Overwatch League
Upcoming season or competition: Overwatch League Season 1
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| Sport | Overwatch |
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| Founded | 2017 |
| Owner(s) | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Continents | |
| Related competitions |
Overwatch Contenders |
| Official website | www.overwatchleague.com |
The Overwatch League is a professional eSports league for the video game Overwatch. During Blizzcon 2016, Blizzard announced their plans for the league, using an organization of permanent teams in league placements similar to more traditional physical sports in the United States, rather than the use of relegation and promotion used in a series like League of Legends Championship Series.
The Overwatch League will play out similar to most professional sports leagues, rather than following other eSports leagues. The League currently features twelve teams. In its' inaugural season, a series of pre-season games will be played in December 2017, regular season games played from January to June 2018, and then a playoff for the championship in July 2018. All games in the first season will take place at the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, though later Blizzard plans to implement home/away team formats similar to professional leagues.
At Blizzcon in early November 2016, Kotick and Activision Blizzard announced the creation of an Overwatch League, where franchised teams hire Overwatch gamers to compete in live arenas and via video streaming. Rather than following the format of other eSports that use relegation and promotion as in the League of Legends Championship Series, Blizzard wanted to follow the American model used in more traditional physical sports, Asserting that "nothing like this has ever really been done before" in relation to eSports, Kotick described Overwatch League as a professional sports league providing salaries and benefits for competitors. He also described teams based out of various cities worldwide and owners required to "cultivate team and player development."
Blizzard will help organize potential team owners and aim to include more geographically-local teams to participate, which they hope will help spark more interest in eSports from spectators and potential sponsors through new activities around supporting a local team. A meeting for prospective team owners was held at Blizzcon 2016 after League's announcement, with New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke among the attendees.
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