Announced today at BlizzCon 2016, the Overwatch League is a professional gaming organisation modelled after traditional sports organisations, complete with regional teams, baseline minimum salaries and benefits.
Basically Blizzard is looking to create the NFL or NBA of Overwatch esports. Teams will be based around major cities, fostering regional fan and player bases.
“The Overwatch League represents not only the pinnacle of Overwatch competition, but also a genuine career opportunity for the most skilled Overwatch players,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment via official announcement. “We’re building a league that’s accessible to players and fans, sustainable, and exciting for everyone involved.”
The inaugural Overwatch League season kicks off next year. Players who have distinguished themselves through play will be invited to join teams, where they will be paid and insured and all the fun things folks that get to play professional sports get, only without having to go outside and run about.
You can read more about the Overwatch League at its official website. Here’s a trailer, in which a player gets a giant check with his game handle on it. He’ll never be able to cash that.
Comments
2 responses to “Blizzard’s Building A Professional Sports League For Overwatch”
i hope they do something about the watch-ability of it. its dreadfully confusing and annoying to watch. they should choose one team to follow for the whole game. the switching between the two teams and people and the follow cam is painful. especially when the teams are pretty much always the same… a Rein, Ana, Lucio, Zarya and more than likely a Roadhog with a DPS to taste. Pro games are the least interesting to watch.
Definitely this. I just tried watching a few games on the Blizzcon site. It was still playing when I suddenly realised that I was looking at the price of dog food on my other screen AND WAS FINDING IT MORE INTERESTING than watching the Overwatch stream.