As I hear more and more players voicing their frustration with the Rising circuit and their desire to walk away from it, I cannot help but share in that frustration.
Since its inception in 2022 with the Challenger’s Cup, Overwatch 2’s Calling All Heroes initiative has provided a space for marginalized gender players to further their pursuits within Overwatch Esports, with startup teams such as Valentine and Faeble, established Tier 2 brands like Timeless and WISP, and Overwatch League teams like Washington Justice and Vancouver Titans, Since July of 2023 the Calling All Heroes initiative has expanded to include both the Challengers Series, with no rank restriction, and the Rising Series. Rising’s Swiss stage and playoffs brackets ran alongside those of the Challengers Series, mostly for players ranked Diamond 1 and below, at times with a prize pool as well.
With the disparity between the top of Rising and the bottom of Challengers still too great for many players to make the jump, most feel stagnant, unable to progress casually or competitively.
The Rising Series, in the eyes of its participants, was intended to function as a way for lower-ranked players to gain experience in a formal competitive environment before ranking up into the Challengers Series. The success of the Challengers Series brought an increase in the quality of competition within the circuit, and with that, a greater disparity in skill between players within the Rising and Challengers series.
In Major 2 of 2023, the Rising Series had a prize pool of $1500; In Major 3, three months later, the pool was cut to $1000 - despite an increase in participation from 4 to 9 teams. However, in both Major 2 and Major 3, the Rising Series had its Winners Finals and Grand Finals matches broadcasted alongside the Challengers Series playoffs. A Rising Series bracket was run alongside the Challengers Series Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ), however no prize pool or circuit points were awarded, and the Rising Series had no postseason championship. In spite of this, the number of teams remained higher than Major 2, at 5 teams competing.
Since the start of the 2024-2025 Calling All Heroes circuit, all prizing for the Rising Series has been entirely cut; the series was not broadcast in Major 1, where 9 teams were competing, and had only the Grand Finals shown on broadcast in Minor 1 (which had participation from 6 teams). Within the Calling All Heroes discord, all player channels are categorized under “Challengers Series," which has spurred me to create a Rising Series discord, called “Risingcord.”
The Risingcord Twitch channel already achieved affiliate status, despite no support from Calling All Heroes administration.
This community space has begun broadcasting the Rising Series qualifier and playoff brackets in the absence of support from Raidiant and the main Calling All Heroes initiative.
Looking ahead to Major 2, the Calling All Heroes administration have stated they will be looking to resume broadcasts of the Rising Series. However, in every Rising Series competition since Major 3 of 2023, bizarre seeding, and incorrect implementation of the Swiss-style qualifier have led to a notable lack of competitive integrity within the circuit. For example, during Major 2’s Swiss stage, Faeble Rising played one opponent twice, even though there was another opponent they had not played at all. Their loss against Kaiju Corp Mx in this repeat match—which shouldn’t have taken place by the rules of the format—means they are the 2nd seed going into the playoffs bracket, and LavaLillies Rising are the 1st seed, despite LavaLillies Rising losing to Faeble Rising earlier within the qualifiers. To my knowledge, issues like this one and worse have occurred in every Calling All Heroes Rising Series tournament for the past seven months.
As the infrastructure for the Rising Series was gradually scaled back, and more pressure was put upon players, coaches, managers, and teams to handle matters internally, participation began to stagnate and the number of players coming into the Risingcord community space has sunk below the number of players retiring from the series. These trends indicate that, without further support, the Rising Series will fail to grow in the way that the Challengers Series has. To many people outside of Calling All Heroes the stagnation of the Rising Series is a minor concern, but to those players within it, the series matters.
According to inferences made from the rank distribution graph published by Blizzard in June of 2023, as well as precise figures shared by Jeff Kaplan in 2018, only around 5% of the global competitive player base sat within Master to Grandmaster. While it’s safe to assume this distribution has shifted since the introduction of Champion in Season 9, the vast majority of players are closer in rank to those within the Rising Series than those within the Challengers Series, and the majority still sit below the average player on a winning Rising Series roster. The fact that players within the Rising Series are lower in rank is the most common reason I hear to dismiss them; and yet, those who succeed within the series are still, on average, within the top 10-20% of the global player base by competitive rank alone.
Issues like this one and worse have occurred in every Calling All Heroes Rising Series tournament for the past seven months.
With Faeble Rising’s matches in Major 3 matching Challengers Series’ viewership, in spite of being the last match of the day during day 3 of the playoffs, it should be apparent that there is a demand for the existence, support, and public broadcast of tournaments within a lower Elo band than those players within Top 500. As a testament to this, the Risingcord Twitch channel already achieved affiliate status, despite no support from Calling All Heroes administration, other content creators, or adjacent tournament broadcasts. Meanwhile, Kunoichi CGL hosts their own Rising Series, with a paid production team that has covered both the Qualifier and Playoffs brackets - something Raidiant have never done.
Despite this obvious demand for the continued support of the Rising Series as a place of earnest competition, on July 2nd 2024 Raidiant and the Calling All Heroes administration decided to remove rank restrictions from the Rising Series, effectively turning it into the same Open Division format as the Challengers Series, but with no prize pool or broadcasts. In an announcement in the Calling All Heroes Discord, the administration stated:
“Some of the primary reasons for this change include:
Making it easier to get involved/play with friends
Providing more opportunities for players to develop and learn from one another
Grow participation and representation”.
This change received universal pushback within the greater Calling All Heroes community. Many active Rising Series players publicly stated their intention to quit playing and were joined by Challengers Series players and teams threatening to only compete within the “Open” Rising Series, effectively halving the number of teams competing in the Challengers Series. Challengers Series players who were friends with players within the Rising Series, or teams like Faeble who had sister teams like Faeble Rising, all spoke out against this decision that had seemingly come from nowhere. In Risingcord, many members of the Rising Series spoke about their fear of being driven out, frustration at losing a community to compete within, and confusion at why this decision was even made in the first place. I personally hosted a discussion in Risingcord to try and understand Raidiant’s intentions in order for the community to give precise feedback to try and reverse this change.
On July 4th, 2024, two days after the initial announcement was made, the Calling All Heroes administration posted a follow-up, stating:
“First off, we want to thank you for your feedback after yesterday's announcement. Both Blizzard and the tournament administration have reviewed everything you shared with us, and with that are making an adjustment to the requirements for Rising Series:
Starting with Major 2, the rank requirement for Rising Series will still be Diamond & Below, but teams will be allowed one (1) player who is ranked above Diamond.”
Their reiterated reasons for the initial change, and the commitment to altering the rank restrictions overall, were similar to the announcement on July 2nd; a desire for the Rising Series to exist as a “lower stakes environment,” where higher-ranked players could “play with their friends”. This comes into direct conflict with the initial intention of the Rising Series, and by extension, the culture and community that has grown around it. For every player competing at the top of Rising during Major 3, where competition was fiercest, and the prize pool greatest, there was never a desire for the circuit to become “lower stakes”; indeed the monetary support, match broadcasting, and proper infrastructure to ensure competitive integrity, lead to an environment where players could truly thrive. It created a sentiment that growing into the Challengers Series, even if it remained difficult was truly a possibility. These changes, even now, stand in direct opposition to the desires of the players competing within the circuit, and most frustratingly, the feedback given by large portions of the Rising Series regarding altering the rank restrictions seems to have been largely ignored.
Those who wish to see the Rising Series continue as a place of competition have been campaigning for the overall rank cap to be increased from Diamond 1 to Masters 1 since Major 3; many Rising Series players who sit at the top of the division feel they’re constrained into not playing Competitive, as they will likely rank out of the restrictions placed upon the circuit.
For every player competing at the top of Rising during Major 3, where competition was fiercest, and the prize pool greatest, there was never a desire for the circuit to become “lower stakes.”
Even with the current allowance of one open-ranked player, many teams would have to replace portions of their roster, and these players would be forced to play on weaker teams to still have a spot. With the disparity between the top of Rising and the bottom of Challengers still too great for many players to make the jump, most feel stagnant, unable to progress casually or competitively.
As manager of the Risingcord server, champion in Major 3 and Minor 1, as well as a caster for Kunoichi CGL’s Rising broadcasts, I have long had a vested interest in the health of the Rising Series, as well as my ear pressed firmly to the ground concerning community sentiment. As I hear more and more players voicing their frustration with the circuit and their desire to walk away from it, I cannot help but share in that frustration. The Calling All Heroes administration has cut back support for the Rising Series, revoked any monetary prizing, and ignored the feedback of the community for improving the series from a player’s perspective, yet still state their wish to grow the Rising Series as a whole. With the introduction of a new sponsor, be quiet!, the Rising Series will at least receive some prizes in Major 2.
However, I still can’t help but feel that too much conflict remains between the goals of the players and the goals of the Calling All Heroes administration for either to achieve what they want.
Willow is an Overwatch colour caster, FDPS for Lavalillies Rising, and Broadcast Coordinator for Skiesti's Ride of the Valkyries.
You can find her on Twitter at @marriedtodoor.
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