14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard has just made another step towards turning Overwatch into a very popular esports game by announcing the inaugural Overwatch League. This is the first major professional Overwatch esports event where teams from various cities will fight each other for supremacy.
The first season that started on January 10 groups together 12 franchises that will be representing major cities in Asia, Europe, and North America.
Here is the full roster of teams and their owners: Boston Uprising (Kraft Group), Dallas Fuel (Team Envy), Florida Mayhem (Misfits), Houston Outlaws (OpTic Gaming), London Spitfire (Cloud9), Los Angeles Gladiators (Stan and Josh Kroenke), Los Angeles Valiant (Immortals), New York Excelsior (Jeff Wilpon and SterlingVC), Philadelphia Fusion (Comcast Spectacor), San Francisco Shock (NRG eSports), Seoul Dynasty (Kevin Chou), and Shanghai Dragons (NetEase).
The teams listed above already know each other since they met in combat during the pre-season, back in December, so they should have already prepared their strategies to win the first Overwatch League season.
“The Overwatch League was created to deliver an awesome and unique experience for players, teams, and fans. With 12 first-class teams representing major cities from Asia, Europe, and North America, we’re confident that the inaugural season of the league is going to redefine what people expect from esports—and be a giant celebration of the Overwatch community as a whole,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment.
Blizzard also announced the the first Overwatch League season will run through June, and that playoffs and finals will be held in July at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles.
For the rest of Overwatch players who are not members of the 12 teams, Blizzard has prepared special uniforms, which are available for purchase as in-game skins. On top of that, every player who logs in between now and February 13, will receive just enough League Tokens to be able to get a team uniform of their choosing for free.
It's also worth mentioning that there will be 12 in-game uniforms available to purchase (one for each team), and 26 skins for each Overwatch character.