It come to no surprise that Overwatch e-sports is going to go big pretty quick. With the Overwatch Open offered $300,000 USD in prize pool for a game only a few months since launch and being produced by ELEAGUE, a major e-sports production, and the sporadic growth of tournaments, even China and South Korea are supporting Overwatch, now we have an official league.
But this is no ordinary league. The way the Overwatch League is being pitched is to favour players to keep on playing with player benefits at the forefront. And it looks like teams will be based on region or city, something akin to how American sports teams are always associated with a city or state.
Before each start of a season, eligible players get to try out for teams at a combine hosted by Blizzard. Teams will get to evaluate each player during this and pick the players they need for the roster, and getting picked will guarantee a player contract with minimum salary and benefits.
Here’s a trailer on how Overwatch League should work for the players:
Having player benefits in the forefront is interesting. e-Sports have this growing pain of ensuring the money is enough to sustain a career for the young budding players. Even big games like League Of Legends have some issues with how players are being paid. If Blizzard can keep their end of the bargain to ensure the talent participating in the Overwatch League is paid fairly and we could see a year long of great Overwatch action by the top players all over the world.