OWL Is Upon Us

After months of preparing and pre-season fun. Today marks the first official day of the Overwatch World League (OWL) and I am going to be breaking it down for you so you're ready for season 1 week 1 stage 1.

What is it?

This is the official competitive league to Overwatch. Blizzard partnered with some big money investors like Bob Kraft (New England Patriots owner) and Fred Wilpon (New York Mets owner) to bring you the premier Overwatch esports league. Think of it like the NFL. Cities will have teams dedicated to them. Right now there is only 12 cities, but Blizzard is hopping to expand on that in the coming seasons, along with having home and away games with the "world series" being played on an international stage. Just like a traditional sports team, players don't have to be from the city that they represent. Which is why the London Spitfire team is made up of entirely Korean players.

The Teams?
The league is comprised of 12 teams split among 2 divisions.

It is split up accordingly.

Atlantic Division
- Boston Uprising
- Florida Mayhem
- Houston Outlaws
- London Spitfire
- New York Excelsoir
- Philadelphia Fusion
Pacific Division
- Dallas Fuel
- Los Angeles Gladiators
- Los Angeles Valiant
- San Francisco Shock
- Seoul Dynasty
- Shanghai Dragons

There is a rumored 13th team that didn't make it this season based in Chicago. It is speculated that they didn't make the cut this season because Blizzard wanted even teams for their divisions. In the future, when more teams are added, Blizzard wants to redefine these divisions to make them a little more balanced out.

Blizzard has also announced some rules for this league. They are as follows.

Rosters are between six and 12 players.
There are no region locks on who can be employed where.
Player housing and training facilities will be provided by teams, and they will be up to a standard set by Blizzard.
Players under the age of 18 can sign contracts and practice, but cannot play in games until they turn 18.

Overwatch League Skins

Each team is set to have a pair of colors, a home and an away color, to make each team feel unique and to allow fans to feel a connection to the team. Think of it as wearing the jersey to your favorite NBA player. One hundred tokens is going to be the cost of the a new skin for any character you choose. With 26 heroes and 12 teams, thats a total of 312 new color skins for Overwatch. Each one hundred tokens is going to cost 4.99. Which means a full set of skins is going to cost you around $1200. Which is kind of insane. But, you wouldn't buy the jersey of every team in the NFL and half of the funds for this is going to players and the league itself. So its not all bad.

Opening Week

Today is day one of the opening week, and will run through the weekend. The season is split into four stages of five weeks each with a weeks break in between each stage. The end of each stage will have a title match with the 2 best teams from their division battling it out in a championship game for a little cash prize, and will help to split up the seasons.

OWL Playoffs

Playoffs will take place between July 11th and July 28th. This will be considered the end of the season and will include the grand finals. Blizzard is suggesting that it will take place away from their esport complex and will probably be on another continent to appeal to the international fans.

To qualify for the playoffs, you either have to win your division or have one of the six best records over all in the league.

Yes, it even has an All Star Game.
Blizzard has talked about it, but they haven't given any details as to what this is. The only thing that we know is that it takes place after the season ends, August 10th to be exact, and its meant to be a more casual celebration.

Where to watch?
This is a silly question.. or is it? No it is, the answer is Twitch. Twitch has signed a 2 year exclusive deal with Blizzard to stream the Overwatch League. With this comes some perks. For every minute you spend watching the league, you are gaining tokens that you can spend on new skins for the team you follow. Blizzard has also said that there will be other perks to watching these games. More when its announced.

The Expectation.

Is huge. Blizzard wants this is to be the next big sporting event. With the League's teams being based around major cities, much like the NBA, NFL, and baseball. In fact, Blizzard targeted cities who already have an established sports franchise, and went after the owner of those teams for investing and it worked. They got some big names to invest in this league. Blizzard's end goal is to have every major city host an Overwatch League team, complete with its own "home" stadium where it will play against the "away" team with the grand finals being hosted at Blizzards huge multi-million dollar complex they just built. But they're not just stopping in the US. they want this international. They just don't want divisions, they want entire continents.

Blizzard is looking for cities to support these teams, much like Boston supports the Red Sox. They want them to be talked about, fought over, and analyzed. This is the first time a video game company has ever jumped full steam into something like this. League of Legends has the League of Legends LCS system, but its nothing compared to what Blizzard has started with the Overwatch World League, and it doesn't have the amount of money backing it has OWL has.

My thoughts.

This endeavor could potentially change esports forever. A lot of people are expecting this to fail, but I really don't think its going too. The pre-season numbers were bad, but it was pre-season. No body watches spring training games. I think the first season is going to be rough, no doubt about it. But I think as the weeks go by, its going to get better and better. Who knows, maybe in 3 years, when talking about local sports teams, somebody will mention the Boston Uprising and their great turn around to become a OWL champion.

I think this is going to be amazing, and I also think this is a huge leap for esports as a whole. If anybody is able to make this work, its going to be Blizzard. They have a lot of money, time, and effort invested in this. I do not see them failing in the least and with how popular Overwatch is. This could legitimize everything that has happened in the last few years and show the potential of esports as a spectator sport.

Wow this went on kinda long. Well, this is everything you need to know about the Overwatch World League, with a few other things you probably didn't need to know.

And as always, this is James with Game Fix. Game on everybody!

My OWL team is......