Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase-owned Thunder Fire Group announced this week that Overwatch 2 will officially return to Mainland China on Feb. 19. A China server will start technical tests on Jan. 8., according to an announcement. Overwatch 2 becomes the third Blizzard games title to return to China following the World of WarCraft and Hearthstone.
In addition, Blizzard also announced that the Overwatch Mainland China will become the fourth independent region in the Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS) ecosystem, alongside North America, Asia Pacific, and the EMEA region. In addition, the OWCS’ first on-site event will be held at Hangzhou Esports Centre in April, a venue with a seating capacity of around 4,500—depending on configuration. Eight teams from all four regions will compete in Hangzhou for the first OWCS championship. In 2023, the Hangzhou Asian Games esports competitions were held at the venue.
More details are to be announced. The return dates of StarCraft II are also still pending.
Operated by Saudi Arabia government owned ESL FACEIT Group (EFG), the OWCS event in China will more likely be run by Chinese esports company Hero Esports, formerly VSPO, as EFG parent company Savvy Games Group invested $265M USD in the company in 2023, becing the biggest overseas shareholder of the company.
The OWCS’ second on-site competition will be held at the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July, and the World Finals of OWCS will be held at DreamHack in Stockholm in November—an event also owned and operated by ESL FACEIT Group).