15 Facts About Overwatch League

1.

Overwatch League is a professional esports league for the video game Overwatch, produced by its developer, Blizzard Entertainment.

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2.

The Overwatch League follows the model of other traditional North American professional sporting leagues by using a set of permanent, city-based teams backed by separate ownership groups.

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3.

Overwatch League is owned by Blizzard Entertainment and run by Major League Gaming, which is owned by Blizzard's parent company Activision Blizzard.

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4.

The Overwatch League plays out similar to most North American professional sports leagues, in which all teams play scheduled games against other teams to vie for position in the season's playoffs, rather than the approach of team promotion and relegation more commonly used in other esports leagues.

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5.

The pool of specific maps from the standard Overwatch League rotation are determined periodically, allowing the teams to determine their player lineups and strategy while changing the season's metagame.

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6.

Overwatch League games are played on a custom server controlled by Blizzard; this server is available to players for practices.

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7.

Overwatch League development started around 2013, around the same time that esports and spectator-driven video gaming were starting to gain wide popularity due to accessibility of live streaming platforms.

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8.

In October 2016, Bobby Kotick, CEO of Blizzard's parent company Activision Blizzard, first mentioned the Overwatch League, describing how viewership of user-generated esports content was around 100 million, exceeding viewership for some professional NFL and NBA games, and saw the potential to provide "professional content" through the Overwatch League to tap into that viewership.

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9.

Overwatch League was formally announced at BlizzCon in November 2016.

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10.

Blizzard anticipated the Overwatch League would have a seven-figure payoff for the winning team at the end of a season.

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11.

Kraft spent time over the next few years evaluating other esport competitions but was not comfortable with their grassroots nature, but the Overwatch League, as explained by Kotick during BlizzCon 2016, caught his attention.

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12.

However, no further filings were made by Major League Baseball within the required dispute period, indicating that either the association had decided to drop the dispute, or that the association and the Overwatch League came to an undisclosed understanding to allow the league to continue to use the logo.

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13.

Overwatch League continued regional, online play throughout the fourth season, although some live events were planned to take place in China.

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14.

Overwatch League launched in 2018 with twelve teams, each based in a global city.

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15.

In early 2020, YouTube reached a three-year exclusive deal to serve as broadcaster for all Activision Blizzard esports events, including the Overwatch League, Call of Duty League, and Hearthstone, replacing Twitch.

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