Overwatch World Cup 2019 Announced

Blizzard announced Overwatch World Cup 2019 on Thursday, sharing details for the fourth iteration of the worldwide competition.

All the Overwatch competition will take place in Anaheim in a single week of play broadcast live around the world. Play will begin with preliminary rounds ahead of BlizzCon, followed by a group stage with 10 teams participating. Six teams will advance to the final playoffs.

Teams will be seeded ahead of the tournament through a weighted point-ranking system based on placements in the previous Overwatch World Cups. Teams that made it to the round of 32 will receive a single point, while each first place finish will earn a team 10 points.

Points are then weighted to favor recency. Ties between countries will be settled by the most recent year’s results, followed by most recent head-to-head results if necessary.

Players on each team will be selected by that nation’s Competition Committee. Fans will get to vote on every member of the Competition Committee in this World Cup, including the team’s coach, community lead and the previously independent General Manager.

The 10 highest-ranked teams will have Blizzard pay for round-trip airfare, ground transportation, and double-occupancy hotel accommodations for players and committee members. All other teams will receive some support for hotel, but will otherwise have to pay their own way.

Committee applications and endorsements will open May 15 and run through May 23. Top candidates will be revealed May 30, with a runoff vote for each country. All players from the candidates’ country of residence will get to cast a final vote.

Tryouts for the teams will take place June 13 to July 14. Teams can submit up to 12 players for Blizzard to verify and approve, then select seven of the 12 to travel to the competition.

The preliminary rounds will feature a single-elimination, seeded bracket based on national rankings. The top five countries will receive automatic byes to the group stage, leaving the other five spots in the group stage for the remaining teams to fight over.

In the group stage, the 10 teams will be seeded into two groups of five teams. Teams will play a round-robin against the other teams in their group. The top team from each group will move onto the playoff semifinals, while second- and third-place teams will head to the playoff quarterfinals.

Playoffs will feature a single elimination bracket for the gold and silver medals. A run-off match between the two losing teams from semifinals will determine the bronze medal recipient.

All matches, from the preliminary rounds through to the finals, will be broadcast live.

BlizzCon and the Overwatch World Cup 2019 group stage are scheduled to begin Nov. 1.

Photo courtesy of Blizzard