This morning, we got our first look at how the 2020 season of Overwatch League will go, and for fans who happen to live in cities that have a team, there’s some good news!
Teams will have to host no less than two and no more than five local weekend events in the venue of their choosing, while the OWL will handle the broadcasts. Activision Blizzard was quick to point out that his plan is only for the 2020 season, as they expect to change things up when unexpected issues arise.
In an interview with ESPN, president, and CEO of Activision Blizzard Esports and commissioner of Overwatch League, Pete Vlastelica said “We’re announcing fewer events in most markets than we had discussed in the past. Part of the reason for that is to ensure that we get as many people as possible into these venues. We were optimizing for big, sold-out crowds. Because it’s our first year, we don’t know how many big, sold-out crowds a market can support yet.
“We’re pretty sure that it’s at least a couple, but we don’t know if it’s 10 or eight, or what. Starting with a couple and giving more than that to the teams that convince us and/or convince themselves that there’s more demand in that market starting next year felt like the right place to start.”
It was also announced that the league is keeping the Pacific and Atlantic conferences, but mixing them up a bit too! The Pacific Conference will be split into Eastern and Western divisions, while the Atlantic Conference will feature the Northern and Southern divisions.
The Pacific Eastern Division will be made up of the Chengdu Hunters, Guangzhou Charge, Hangzhou Spark, Seoul Dynasty and Shanghai Dragons. The Western Division will party down with the Dallas Fuel, Los Angeles Gladiators, Los Angeles Valiant, San Francisco Shock and Vancouver Titans.
Meanwhile, some in the US will wonder if the OWL looked at a map when they decided that along with the Atlanta Reign, Florida Mayhem, and Houston Outlaws, the Atlantic Southern Division will include the Philadelphia Fusion and Washington Justice. The Northern Division will consist of the Boston Uprising, New York Excelsior, Toronto Defiant, London Spitfire and Paris Eternal.
Setting up the home games was a promise Activision Blizzard made to team owners in 2016, and it’s a big move for the league. At this time, only one team – the Los Angeles Valiant – have announced where they will play home games. For the Valiant, that place will be the Microsoft Theater, which Wikipedia tells me has a seating capacity of 7,100. That’s a lot of butts in seats!
We’re excited to see where the other teams land and continue to wait for our home town of Detroit to get its team! What’s up with that, Pete Vlastelica? How about some OWL in the D!
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