top of all that, I’m already seeing some controversies about the League.

Now, I’ll be up front — I’m not a big esports person. I’m not a big sports person. I don’t get loyal to teams, outside of some childhood nostalgia that I’m clearly not going to have for the Seoul Dynasty or the San Francisco Shock. But I do find the intensity of the response — the sheer number of people watching on Twitch, the volume of the discussion on social media — illuminating in terms of where esports might be going in the future. Will we see other leagues? Will Hearthstone or Heroes of the Storm get them? Or is the Overwatch League unique due to the intense popularity of the franchise and unlikely to be duplicated — and if that’s the case, can the Overwatch League survive if it alienates those same intensely committed fans?

I gotta admit I don’t have any answers. Luckily, if I know you guys, you probably have quite a few and they may well differ from one another, which means you’ll likely be able and willing to discuss it in the comments. Is the Overwatch League the future, or is it an aberration? Can it sustain this level of popularity? Do you want to see it expand, or even to see Blizzard try to create similar leagues for its other games?