The first seven teams in the Overwatch League have officially been announced. The seven teams, locations, and backers are..
- Robert Kraft, Chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group and the New England Patriots (Boston)
- Jeff Wilpon, Co-Founder and Partner of Sterling.VC and COO of the New York Mets (New York)
- Noah Whinston, CEO of Immortals (Los Angeles)
- Ben Spoont, CEO and Co-Founder of Misfits Gaming (Miami-Orlando)
- Andy Miller, Chairman and Founder of NRG Esports (San Francisco)
- NetEase (Shanghai)
- Kevin Chou, Co-founder of Kabam (Seoul)
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement..
“Overwatch already connects over 30 million players worldwide. The Overwatch League will celebrate and reward our most accomplished players and give fans more opportunities to engage with each other. We’re excited to be working with leaders from esports and traditional sports to celebrate our players and to establish the Overwatch League.”
Overwatch League Commissioner Nate Nanzer also added..
“The interesting difference in the Overwatch League structure versus some other esports leagues is the fact that we’re anchoring teams to cities, [which] we think is going to unlock a tremendous amount of revenue for teams that don’t exist in esports today. You look at traditional sports, teams make a lot of money because of the fact that they have a venue where they can sell tickets and concessions and merchandise and all those things. It doesn’t exist in esports today, and we think the time is right.”
“There are huge audiences all over the world that love to engage in this content live, we see it every year at BlizzCon and all the other events we put on, and we think by putting teams in cities around the world, it’ll give more fans a chance to engage in content live, connect with other fans, share their passion for competitive Overwatch, and create a league for the long term.”
The first season of the Overwatch League will be played exclusively in an esports arena in Los Angeles.
