On September 8, Overwatch League has announced that six new teams will be added to the roster of teams competing for Season 2019.
These six new teams include Paris, Vancouver, Toronto, Washington D.C., Chengdu, and Hangzhou, following the addition of Atlanta and Guangzhou which was announced earlier this month. The additions will bring the Overwatch League to 20 teams, with nine of the teams coming outside of the United States.
New teams also mean new investors, which will help expand the global reach of the game. Team Chengdu is owned by Huya Inc, a game live-streaming company, while Team Hangzhou is owned by an online video sharing website company.
Canada also has two teams on the roster, Toronto and Vancouver. The Toronto Team is owned by an esports company called OverActive Media, while Vancouver is led by the Aquilini Group, which also owns NHL’s Vancouver Canucks.
Paris, on the other hand, will be managed by DM Esports. While the Washington Team is run by Washington Esports Ventures, which is owned by Mark Ein.
According to CEO Pete Vlastelica of Activision Blizzard Esports Leagues, the Overwatch League “sets a high bar for the first season with the caliber of ownership groups” and that each of the expansion franchises has met that bar. With that being said, he is sure that the new teams will make the league better.
Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer FPS video game from Blizzard, which was first released in May 2016 for Microsoft Windows gaming computers, XBox One and PlayStation 4 consoles. Since its release, Overwatch has received a massive following, which spawned professional competitions all over the world leading to the creation of the Overwatch League (OWL) — a professional esports organization that handles largest Overwatch competition, entirely controlled by Blizzard.