A report from GGRecon Senior Esports Journalist Sascha “Yiska” Heinisch claims that Activision Blizzard is currently talking to third-party tournament organizers about facilitating the Overwatch League in 2024.
Citing sources “with knowledge of the matter,” the report claims that Activision Blizzard has reached out to tournament organizers such as ESL FACEIT Group, who have been “in talks with the League” to organize its circuit in both North America and Europe. The report goes on to claim that the league is also in talks with its production partner WDG Esports to handle competitions in Asia.
The Esports Advocate reached out to ESL FACEIT Group and WDG Esports for comment prior to the publication of this story, and will update should they respond.
A spokesperson for Activision Blizzard responded to our request for comments with the following statement (the inference being that it is focusing on 2023, and not 2024):
“The Overwatch League is currently focused on celebrating all the hard work of Season 6 at Grand Finals in front of a passionate, sold out Toronto crowd on October 1st. This is the most exciting time of the season and players and teams have earned the spotlight as we witness who will be crowned the 2023 global Overwatch League champion.”
As part of its financial report for the second quarter of 2023, Activision Blizzard provided an update on its franchised Overwatch League esports project. The company said at the time that it would make changes to the league’s rules and provide teams that did not want to continue their participation a termination fee of $6M USD. TEA also reported at the time about OWL’s latest development and a layoff of less than 50 esports department employees.
