Overwatch eSports: A World Cup & Shaq’s New Team

By Ginx eSports TV

The Overwatch eSports scene is evolving at a rapid rate, whether that’s the announcement of new tournaments, more and more eSports teams forming squads for Overwatch or even new features being added into the game.

For example, Blizzard has recently discussed the possibility of a Spectator Mode – which will go a long way to making Overwatch easier to watch as an eSport – even if it isn’t quite in the pipeline for it just yet. The feature, it claims, will come after some more significant changes it hopes to make to the game.

But that’s not the only news surrounding Blizzard and Overwatch recently. The developer revealed that it would be hosting an Overwatch World Cup, whereby the best players in the world will take place in a competition based on their regions.

These invites will be going out to pro players and amateurs alike – the latter being based on their rankings in the Competitive table in-game – and they will be able to attend BlizzCon to take part.

Blizzard’s Overwatch World Up

The competition won’t have explicit eSports teams – like many tournaments – but instead will feature teams based on their country, a collection of different players brought together to compete for their region. It’s an interesting move by Blizzard, that’s for sure.

And in fact the choice of players will come down to votes by the community. The chosen players are now able as a pool of players to vote from in each region – some more than others – with the highest voted players going on to play at the tournament.

But elsewhere in Overwatch news, Shaquille O’Neal and his eSports team NRG eSports have signed ex-Lumionsity players – a move that comes after Shaq previously tweeted the squad asking them to jump ship.

Many accused Shaq of blatant poaching – which, currently, has no control in Overwatch eSports – but the contracts for the team were expiring and, as such, it seems the group decided to make the move over to NRG.

Permanent link to this article: https://gamegnome.com/esports/2016/08/16/overwatch-esports-world-cup-shaqs-new-team/