The corona pandemic also had serious effects in the gaming sector: Not only were developments delayed, but usual events also fell through. After three years, the World Cup in Overwatch is set to make a comeback.
After three years of abstinence, Blizzard Entertainment announced today the comeback of the Overwatch World Cup for the coming year 2023 in a press release – but this will now be held in the now published sequel Overwatch 2. The developers promise that the event will be “bigger than ever”.
The graphic above already provides a first overview of what is already known regarding the Overwatch World Cup in the coming year; more information and details will follow in due course. For example, the 36 countries and regions that can compete are to be announced in January. From this point on, applications for the competition committee can also be submitted. Each competition committee will be responsible for organizing tryouts for its country and region according to Blizzard’s guidelines.
Besides the normal tryouts, you will have a new way to compete for your place on the team in the form of an open tournament format: World Cup Trials. In February, victorious gamers in the World Cup Trials can earn a spot in their team’s tryouts. Independent of this, you can still register for the normal test matches that take place in March. For the normal tryouts, you must have reached a rank of at least Diamond.
Even if you don’t climb that high in the rankings, you will benefit from the comeback of the World Cup. Blizzard has some challenges and rewards planned for all players in the coming year.
In June, once team rosters are finalized, Overwatch World Cup qualifiers will take place via an online regional competition, with 16 teams from the original 36 advancing to the next stage of the tournament. These 16 teams will then meet in the fall of 2023 in a LAN tournament that will crown the first World Cup champions since 2019.
Starting today, Season 2 of Overwatch 2 is officially available.
