Overwatch League reveals when teams will move to home cities
Blizzard EntertainmentOverwatch League commissioner Nate Nanzer confirmed that teams would begin holding matches in their home cities starting in 2020.
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One of the main goals of OWL is to have teams play in front of their home fans, instead of having all the games happen in Burbank, as they do now.
On Friday, March 15, Nanzer tweeted that teams would begin to play from their home cities starting with Season 3 in 2020.
OWL has proven to be huge on Twitch, but will that popularity translate to local support?Nanzer’s tweet gave almost no details on how the arrangement would work, or any information on a schedule, he only confirmed that starting in 2020, “teams will be playing in their home cities.”
This could mean a setup where each team will host an event in their respective city where multiple matches will be played, similar to how Blizzard Arena is used now; or one similar to traditional major sports leagues like the NFL or NBA where teams travel to each others venues to play every week.
The second option would obviously require a huge amount of travel from teams, and questions about travel cost and how teams will handle player welfare during the season are already starting to pop up.
https://twitter.com/natenanzer/status/1106603297287344129[ad name=”article3″]
ESPN esports report Jacob Wolf said teams would be in charge of the venues, ticket sales, and will also be responsible for paying for both.
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A required capacity for each of the venues still has to be announced, Wolf said, and all broadcasts will still be handled by the League itself.
https://twitter.com/JacobWolf/status/1106607006247350272[ad name=”article4″]
Whatever ends up happening with how matches and travel is scheduled, it will be interesting to see what venues teams end up playing in for Season 3 of the Overwatch League.
