Activision Blizzard announced the first teams for the "Overwatch League" Wednesday. The professional esports league endeavor for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC shooter will feature seven teams with owners from both traditional pro sports teams and esports as well.
The "Overwatch League" takes a slightly different approach from esports to date by throwing in a traditional sports element with teams based in cities. This is meant to drive support and revenue from local fan bases and advertisers versus the current esports model of teams with no set home funded by sponsors and winnings.
The big name drops in the "Overwatch League" include New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft plus New York Mets COO Jeff Wilpon. They will own the teams of their respective cities.
The Los Angeles team will be owned by Noah Whinston, CEO of the Immortals esports team. Miami and Orlando will share a team helmed by Misfits Gaming CEO and Co-founder Ben Spoont. The final U.S. based team will call San Francisco home with NRG Esports founder Andy Miller running the show.
The two Asian teams will setup shop in Shanghai, China and Seoul, South Korea. They will be owned by Chinese internet company NetEase and Kabam Co-Founder Kevin Chou, respectively. "Overwatch" is extremely popular in South Korea and China, so building on the fan base support in these two cities is a no-brainer.
Season One Details
The first "Overwatch League" regular season will be played at a to-be-announced esports arena in Los Angles. This is to give the new owners time to prepare venues in their home cities to support proper home and away matches in their communities.
An exact start date of for "Overwatch League" has not been announced yet, but will star later this year according to the Activision Blizzard announcement.
What has been confirmed is games will be played on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday during the regular season along with the financial arrangements.
Teams will receive an equal share of the revenue earned from advertising, ticketing, and broadcast rights deals. All local revenue will go directly to the teams up to a set amount.
Any money beyond the set amount will flow into the "Overwatch League" shared pool to be distributed to all teams. Additionally, there will be special league-affiliated in-game items for "Overwatch" players to purchase with 50 percent of the revenue from these items going to the shared pool.
More teams to come
This is just the first seven teams for the "Overwatch League" after a contentious start to the league. Activision Blizzard does indicate it has more teams and cities to announce along with complete details about the league rules and structure. There is also the need to build rosters for teams.
