Blizzard reveals the first official cities in the 'Overwatch' League
Blizzard confirmed the first seven cities participating in the OverwatchLeague, expected to kick off later this year: Boston, Los Angeles, Miami-Orlando, New York City, San Francisco, Seoul, and Shanghai.
OverwatchLeague -- Blizzard's ambitious esports league that aims to tie professional Overwatchteams to cities around the globe, like a more international version of the NBA or NFL -- was first announced in November of last year.
Today's announcement is the first official confirmation that investors have purchased franchise spots in the OverwatchLeague. The announcement also provides us with the first details on revenue sharing for teams, as well as details about the first season.
SEE ALSO:Everything you need to know about Blizzard's 'Overwatch' LeagueThe seven team owners -- coming from traditional sports, esports, gaming, and technology backgrounds -- are as follows:
Boston: Robert Kraft, owner of NFL team the New England Patriots and chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group.
Los Angeles: Noah Whinston, CEO of esports team organization Immortals.
Miami-Orlando: Ben Spoont, CEO and co-founder of esports team organization Misfits, which is partnered with NBA team the Miami Heat.
New York City: Jeff Wilpon, COO of MLB team the New York Mets and co-founder of Sterling.VC.
San Francisco: Andy Miller, co-owner of NBA team the Sacramento Kings and founder of esports team organization NRG Esports.
Seoul: Kevin Chou, co-founder of Kabam, a mobile game developer and publisher.
Shanghai: NetEase, a Chinese internet technology company that holds licenses in China for all current Blizzard games.
Along with the team announcements, Blizzard revealed that the first season of the OverwatchLeague will take place in Los Angeles while these and other potential OverwatchLeague teams establish themselves in their home cities.
Establishing teams
Speaking with OverwatchLeague Commissioner Nate Nanzer, he stressed that this is just the first announcement around OverwatchLeague. Blizzard's plan is to announce more teams and owners before the start of the first season later this year, he said.
"Our goal is to launch a global league and that means having teams in all the major cities around the world," Nanzer said. "We're in active conversations with potential owners for cities in Europe, Latin America, other regions, and hope to have more details on that in the coming months."
Blizzard isn't just taking the highest bidders; they're making sure that owners have the ability to build a team and a following.
"We're in active conversations with potential owners for cities in Europe, Latin America, other regions"
"It was really important to us that we find owners that had a proven capability of building a fanbase and growing and fostering fandom," Nanzer said, noting that the team owners announced today fit this criteria. "It’s a great mix of owners, a great mix of expertise. One of the things that's really exciting for us at Blizzard is bringing all these great minds to the table to help build this league collaboratively with our owners."
All of the OverwatchLeague team owners announced today have some sort of tie to the cities their teams will call home. I spoke with Andy Miller, the owner of the San Francisco franchise, who is a founder of the esports team organization NRG (which currently has an active Overwatchroster) and a co-owner of the Sacramento Kings. Sacramento is just northwest of San Francisco and falls under their hometown umbrella.
"We have a big market, we’re really excited to be in this territory," Miller said, noting his familiarity with Northern California. "As part of our relationship with Blizzard, we get to hold a series of Overwatchevents in Northern California. That’ll be the first way to really get accustomed to and introduced to our team up here."
These events, supported by Blizzard, include amateur-level tournaments. Nanzer also mentioned they'll be using Blizzard and Activision games to reach out to potential fans to get the word out about teams and events.
OverwatchLeague revenues
Along with these team announcements, Blizzard revealed some of the logistics behind how teams will be making revenue and sharing that amongst each other.
"The teams share in all the global revenues generated by the league, whether that's global sponsorship, global media rights for the content, [or] global physical merchandise," Nanzer said.
This is pretty unique in esports, considering most tournaments just pay out prize pools based on a team's performance. In the OverwatchLeague, teams will get an equal amount from these revenue streams on top of their local revenue streams.
"The city-based nature we think really is gonna unlock significant revenues that just don’t exist in esports today."
"The city-based nature we think really is gonna unlock significant revenues that just don’t exist in esports today," Nanzer said, referencing ticket sales for home games and local sponsorships.
An additional revenue stream for teams will be in-game items, Nanzer revealed, like cosmetic items that Overwatchplayers can show off while playing to support their favorite teams.
Coming news
As for compensating professional players in the OverwatchLeague? Blizzard will apparently announce more information about that at a later date. Nanzer did, however, mention that players will have base salaries and benefits.
Team rosters will also be announced in the coming months, although Miller mentioned that his OverwatchLeague team in San Francisco will likely not be identical to NRG Esports' current team roster.
"There are a lot of great players out there and there’ve been a lot of teams -- small teams, big teams [alike] -- who have individual super stars, and a lot of them are now available to join the OverwatchLeague. We’re going to take a look at as many folks as we can and put together the best team that we can," he said.
Team names will be coming at a later date as well. Nanzer and Miller didn't offer up any hints.
All of this information will be coming later this year, Nanzer said, including a comprehensive schedule for the first season of OverwatchLeague.
Featured Video For You
The Overwatch League imitates the NFL, but is that a good thing?
TopicsBlizzard EntertainmentEsportsGaming