Overwatch League Adding Eight Teams for 2019 Season

Blizzard has announced that eight new teams will be joining the Overwatch League for the 2019 season.

The first two additions to the roster, Atlanta and Guangzhou, were revealed in early August. Six more teams will be located in Chengdu, Hangzhou, Paris, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, D.C. With these additions, there will be a total of eleven teams in the United States, four in China, two in Canada, two in Europe, and one in South Korea.

Only details regarding the owners of the new teams were provided in the announcement. Team names, logos, and player rosters will be unveiled at a later date, and with BlizzCon taking place in two months, we’re likely to hear more there.

When the Overwatch League was first formed, it was rumored that owners of the inaugural teams paid around $20 million in franchise fees to join the league. For the new expansion teams, the cost of entry will increase to $30-$60 million, according to ESPN.

The inaugural league season wrapped up in July, where the London Spitfire defeated the Philadelphia Fusion in the grand finals 3-0. They played in front of a sold-out crowd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and over 800,000 people watched the matches online and on television networks.

Despite the Overwatch League taking a break, Overwatch fans can watch pro players represent their home countries in the Overwatch World Cup. The group stages for the cup are currently underway, with the playoffs taking place November 2-3 at BlizzCon in Anaheim, California. Attendees will have the chance watch the matches in-person if they can manage to grab a seat, while everyone else will be able to stream the matches online.

Kyle Flory

Kyle is a lifelong gamer and writer who studied English at Cal State San Bernardino. He has been a PlayStation fan since the release of Sony's original console and puts most of his game time in on his PS5. He loves Metal Gear Solid, and is currently working on getting platinum trophies for every game in the series.