Blizzard Entertainment’s major annual tournament, the Overwatch World Cup, is back for the third time. Over the past month, National Committees from 24 different nations opened up tryouts to fill the coveted spots on their respective teams. 12 players from each team, all representing their country of citizenship, will battle it out in the group stages.
Details regarding each team’s roster can be found on the official Overwatch World Cup website. Incheon, Los Angeles, Bangkok, and Paris will host their respective regions, with 6 teams facing off in three days of intense round-robin style competition. The top two teams from each regional qualifier will advance to the Overwatch World Cup Top 8 in Anaheim, California.
The Overwatch World Cup is arguably the biggest and most popular tournament to come out of Blizzard’s award-winning competitive multiplayer shooter. The tournament has accumulated over 5.4 million views on Twitch streams, and playoff matches have hit well above 200,000 concurrent viewers. This will be the third time that the company holds the tournament, and as before, the grand finals will take place during Blizzcon 2018.
Though the South Korean team has brought home the championship for the past two years, the competitive level seen in the tournament has been nothing short of amazing. Close matches and intense back-and-forth fights at every stage of the competition have led to an increase in viewership every year, and this year should be no different.
Now that Blizzard has experience running tournaments in the Overwatch League, the third annual World Cup should hit its stride this year, perhaps with better production and fewer logistical issues. The Group Stage competition commences in Incheon, South Korea on August 16 at 8pm PDT, starting with Russia vs. Hong Kong. The full schedule, team details, and ticket information are available on the official website. The World Cup playoffs at Blizzcon will begin on November 2, and will end with the finals on November 3.