Question, when we say Blizzard is cutting down on esports, they're talking about HOTS and not OWL, right?
Presumably talking about all their non OWL ventures, which includes non OWL overwatch ventures. SC2 has definitely long outlasted its lifespan as an esport, I wouldn't be surprised if WCS sees cuts, and eventually goes the way of Heroes of the Dorm. Same for Hearthstone to a lesser degree.
It really sucks for non OWL overwatch though, because it just makes it harder for aspiring players to break into OWL.
But really this shouldn't come as a surprise to a lot of people. It should make them sad, but it shouldn't be an irrational decision when you look at it logically. Even if you justify that Acti-Blizz can afford to keep all the employees laid off, those employees definitely cannot continue doing their job in the divisions that would presumably get shuttered just from the fact that those divisions were dying.
Do you need a full contingent of community managers, for games like SC2 and HOTS, or even D3? The thing about marketing and esports in games is that those departments are linked to the performance and health of the games they're for. And almost all of Blizzard's games not named Overwatch and Hearthstone have been declining. (and there's an argument there for Hearthstone declining too).
I think for a long time Blizzard had let passion extend the life of initiatives that should have long ago been put down. And the money bleed out has consequences that unfortunately do effect the people in and around those dying initiatives.
Of course, all this really stems from a problem of bad management and vision. There was a potential for SC2 to have been a big contender and long lasting force in esports like LoL is, but that was squandered. And HotS didn't need to be the money sink it was if the scope of the project stayed to being an SC2 custom game.
It's not a problem with an easy solution, and getting rid of execs is only a feel good bandaid that does nothing to solve the problem.