Future Of Overwatch Esports: It Is Left To Third Parties, Mostly ESL

Overwatch League is officially dead, and Activision Blizzard announced a new esports model for Overwatch 2. Now, the company is greatly reducing its involvement in the scene, leaving most of it to the ESL FACEIT Group. EFG, owned by Savvy Games Group (which is itself owned by the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund PIF), will be responsible for the competitions in North America and EMEA. Also, two international Majors will be held at DreamHack events (in Dallas and Stockholm this May-June and November, respectively), which are also part of a big EFG portfolio. FACEIT will be the main platform for the online tournaments.

In Asia, tournaments will be hosted by South Korean company WDG. In its statement, Activision Blizzard mentions that the Overwatch pro circuit will not be a closed competition; instead, many open qualifiers will happen for the event. It is a drastic pivot from the franchise league that was the staple of competitive Overwatch 2 earlier.

We can say that Overwatch esports is going back towards the grass-roots model, at least for players and their path to the professional scene. The franchise model proved to be unsuccessful, and the fall of the Overwatch League can be assessed as one of the biggest catastrophes in the history of esports. This change of the competitive ecosystem format might be beneficial for everyone, but we need to see it first in practice.