Popular Overwatch League YouTuber itsjieyang has been hit with two copyright strikes from Blizzard Entertainment, prompting Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan to step in. Itsjieyang's Overwatch patch videos are watched by thousands of people but the YouTuber had begun to post esports highlights from Overwatch League season three.
On Twitter, itsjieyang posted a screenshot revealing details of a copyright strike that affected two Overwatch League highlight videos on YouTube. The post said that the videos had been "removed by Blizzard" and that it would run out in May. It seemed that there wasn't anything that itsjieyang could do to get the strikes removed and get the videos back up, until a post about the strikes on the Overwatch League Reddit blew up. This prompted Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan to step in.
On Reddit, Kaplan thanked fans for "bringing this to our attention" and said that "we looked into this and apparently this was auto-actioned." Kaplan also said that the issue had been fixed and revealed that the Overwatch team is a "big" fan of itsjieyang's videos. Itsjieyang thanked Kaplan but said that it was "weird" as the copyright strike said that it had been done manually.
Several fans have also suggested that Blizzard should hire itsjieyang to make videos for the company. Itsjieyang's Overwatch League highlight videos could potentially make more people watch the streams and help YouTube to make back the rumored $160 million that it paid Blizzard for the exclusive Overwatch League streaming rights.
If the highlight videos help people to become fans of an Overwatch League player after seeing how good they are this season, it could also make money through sales of team merch. Removing the videos only upsets fans and means fewer people get to see Overwatch League plays.
Blizzard has been asked to hire Overwatch fans before. When an artist created a Thai Overwatch hero and map, fans wanted them hired so that they could be put in the game. This also happened when one designer created a full Overwatch map for Rio. There are rumors that Rio will get a map for an Overwatch 2 PvE mission but nothing has been confirmed and it's unclear if the designer has been hired.
Itsjieyang may not get a job out of this but fans on Reddit do seem to be very happy that the videos are back up and that Kaplan and the team know about issues like this. Blizzard had been criticized for its Overwatch League YouTube deal as fans wanted to know how the Overwatch League All-Access Pass and cheering with Bits features would work now that they aren't on Twitch. Fans don't have any information about that, but by removing a copyright strike from such a popular Overwatch League YouTuber, this is one less thing for them to be unhappy about.
Overwatch is out now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: Reddit