World Unite: Beloved Overwatch tradition to return, Overwatch World Cup to return in 2023 after 3-year hiatus

It’s Back

Blizzard has announced the return of the Overwatch World Cup, including 36 teams to crown the World Cup champion. The countries are said to be announced in January of next year. In the trailer announcement, the tagline read: ‘become the first World Cup champions of Overwatch 2.’

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For three years, since it’s last showing in 2019, the Overwatch World Cup has been on hiatus. A beloved tradition for fans of the esports title, the annual international Overwatch tournament sees a large collection of countries send representative teams to compete for the pride and honor of the country. Due to the rise of the pandemic in 2020, and the ensuing global crisis, many fans considered the tournament to be a bygone tradition.

It is a tournament that during and following its conception, gave birth to some of Overwatch’s brightest stars, even today. A grueling format that demanded the greatest talent and tenacity from each of the competitors. Moreover, the playoffs format closely follows the traditional World Cup format of a single elimination bracket.

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Format for World Cup

Since its conception, the Overwatch World Cup has seen different iterations of its format. In 2016, when first launched, it included qualifying tournaments to identify the top countries to compete. Then, qualified teams would face off in the Group Stage, where they would battle it out in round-robin style. Those that qualified would reach the final stage, the single-elimination playoffs bracket.

In the years following, identifiers would change for which countries qualified for the tournament, however, the format of group and playoffs never changed in concept. In 2017 and 2018, Blizzard made use of an average skill rating per country’s top players, to determine which countries were deserving of a spot.

By 2019, this had evolved into a country’s national ranking, that was based on previous World Cup performances/placements. However, this did not exclude any country. In fact, any country could still compete in the initial qualifying round. The top five countries according to national ranking, received a bye straight into the Group Stage.

In 2019, 10 teams would reach the Group Stage, split into two groups. The top 3 from each went on to playoffs. The top performing country from each group, went straight to the semifinals. The other four battled it out in the quarterfinals.

Favorites?

While too early to call, in the past World Cup tournaments, Team South Korea has held the title for the first three years of its conception. In 2019, Team USA finally took home the trophy. Heading into 2023, with the onset rise of South Korean Overwatch talent, it is hard not to place them as the frontrunner for another title.

Image credit: Derek Kwok