The Overwatch World Cup was an interesting take of an esports event ran by Blizzard. Instead of taking the traditional pro esports teams it instead ran with teams representing nations to fit with the game’s global themes.
Yet it also used popular voting, which made popular content creators or those with influence getting into the teams more than the actual pros that are only to start making names.
But the end result is still an entertaining watch. South Korea dominated, as expected, but there were surprising runs as well. Thailand certainly left a big impression that one of the players, Mickie, got a spot in team EnVyUs and helped them win OGN Apex Season 1 and MLG Vegas.
This time around, all the countries in the world have a chance to participate, and it all hinges to the quality of the country’s top 100 players in Competitive. An average Skill Rating (SR) of the top 100 determines the 32 nations to proceed into the next rounds of the World Cup.
At the time of writing, Malaysia is in the 44th spot. Not too shabby, but our SEA neighbours Thailand and Singapore are sitting way up there on the 23rd and 22nd spot respectively. South Korea is, of course, leading the pack right now, with China coming a close second.
The top 32 nations then proceed to the voting phase. Later on, there will be other live events before the final playoffs at Blizzcon.