‘Overwatch’ World Cup Announced for BlizzCon 2016

Overwatch Review

(Blizzard)

Just when you think Overwatch‘s competitive scene couldn’t get any bigger, developer Blizzard has announced that they will be hosting a World Cup at this year’s BlizzCon. This is not the first time that Blizzard has hosted a World Cup at their massive convention, as Hearthstone took center stage last year.

The World Cup will be broken up into two phases, with the first phase focused around the community itself voting for which Overwatch players they want as their representatives. It’s important to note that the players up for nomination are not just professionals from the eSports scene and that Blizzard will be nominating big community personalities and normal players who have reached high Skill Rankings in the Competitive Mode.

Blizzard has made it clear they do not just want a team of pure eSports professionals, as they want to make sure each team is well rounded. Players hoping to be nominated will be judged by in-game performance, skill, and their standing within the community itself.

Overwatch, Zayra

(Blizzard)

Once a pool of players has been nominated by Blizzard, it will be up to the community itself to vote for who makes it onto the 6 person team. The voting will begin on August 11 and layers must both have a Battle.net account and Overwatch game license to participate.

Phase 2 will be the actual competition itself, with each countries team facing off in best of three, single-elimination qualifier matches. Once the preliminary matches have finished, 16 teams will advance to the World Cup at BlizzCon on November 5. Those matches will consistent of a round robin set up and will continue until one team is left standing. There is no prize pool for the Overwatch World Cup, so teams will be solely battling it out for bragging rights and glory.

Here is the full list of every country that can participate in the Overwatch World Cup:

Americas:

  • United States
  • Canada
  • Brazil
  • Argentina
  • Chile
  • Colombia
  • Costa Rica
  • Mexico
  • Peru

Europe:

  • Sweden
  • Germany
  • France
  • Austria
  • Belarus
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • Greece
  • Hungary
  • Iceland
  • Ireland
  • Israel
  • Italy
  • Kazakhstan
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Russia
  • Serbia
  • Slovakia
  • South Africa
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Turkey
  • Ukraine
  • United Kingdom

Asia-Pacific:

  • China
  • South Korea
  • Taiwan
  • Japan
  • Indonesia
  • Hong Kong
  • Malaysia
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam
  • Austrailia
  • New Zealand

The Overwatch World Cup will start on November 5 at BlizzCon 2016.