Blizzards vision of esports for the Overwatch League is rather different to what we’ve seen in other games thus far. While some like Call of Duty do have regional teams and competitions, they’re not really tied to particular locations as much as real world sports are. The Overwatch League tries to marry the two worlds together with seven teams that are based in cities around the world.
Team owners and investors have been allowed to buy the rights to create a local team for Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Miami-Orlando, San Francisco, Seoul and Shanghai. Those owners are:
- Robert Kraft, Chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group and the New England Patriots (Boston)
- Jeff Wilpon, Co-Founder and Partner of Sterling.VC and COO of the New York Mets (New York)
- Noah Whinston, CEO of Immortals (Los Angeles)
- Ben Spoont, CEO and Co-Founder of Misfits Gaming (Miami-Orlando)
- Andy Miller, Chairman and Founder of NRG Esports (San Francisco)
- NetEase (Shanghai)
- Kevin Chou, Co-founder of Kabam (Seoul)
“Overwatch already connects over 30 million players worldwide. The Overwatch League will celebrate and reward our most accomplished players and give fans more opportunities to engage with each other,” said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. “We’re excited to be working with leaders from esports and traditional sports to celebrate our players and to establish the Overwatch League.”
Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment said, “We’re building this league for fans – esports fans, traditional sports fans, gaming fans – and we’re thrilled to have individuals and organizations who are as passionate about professional competition as we are, and who have extensive experience in all three fields, representing our first major international cities in the league.”
Slated to kick off later this year, it’s going to be fascinating to see how these teams become reality – after all, some of these new team owners have no real stake or representation in esports right now – and whether or not they can grab the local support in the way your local football team can.
Source: press release
rSp8
“Cities around the world”? Small world right there…..
The Lone Steven
Unless they have a Tracer cosplay cheerleading and doing fanservice, i ain’t interested. What? I’m honest about it. Yes, i’m a perv but come on, Overwatch knows what it wants with Tracer.
Before I either get a banhammer shoved so far up my jackside that i turn into one or get sent to the dungeo, its quite short. I mean, it’s 3/5ths American teams, 1 china and one korea….
No one tell Trump China is in it. He is likely to ban Overwatch.
Also, i don’t get what the fuss is with Esports.
Darn it, i am become the old man of TSA!