Blizzard has confirmed that they’re saying goodbye to the current setup and planning something new.

The recent departure of teams like the Toronto Defiant added to the uncertainty, but now it’s official—the OWL, as we know it, is coming to an end.

The transition is not without its drama.

Blizzard sent out a revised operating agreement to teams, and those who didn’t want to continue got a $6 million parting gift.

This move follows a series of challenges the league faced, from the pandemic disrupting plans for city-based teams to difficulties in making money from online matches.

The financial struggles came to light with Bloomberg reporting a shortfall in projected revenue in 2020, a tough pill for a league that started with such grand ambitions and hefty franchise fees.

Now, it seems Activision Blizzard is in talks with the Saudi Arabian ESL FACEIT Group for a new chapter in Overwatch esports.

“We are transitioning from the Overwatch League and evolving competitive Overwatch in a new direction,” an Overwatch League spokesman confirmed.

“We are grateful to everyone who made OWL possible and remain focused on building our vision of a revitalized esports program.

“We are excited to share details with you all in the near future.”

The plan is to adopt a more open-circuit format, ditching the franchise system in favour of a more flexible tournament schedule.

It’s a big shift, but maybe it’s what Overwatch needs to thrive.

As fans brace themselves for more teams to reveal their exit plans, one thing’s for sure: the Overwatch League won’t be the same.

It’s the end of an era, and people are already reminiscing about the good times and lamenting the missed opportunities.

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Although the start date of the 2023 Overwatch League season remains uncertain due to various delays caused by global events and terminated partnerships, efforts are being made to improve the competition.

On December 23, the free agency period is set to begin after being delayed twice. In anticipation of this event, Sean Miller, the head of the Overwatch League, revealed a new rule to promote a more competitive environment.

Miller announced on Twitter that players will now be able to join the league at the age of 17, beginning next season. This change allows players to join the league a year earlier than the previous requirement of being 18 years old, which had been in place for the first five years of OWL competition.

“As we look towards the FA window opening on Friday, we’re excited to share that our minimum age for OWL competition will be 17 starting in 2023,” Miller said.

“In a free to play world, we want to make the top level of Overwatch competition as accessible and inclusive as possible.”

With this decision, a significant number of Overwatch Contenders players will now have the opportunity to join OWL teams. In the past, many talented players missed the opportunity to be signed due to the narrow signing window and had to wait on the bench for the beginning of the season before being able to showcase their abilities. However, with this ruling, OWL teams will now have the ability to recruit more talent from the Path to Pro program than ever before.

This decision has been met with mixed reactions from the Overwatch community. Some players and fans are excited about the opportunity for younger talent to join the league and potentially make a name for themselves. Others are concerned about the maturity and readiness of players who are under the age of 19, arguing that the league should continue to have a higher age minimum.

Regardless of personal opinions, it is clear that this change will have a significant impact on the league. Younger players will now have the chance to join professional teams and potentially make a career out of playing Overwatch. This could also lead to an influx of new talent into the league, as teams may now consider players who were previously too young to be eligible.

The future is uncertain for teams as negotiations with NetEase, the publisher that enabled the publishing of Blizzard games in mainland China, broke down earlier this year. This may result in significant changes or the complete dismantling of the East region in 2023, as four of the OWL’s teams are based in China and one is run by a Chinese organization.

After December 23, if there are no further delays, fans can expect to learn more about the 2023 rosters for their favorite teams. On that date, teams will be able to officially sign free agents from the 2022 season (over 100 of them) and publicly announce their Overwatch roster decisions.

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It was announced unexpectedly that the Overwatch World Cup will be held again in 2023 after the conclusion of the Legends Battle tournament in South Korea. The tournament was promoted in a trailer as an opportunity for countries to become “the first World Cup champions of Overwatch 2.”

“Attention, world—after three years away, we’re thrilled to announce that the Overwatch World Cup is returning for 2023, and the competition will be bigger than ever: new game, new players, and new ways of spotlighting your country and region on a global scale,” Blizzard announced.

“We’ll reveal additional program details as they’re ready.”

THE OVERWATCH WORLD CUP IS BACK FOR 2023!

36 teams
36 countries and regions
1 champion.

The epic journey kicks off next month. Are you prepared?

Get the full rundown : https://t.co/eKcSF12RFd pic.twitter.com/5yEQqDgY7t

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) December 17, 2022

Several highly skilled players in competitive Overwatch gained recognition by participating in the Overwatch World Cup, a prestigious international competition that requires both skill and determination.

The tournament has been inactive for the past three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and many in the Overwatch community had thought it would never return due to the uncertain global situation.

According to the press release of the event, the next World Cup will include 36 countries, and the participating countries of the tournament will be revealed in January 2023.

The 36 teams will go through trials and tryouts throughout the year, before competing in the World Cup qualifiers in June 2023. From there, 16 teams will advance to a group stage LAN event, with the final eight teams qualifying for the World Cup finals.

“In January, we’ll announce the 36 countries and regions competing in the 2023 Overwatch World Cup, and that’s also when competition committee applications will open,” the statement read.

“Each competition committee will be responsible for organizing tryouts for their country and region, following Blizzard guidelines.”

The organizers announced that they will be introducing a new way for players to compete for a spot on their team through the World Cup Trials competition in an open tournament format.

The winners of the Trials competition in February will earn a direct spot in the tryouts for their team, while regular tryouts will still be available in March for players with a Competitive Rank of Diamond or higher. They encouraged aspiring players to start climbing the ladder now in order to meet the requirement for regular tryouts.

Blizzard also announced that in 2023, “we will be offering some challenges and rewards for all players to help celebrate the return of the Overwatch World Cup.”

It is unknown if Blizzard will bring back BlizzCon, its annual event celebrating its games and fans typically held around Halloween, every year.

However, the timeline for the Overwatch World Cup suggests that it may return in 2023, as the World Cup finals have traditionally been held during BlizzCon.

In 2019, the United States team won their first Overwatch World Cup after four years of competition, breaking South Korea’s three-year streak as champions.

The list of countries participating in the 2023 World Cup has yet to be released, popular teams such as Sweden, Canada, and Brazil are expected to make an appearance. South Korea is expected to be the fans favorite heading into the tournament’s return.

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Ever since Blizzard relaunched WoW Classic servers at the end of August 2019, the prominent gaming company saw immense growth in revenue and won back some of the support they lost within the gaming community during the Blitzchung controversy last October.

Since August, Blizzard have remained mostly hands-off when it came to WoW Classic as a potential esports title. While many see it as a very unbalanced game that is unsuited to competitive play, there are plenty of gamers who view the situation differently.

In a bid to show WoW Classic can work as an esports game, prominent WoW streamer and content creator Tips Out organised the Classic Dueler’s League (CDL), which was succeeded by the Twitch Rivals-hosted WoW Classic battleground tournament. The latter featured a plethora of Twitch streamers and iconic figures from the WoW Classic community competing for a US $10,000 prize pool.

The success of the inaugural season of CDL ushered Tips Out to run a second season in May this year. The league further expanded with a European CDL tournament, which is set to enter the group stage on Sunday, June 14, leading to the CDL European Championship starting on Thursday, June 18.

The immense success of community-hosted WoW events grabbed the attention of Activision Blizzard, who decided to show their support for the Classic WoW community by creating the first-ever fully sanctioned WoW Classic player-versus-player tournament – the WoW Classic Summer Bowl.

The Summer Bowl will use WoW Classic’s recently implemented War Game feature, which allows individual players to group up and compete against other groups of players who accept their invite. The tournament will see two groups of 10 players battle in the Capture the Flag game mode on the iconic Warsong Gulch (WSG) battleground.

The tournament will be split into two stages for each region: qualifiers and finals. The qualifiers are open sign-ups, while the finals will feature only the top six teams from each of Europe and North America. The format and other details about the tournament have yet to be revealed and may depend on the number of entries.

The only requirements the teams need to meet before they can apply for the Summer Bowl is to have 10 players, all of whom have level 60 characters. There are no gear requirements, although we are likely to see most players fully decked out with the highest tier of equipment, as well as Grand Marshals and High Warlords with their Rank 14 gear – the highest level of PvP equipment and weapons available in the game.

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The announcement of the new Overwatch hero surfaced this Wednesday when Activision Blizzard released Echo’s origin story video on the official Overwatch YouTube channel. The Tweet made by the official Overwatch Twitter account described Echo as an “evolutionary robot programmed with a rapidly adapting artificial intelligence”, who represents the cutting edge of technology.

Echo’s origin story briefly recounts the passing of Overwatch founder Dr. Mina Liao, who was killed in an explosion-like accident, while unveiling Echo was Liao’s life’s work, making the new hero a legacy of a prominent figure in Overwatch’s world.

The arrival of Echo was, however, not a massive shock to the Overwatch community, given all the teasers that surfaced ahead of the official announcement. Only a couple of hours before the announcement, Overwatch teased Echo’s arrival with a picture displaying her container, which was an obvious reference to her.

But that was not the first time Echo was unveiled to the public. The first appearance of the robot-like Overwatch hero dates back to 2018, when Blizzard released a short video named “Reunion”, which showcased McCree settling some unfinished business with Ashe and Deadlock Gang.

The dispute between Ashe and McCree in the video was over a mysterious crate, which McCree was determined to get his hands on. Upon opening it, Echo emerged from her slumber and after exchanging some words with her rescuer, McCree stated he can’t join the new Overwatch, but that “the team” will need Echo’s help.

Echo was also featured in an Overwatch 2 announcement video named Zero Hour, where she can be seen flying around the battlefield while shooting laser-like explosive projectiles, which might be a indication of her abilities, considering Blizzard tends to remain faithful to their Overwatch cinematics and the established kits of the heroes featured in them.

The first proper hint which suggested Echo might become the 32nd playable hero of Overwatch emerged on Monday, March 16, when Overwatch posted a picture of a cryptic message from Dr. Mina Liao on their official Twitter page, which revealed Liao was working on a “new project”.

The second and the last clue before the picture of Echo’s container was released, was a 10-second audio clip, which surfaced on Tuesday. The clip had no obvious context to it, but it later proved to be a small portion of Echo’s origin story video.

At the time of writing Blizzard have yet to unveil when Echo will make her way to the Public Test Region (PTR), however, it’s likely she could make her debut in the Overwatch world sometime next week.

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The announcement, which surfaced this Wednesday, cited the safety of employees, fans, players and partners as paramount. The schedule changes come in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

“After careful review and working in close collaboration with our teams, we are cancelling all Overwatch League events for Match and April,” read the announcement.

“Concurrently, we are working hand-in-hand with our teams to see that all matches are played when it’s safe and logistically feasible, staying as close to our originally planned schedule as possible.

“We are considering the various options available to esports in this effort, so that all teams – including those previously impacted by the schedule changes in China – can get back to doing what they do best.”

Although the events are officially cancelled, Pete Vlastelica, CEO of Activision Blizzard Esports and OWL Commissioner, explained that cancellation relates to events only and that matches scheduled to be played in March and April will still go ahead. It is not yet known where and when those fixtures will be played, with more details to be released in the coming days.

“To be clear, we WILL be playing matches in March and April,” said Mr Vlastelica.

“We cancelled the events, not the matches (though we will have to move a few things around in the schedule to make this work).”

The cancelled events include home series that were slated to be played in London, Paris, San Francisco and Washington. Earlier in the 2020 OWL season, Activision Blizzard postponed all events in China and South Korea.

Some reports suggest the company is working on adjusting the Call of Duty League schedule ahead of Dallas Empire’s home series, scheduled to begin at the end of this month at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas.

Shortly after Activision Blizzard’s announcement, reports surfaced that claimed the Electronic Sports League was cancelling the ESL One Los Angeles Dota2 Major. However, it was later confirmed that the third Major tournament of Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season will instead be postponed to a later date.

As the reason behind that decision, ESL cited the COVID-19 outbreak and ongoing travel restrictions that prevented a handful of teams from entering the United States with their full rosters, including Virtus.pro, Aster and Adroit.

“In light of recent travel restrictions and the evolving COVID-19 situation, ESL is postponing the ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Dota 2 Major,” read the ESL’s announcement.

“We are working closely with Valve to determine a new time and location for the Major.”

The ESL Pro League Season 11 CS:GO tournament also implemented some changes to its schedule this week when organisers unveiled the whole tournament will be played online, while the final event has been moved from Denver to a studio location.

FLASHPOINT organisers opted for a similar approach, with the entirety of the event to held in a studio setting in Los Angeles instead of the initial plan of hosting the finals in Stockholm, Sweden.

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The developer promises to bring exciting new content on the day of its launch, including new characters, maps, and modes. The big distinction from the original title is that Overwatch 2 will have a new story mode, new maps (one of them being in Rio de Janeiro), and new skins of the original Overwatch characters.

SEE ALSO: BEST OVERWATCH BETTING SITES

In the game’s promotional trailer, Blizzard introduced a small roster of the heroes that will be in the game. Game director Jeff Kaplan confirmed that the 31 characters currently available in Overwatch will also be playable in the sequel, and the developer will continue to add more to the lineup.

Is there a release date yet for Overwatch 2?

Not at the moment. Overwatch 2 is still in the development process, and Blizzard did not announce any dates or timeline during BlizzCon. At the event, fans were able to test the Rio de Janeiro map and the new Avan?o mode, but it remains to be seen how much more content will be included in the end product. The official release statement and the trailer did not include a set date.

What are the major changes for Overwatch 2?

Overwatch 2 brings will include two PvE (Player versus Environment) modes: campaign and cooperative. For the first time, players will be able to enter missions and team up with friends to face enemies controlled by AI.

The PvP (Player versus Player) options include a new Push mode: a map in which the two teams dispute the possession of a robot, positioned at the center. The objective is to take it to the enemy base, and the team that goes the furthest in hostile territory wins. New maps in Overwatch 2 will include Toronto, Gothenburg, Monte Carlo, and Rio de Janeiro.

Those who already have the first Overwatch will have their progress and collectibles available in the sequel. In addition, there will be an integration system between players of the two games. Users of the first game who do not wish to purchase the sequel will be able to participate in multiplayer PvP with Overwatch 2 players. This way, old and new players can benefit from Blizzard’s new release.

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Despite the ongoing controversy surrounding Blizzard’s decision to suspend Hearthstone player Ng Wai “Blitzchung” Chung over his well-documented political stance, business is flourishing for one of the world’s biggest video game companies.

According to official reports, Activision’s third-quarter performance was in majority driven by Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in-game revenue, which exceeded that of CoD: WWII for the same period in 2018.

Activision also enjoyed great success following the October launch of Call of Duty: Mobile title, which reached over 100 million downloads in its first month and claimed top spot on mobile app charts in over 150 countries.

Adding to that boom was the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which became the top-selling game release of the year and comfortably outsold CoD: Black Ops 4.

In total, Activision produced a segment net revenue of $209 million and gathered 36 million active monthly users.

On the Blizzard side of the business, the significant growth in revenue was in majority driven by the launch of World of Warcraft Classic in August, which “drove the biggest quarterly increase to subscription plans in franchise history” and launched Blizzard to a segment net revenue of $394 million.

While the numbers were significantly lower compared to the same quarter in 2018 when Blizzard launched the seventh expansion for their MMORPG game title Battle for Azeroth, the WoW Classic release was still an exceptional success, financial and otherwise, seeing how Blizzard successfully re-launched a 15-year-old game.

While WoW’s success took most of the spotlight, the Blizzard-run Overwatch League also produced plenty of profit.

Blizzard sold 11,000 tickets for the OWL grand finals match between San Francisco Shock and Vancouver Titans, while the average minute audience (AMA) for OWL streams increased by 18% compared to last year.

In total, Activision Blizzard’s third-quarter revenue outperformed their estimates by $180 million, and the company is expecting an even more fruitful final quarter.

The year 2020 looks every bit as promising after Blizzard revealed plans for new instalments of popular franchises such as Overwatch, Diablo, Hearthstone and World of Warcraft.

While the exact release dates are yet to be confirmed, the announcements made at BlizzCon earlier this month were received with widespread acclaim.

Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV are not yet available for purchase, but Blizzard rushed to offer World of Warcraft fans a chance to pre-order the newest expansion, Shadowlands, starting at US $39.99 for the standard version and up to $79.99 for the ‘Epic Edition’ upgrade.

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A full-page advert in the gaming publication featured a segment dedicated to the upcoming book ‘The Art of Diablo’, which is due to hit the shelves in November this year.

The article stated that the book contains “over 500 artworks from Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo III and Diablo IV”, suggesting a new edition of the game could be on the way.

What makes the leak even more exciting is the fact it surfaced less than two weeks ahead of BlizzCon, an annual convention where Blizzard is known for showing off upcoming projects and new content.

While it could be nothing more than a typo in the advert, the timing of it has many people convinced we are about to see a fourth edition of one of the most popular dungeon crawler hack-and-slash RPGs.

There were high expectations about the potential reveal of Diablo IV at last year’s BlizzCon, but instead the fans were introduced to the unsuccessful Diablo Immortal mobile game.

The new Diablo game is, however, not the only Blizzard sequel which is expected to be revealed at Blizzcon 2019.

There have been strong suggestions for quite some time that an Overwatch sequel is in works. The rumours indicate the so-called ‘Overwatch 2’ will not be an expansion to the previous title, but rather an all-new game that will feature PvE and PvP as well as a new levelling system for each hero.

This year’s BlizzCon, which is set to begin on November 1, 2019 in Anaheim, California, is shaping up as a memorable one for many reasons.

Blizzard will be eager to win back public trust after all the criticism the company received for punishing the Hearthstone pro who spoke out in support of the ongoing Hong Kong protests.

The company will also want to trump Riot Games, who just recently announced a handful of new game titles in celebration of the 10-year anniversary of League of Legends.

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The decision to implement a home/away format for the inaugural CoD League season was aired back in August, and the company confirmed on Friday, October 18 that it would go ahead as planned.

Each of the 12 franchised teams will host two multi-day competitions in their respective home cities during the regular season, with one of each taking place during summer and spring splits of 2020 season.

CoD League 2020 will also host a Midseason Weekend event between the two splits, where all 12 teams will be present.

Furthermore, all host cities will be given an option to host additional events during their home series, including amateur open-bracket competitions. Those will serve as an opportunity for amateur CoD esports teams and players to show off their skills as they look to climb their way into the professional scene.

The amateur tournaments will be a part of the Call of Duty Challengers series, which serves as a recognised ‘path-to-pro’ competition.

CoD Challengers will use the same rules as the professional competition, with over US $1 million in prize money to be distributed across LAN and online events.

Activision Blizzard also unveiled they will be adding another level of competition, named Call of Duty Circuit.

A more casual competition series that aims to take recreational play to a higher level by offering fans the chance to represent the pro teams, CoD Circuit is set to launch in late 2020.

The circuit will see fans sign up as duos to compete in CoD: MW 2v2 gunfight matches, where they will duke it out for dedicated prize pools and a chance to appear at the finals on Championship Weekend in summer 2020.

The Call of Duty League is set to begin next spring, although no specific dates about the league or any other competitions have been revealed as yet.

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