As well as today’s reveal of Sombra, BlizzCon saw the announcement of extensive eSports league plans for Overwatch. The aptly named Overwatch League will be structured around teams located in major global cities, all with contracted sets of players.
Prospective owners will ‘bid’ to set up a team in, say, London or New York, and those teams will then compete against one another in the League. The announcement trailer isn’t exactly specific on that process, or whether the player contracts will be standardised across all teams (it kind of implies they will be, without saying it), but that’s the general idea.
Prior to the Overwatch season kicking off, adept players will be invited to show their stuff at ‘Combine’ events where teams will make signings and finalise their squads. Once that’s sorted out, the season will commence with LAN play in front of live audiences. At the end of the season, there will be live, stadium-based playoff events between the top teams.
To stand a chance of being invited to the Combine, players will need to be highly ranked (obviously) and have a decent showing in online leagues and third-party Overwatch eSports events. Here’s the explanatory ‘Path to Glory’ trailer, plus the announcement video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-p5V4nQU5k
