Ratna Petit Says Her Overwatch Tournament Went Almost Entirely as She Had Predicted

NIJISANJI — Ratna Petit, a Nijisanji streamer, spent a morning stream looking back on the Overwatch tournament she organized, saying about 90 percent of it went as she had expected. The one thing she could not foresee, she said, was the final standings, because she had formed the teams so that every one of them had a chance to win.

She said the reaction from outside, including the criticism she expected over how players were sorted by past peak rank, also played out as she had predicted. Judging teams on peak rank alone, she argued, would have made the lineups unworkable, and she said she could not bring herself to build them that way. What she had not anticipated, she said, was how much harder the players tried than she had imagined. Her aim, she said, was for every team to get a protagonist moment, and she described the event as having delivered it.

“I wanted to make a tournament where every team could be the protagonist. I feel like that came true.” — Ratna Petit, on what she wanted from the tournament

Ratna praised the production staff for a fast-moving broadcast and for checking on her and her co-hosts when comments turned rough. She said watching from the commentary side, and hearing the players’ voice calls in replays, nearly brought her to tears about five times. She also singled out the coaches’ written comments as a highlight.

She described one rule she dropped at the last minute. She had planned to let each team ban a hero, and took it out about two days before the announcement after deciding it reflected her own taste rather than what would be enjoyable for the participants. For a possible next edition, she said she would like to see the teams play from a flat, unrehearsed start, and that her one unfulfilled wish was to draw red and blue balls on the commentary desk to decide picks. Dice were used instead to keep the schedule moving. Asked about hosting again, she said it was demanding, mostly the scheduling, team and rule decisions and player inquiries, but that she wanted to.

Turning to other matters, she said she would not enter an upcoming Splatoon tournament, explaining that a previous tournament left her wary, though she said she would play the game with friends and might take part if it were played with keyboard and mouse. She also said she is in the early stage of learning choreography for a live concert in Osaka in December, and urged fans to try for tickets, with general sales on a first-come basis starting Nov. 14. She signed off to eat and to play with friends that evening.