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Overwatch League gets Final Three Teams, First Season Starts in January

With the Overwatch League getting its final three teams, the regular season is ready to begin.

September 20, 2017 10:35 AM

The Overwatch League field is officially set. Blizzard confirmed the reports from last week, announcing that Overwatch francises would be joining Houston and Philadelphia. The publisher also announced Dallas as the League's final team, along with an official start date.

"Now that we have our final slate of 12 teams for the inaugural season, it's time to let you know when the Overwatch League will officially start," reads Wednesday's announcement from the Overwatch League website. "The preseason begins on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles with a series of exhibition matches featuring all of the teams—the world's first chance to see Overwatch League professionals in action. The inaugural season proper kicks off on Wednesday, January 10, 2018 and will continue into June, followed by championship playoffs and finals in July. We look forward to announcing more information about the league's schedule and format in the coming months, including how to get tickets to the preseason and regular-season matches."

The Philadelphia team has been picked up by Comcast Spectator, owners of the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers. The Houston team was picked up by OpTic Gaming, an esports squad known for success in the Call of Duty world. Finally, Dallas has been picked up by Team Envy, an esports team known for its League of Legends team and for the defending Call of Duty World Champions, but also a team with an established Overwatch team that's been taking some names in the competitive space.

The next step for competitive Overwatch is the Overwatch Contenders Series Season One Playoffs, which will help officially open the doors to the new Blizzard Arena in Burbank, CA.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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