The Overwatch League (OWL) was a professional esports league for the video game Overwatch and its sequel, Overwatch 2, created by Blizzard Entertainment. From 2018 to 2023, the league followed the structure of traditional North American sports leagues by having permanent teams based in specific cities, each owned by separate groups. The league used a regular season and playoffs format, unlike other esports leagues that often use promotion and relegation. Players on the teams received a minimum annual salary, benefits, and a share of earnings and revenue based on their team’s performance.

The Overwatch League was announced in 2016 and received commitments from 12 teams in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Each team invested $20 million in franchise fees to join the league’s first season in 2018. Some people doubted the league’s success because the concept was new and Overwatch had limited esports history. In the next season, the league added eight new teams, each investing between $35 million and $60 million.

In 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the league. It stopped holding in-person events and instead had teams compete online from their regions. While this change helped reduce financial losses, it also raised concerns about the league’s long-term stability. Later, in 2021, nearly all of the league’s sponsors stopped supporting it after a lawsuit was filed against Activision Blizzard.

In November 2022, a partnership between NetEase and Blizzard ended, causing access to Overwatch 2 to be blocked in China. This led the league to allow Overwatch Contenders teams to join its Eastern Region for the next season. It also marked the first time a team left the league, as the Chengdu Hunters dissolved. In January 2023, league teams began a collective bargaining process, which resulted in the league agreeing to cancel all remaining franchise fees. By November 2023, Blizzard announced that Overwatch esports would shift from the Overwatch League to a new structure called the Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS), starting in 2024.

Format

The Overwatch League was owned by Blizzard Entertainment and managed by Major League Gaming, which is part of Activision Blizzard, Blizzard's parent company. The league operated like many North American professional sports leagues, where teams played scheduled games against each other to compete for a spot in the playoffs. Unlike some esports leagues, the Overwatch League did not use a system where teams could move up or down in rank. Instead, the league had twenty teams divided into two conferences based on their location: East and West. The East had eight teams, and the West had twelve teams.

The 2018 season included non-regulation pre-season games, a regular season split into four stages, and a post-season playoffs tournament to decide the season’s champion. Each regular season stage lasted five weeks, and the top teams from each stage competed in a short playoff to determine stage champions. Teams played 40 matches during the regular season, facing teams within and outside their division. The post-season playoffs used teams’ overall standings from all stages. The top team in each division received the top two playoff seeds, followed by a set number of teams from both divisions. An All-Star weekend also took place, featuring two teams chosen by league officials and fan votes.

The 2019 season followed a similar format to 2018, but the fourth stage’s playoffs were removed, and the number of matches was reduced to 28. The 2020 season introduced changes, such as a home-and-away format where each team hosted games with up to eight teams per event. The stage format was later replaced with a bimonthly tournament-based season in April 2020 due to the global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teams received money prizes based on their regular season standings, stage playoffs, and post-season tournament results. For example, the first season had a total prize pool of $3.5 million, with the championship team receiving $1 million.

Overwatch is a team-based first-person shooter game where five players work together to eliminate opponents or complete objectives. Players choose from 33 heroes divided into three classes: Damage (attackers), Support (healers and helpers), and Tank (defenders with high health). Each team must use two heroes from each class. Starting in the fourth stage of the 2019 season, teams were required to have two Damage, two Support, and two Tank heroes. Players could switch to another hero in the same class if they were eliminated or returned to their spawn point.

In regular season matches, two teams (one as the home team and one as the visiting team) played a best-of-five format. Each map had a specific type, such as Control maps (best-of-three rounds) or Assault, Escort, and Hybrid maps. Teams could only substitute players between maps. The team that won three maps first won the match. If teams tied after four games, a tiebreaker Control map (which cannot end in a tie) was played to decide the winner. Standings were based on win-loss records, with ties broken by map win-loss records, then head-to-head game and match records.

Overwatch League games were played on a custom server controlled by Blizzard, which also allowed players to practice. Updates to the game, such as new maps or hero abilities, were applied to the league server no more than once every six weeks. Teams could practice on private servers with the same updates as the main game. During matches, all players used identical computers, monitors, and noise-canceling headphones to ensure fairness. Players could use their preferred keyboard and mouse.

While Overwatch teams have five players, Overwatch League teams could have up to six additional players who could be swapped between maps. Team memberships were locked at the start of the season, but teams could sign new players or trade players during a mid-season period. After the season, teams had about one month to renew contracts, bring in players from affiliated teams, or hold tryouts. Unsigned players entered free agency, where they could negotiate with teams. Expansion teams had exclusive rights to negotiate with players for a month before other teams could join. Teams had to set their minimum roster size two months before the season, but they could adjust it up until a specific date. The league allowed teams to use players from any country as long as the team was based in that region. For example, the London Spitfire team initially had all South Korean players. Players must be at least 17 years old and able to travel internationally.

Overwatch League players received annual salaries while under contract. As of the 2023 season, the league required a minimum salary of $54,249 per year. The league also provided health and retirement benefits, housing, and training support. Blizzard required teams to give signed players bonuses equal to at least 50% of the team’s winnings and revenue. Players could negotiate for higher salaries or larger shares of bonus revenue. For example, in 2017, Jay "sinatraa" Won earned $150,000 as a player for the San Francisco Shock, plus a 50% share of the team’s bonuses.

Players were required to follow a code of conduct set by Blizzard while playing and representing the league. Violations could result in suspensions or fines.

History

The development of Overwatch began around 2013, at the same time as esports and spectator-driven video games became more popular. This growth was helped by the availability of live streaming platforms. However, the game’s development was not focused on esports. Jeff Kaplan, the lead director, said Blizzard learned from past experiences that committing too much to esports early on could be a problem. Instead, the team watched how players interacted and made decisions based on what they saw. During the beta period of Overwatch, which lasted from late 2015 to mid-2016, Blizzard noticed players organizing informal competitions and tournaments. This led them to consider how they could help structure these events. Nate Nanzer, who later became the league’s commissioner, said that with the right strategy and investment, esports could be monetized in a way similar to traditional sports. Based on this idea, Blizzard began planning for what would become the Overwatch League. Part of this included adding competitive features to the main game, such as ranked play, which allowed players to improve their rankings and attract attention from esports teams. In October 2016, Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, publicly mentioned the Overwatch League for the first time. He noted that user-generated esports content had already reached about 100 million viewers, more than some professional NFL and NBA games. Kotick saw the Overwatch League as a way to create "professional content" and reach this large audience.

The Overwatch League was officially announced at BlizzCon in November 2016. Blizzard shared their plans for the league, which would include franchised teams that hire players to compete in live arenas and on streaming platforms. These teams would offer players salaries, benefits, and development opportunities. Blizzard’s approach was different from traditional esports models that used systems where teams could be promoted or demoted based on performance, like the League of Legends Championship Series. Instead, they followed a model similar to American sports leagues. Kotick said the Overwatch League was a new kind of venture in esports, noting that nothing of this scale had been tried before. He emphasized the importance of using a structure like the NFL to attract investments and create long-term franchises. He called this approach a "forever investment."

Blizzard planned to fund the league using traditional revenue sources from professional sports, such as promotions, advertisements, and merchandise sales. Because esports is digital, Kotick also said they could make money from virtual items sold to fans and increased sales of Overwatch and other games. He mentioned opportunities for advertising that would not be possible in traditional sports. Kotick was confident the league would be financially successful, even though some revenue streams might take time to develop. He noted strong fan interest before the first season began.

Blizzard looked for potential team owners, focusing on creating localized teams tied to specific geographic areas. They believed this would increase fan and sponsor interest by giving people the chance to support hometown teams. A meeting for prospective owners was held at BlizzCon 2016, shortly after the league was announced. Notable attendees included Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, and Stan Kroenke, owner of the Los Angeles Rams. During the league’s early stages, Blizzard appointed Steve Bornstein as their esports chair. Bornstein, who previously worked in sports broadcasting, helped shape how Overwatch League games would be presented.

Blizzard expected the winning team in the Overwatch League to earn a seven-figure prize at the end of each season. The first season, originally planned to be shorter, was set to begin in Q3 2017. Full seasons were scheduled to start in 2018, with half-year breaks beginning in Q4 of that year. Before the league started, Blizzard planned to host a combine where players could try out for guaranteed team contracts.

After the November 2016 announcement, Blizzard did not share many details about the Overwatch League for several months, causing some speculation that the league might be struggling. In May 2017, ESPN reported that the league was facing challenges in securing franchise deals. Two main issues were identified: the high cost of starting a franchise, which began at $20 million and could be higher in major cities like New York and Los Angeles, and the lack of revenue sharing until 2021. This made it difficult for potential owners to recover their initial investments. However, Activision Blizzard continued working with interested owners and avoided making major announcements until they had more information.

Robert Kraft’s group became a key team owner for the league. Kraft had shown interest in esports before, meeting with Kotick in 2013 when Kotick was exploring investment opportunities in an NFL franchise. Kraft expressed a desire to invest in an esports team. After evaluating other esports competitions, Kraft was drawn to the Overwatch League during its 2016 announcement. By March 2017, Kraft’s group reached a deal with Activision, securing the first team ownership group for the Overwatch League. When Kraft’s group committed to supporting a Boston-based team, later named the Boston Uprising, it encouraged the formation of six additional teams. Kraft’s group also helped convince other owners to join the league.

In July 2017, Blizzard announced the first seven teams and their owners for the Overwatch League. Over the following months, more teams were added, with a total of twelve teams finalized by mid-December 2017.

In September 2017, Blizzard announced they would use Studio 1 at The Burbank Studios in Burbank, California, and convert it into the "Blizzard Arena." Having a dedicated arena aimed to elevate the Overwatch League’s status, making it a highly organized event distinct from other esports tournaments. It also provided players with opportunities to connect more closely with their fans. Blizzard continued to develop the Overwatch League’s structure and operations during this time.

Teams

The league started in 2018 with twelve teams, each located in a city around the world. In 2019, eight more teams joined the league. Before the 2020 season, the teams were split into two groups: the Atlantic Division, which included teams from the American East Coast, Eastern Canada, and Europe, and the Pacific Division, which included teams from the American West Coast, Western Canada, and Asia. In 2020, the two groups were changed into conferences, with the same team groupings, but each conference now had two divisions. Teams also began playing home and away games, with each team having one or more places to host their home games. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all live matches were canceled at the start of the 2020 season, and teams were separated into regions. The region split as of the 2023 season is shown below.

League championships

By the 2023 season, 20 different teams have played in the league, and five of them have won at least one Grand Finals title.

Broadcasting

In late 2017, Blizzard Entertainment signed a two-year agreement with Twitch to serve as the primary streaming platform for the Overwatch League outside of China. The deal was worth $90 million. Twitch streamed matches in English, French, and Korean. Users who connected their Twitch accounts to their Battle.net accounts could earn in-game items for Overwatch by watching broadcasts. A subscription called the "All-Access Pass" gave users access to private streams, chat rooms with players and officials, in-game currency for team skins, special chat emotes, and discounts on Blizzard products. In 2019, this feature expanded to include a "command center" app, allowing viewers to watch matches from multiple camera angles in real time. The league shared highlights on Twitter during the first and second seasons and created a weekly pre-game show named Watchpoint.

On July 11, 2018, Blizzard announced a television partnership with ESPN for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. ESPN broadcast the 2018 playoffs, including the semi-finals on ESPN2, ESPNews, and Disney XD, and the final on ESPN. Highlights were shown on ABC the following Sunday. In 2019, ESPN added regular-season matches to Disney XD and simulcast the Stage 1 and Stage 2 finals on ABC. ESPN's Canadian network, TSN, also broadcast matches, including replays of games featuring Canadian teams.

In the second season, German sports channel Sport1 signed a two-year deal with Blizzard to broadcast Overwatch League games. The partnership created a new channel called eSports1.

In early 2020, YouTube signed a three-year exclusive agreement to broadcast all Activision Blizzard esports events, including the Overwatch League, Call of Duty League, and Hearthstone. This replaced Twitch as the primary broadcaster. The deal was worth $160 million. Activision Blizzard also agreed to use Google Cloud Platform for its game servers. After the YouTube deal ended, the Overwatch League continued to be streamed exclusively on YouTube.

Reception

Some people noticed that more than 100 players were chosen for teams in the first season, and none of them were women. Some mentioned the absence of Kim "Geguri" Se-yeon, a young South Korean player who is known for being one of the most skilled Zarya players and the first woman to play in the Overwatch APEX league. Before the season started, teams said they had considered signing Geguri but faced challenges. The Houston Outlaws mentioned a language barrier between her and her potential teammates, as well as problems with shared living spaces for male and female players. They also said that bringing her on board might have caused outside commentators to question whether it was a publicity stunt or a real effort, and this could have affected her career. Other teams, like the London Spitfire and the New York Excelsior, considered Geguri as a free agent but ultimately chose to work with players who had already played in leagues before. Team owners said they want to make the player roster more diverse, but this requires making the Overwatch community less toxic and more welcoming. Nanzer also said he would like to see more diversity in the league but noted that in some cultures, there is social disapproval of professional video game players, which can be a barrier. By mid-February, during the Season 1 free agency period, Geguri was signed by the Shanghai Dragons, making her the first female player in the league.

More concerns arose after the league fined and suspended several players for their behavior. Reporters found that some players carried over toxic habits from their time as YouTube or Twitch broadcasters, where they often mocked opponents. Many of the fines and suspensions followed similar behavior in the league. The Overwatch community outside the league also had issues with toxicity, which Blizzard tried to address by improving reporting tools. Blizzard requires league players to follow a code of conduct and also monitors their behavior during off-league broadcasts. Players could be fined for toxic or inappropriate actions even if they occurred outside of league sessions, and the league would publicly share such actions. Some sponsors, like HP, were worried because this behavior could harm their brand, though HP product manager John Ludwig said these problems were not unique to esports.

After the first stage of the inaugural season ended, ESPN reported that the league’s revenue was higher than expected, with some insiders saying it was four times greater than planned. This success was partly due to a Twitch streaming deal and new advertisers, such as Toyota and T-Mobile, which joined a few weeks into the season. Because of the success of the first season, Fortune named commissioner Nate Nanzer as one of their "40 Under 40" in 2018.

As the league entered its third season, concerns were raised about the pressure on players. Fifty players had left the league during the first two years, with some citing the stress from the league and mental health issues.

Litigation

In July 2017, a trademark dispute happened when Major League Baseball (MLB) said they were worried about the logo that Blizzard had registered for the Overwatch League. MLB argued that Blizzard's logo looked similar to theirs, which could cause confusion for people who see them. However, after the initial complaint, MLB did not take any more actions during the required time for disputes. This suggested that MLB may have decided to stop the dispute or that a secret agreement was made between MLB and the Overwatch League, allowing the league to keep using the logo.

In July 2021, Dot Esports reported that the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) was looking into the Overwatch League’s rules about limiting players’ salaries. Unlike professional sports leagues like the NFL, where player unions help set salary limits allowed by a court decision, the Overwatch League does not have such unions. This could make salary limits a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, a law that prevents unfair business practices. In 2020, the Overwatch League had a soft cap of $1.6 million for team salaries. Teams could pay more than this amount, but they would be taxed as a luxury tax, which was considered harmful. In October 2021, Sports Business Journal reported that the Overwatch League would remove the luxury tax and salary limits. An agreement was proposed between the league and the DOJ, but a report by former ESPN writer Jacob Wolf in late 2022 said Activision Blizzard refused to agree to certain terms related to a planned purchase by Microsoft. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit, and Activision Blizzard agreed to end the lawsuit in April 2023. The agreement included rules that prevent Activision Blizzard from using similar measures in the Overwatch League, the Call of Duty League, or any other esports league it operates.

Legacy

Activision Blizzard created the Call of Duty League in 2019 using a model similar to the Overwatch League. The Call of Duty League was planned to begin its first season in 2020 with a format that included games played at different locations, like the Overwatch League had planned for its third season. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the Call of Duty League to change its format to fully online games. The league was an important part of the story in the 17th season episode "Brave N00b World" of American Dad!, which first aired in May 2020.