The Overwatch league has become the face of esports in North America. While the other esports titles such as CS GO might be more popular, it is OWL which essentially bridges the gap with the mainstream media. Providing a structured format and one singular entity to deal with, it has received several tens of millions of dollars in investment already.

The first season of Overwatch League concluded with Jack Etienne owned London Spitfire emerging victorious. The Season commenced in January 2018 and we finally have a winner in August. In the meantime, we saw various ebbs and flows in the meta and several teams competing to make it to the playoffs. Ultimately, it was a close contest with a very real chance for multiple teams.

However, the Overwatch League Season 1 has come to an end and we need to think about the subsequent seasons. Season 2 will start in 2019 and the interim period will see events such as the Overwatch World Cup, The Overwatch League All-Stars event etc. We will also have many new teams/franchise announcements. Blizzard needs to enable a fair spread of Overwatch League teams across the world.

Season 1 was a runaway success, exceeding expectations

Before the start of Season 1, there was a lot of apprehension about the potential of the Overwatch League. Various third-party tournaments prior to OWL were drawing in a few tens of thousands of viewers. Being a title published by Blizzard, one of the biggest game publishers, there were obvious comparisons drawn with other titles such as CSGO and Dota 2.

But the start of Overwatch League and the subsequent months drew in a consistent number of viewers. This number would often be around 100,000 which was way above the expectations of fans and Franchise owners. The success of Season 1 has led to franchise prices for Season 2 increasing to around $30 to $60 million. While initially, it does seem to be a very big number, it is a number put forth after considerable analysis and market research. Overwatch League is not a short-term project, it is not even complete in any sense right now. OWL has plans for home and away matches and esports venues for these matches across the globe. According to estimates, this will fully materialize only in Season 3 by when teams have had ample time to get their home venues in order.

But as we head into post Season period, there are already rumors of new additions in terms of franchise cities. The three names that have come up so far are Paris, Atlanta, and Guangzhou. While Paris and Guangzhou are still unsure, a Jacob Wolf report suggests that the Atlanta spot is already sold for.

Blizzard should be cautious while awarding franchise slots

The success of Season 1 has put Blizzard in a unique situation. Unlike Season 1, when there were reports of Blizzard struggling to sell OWL slots, they can now choose who to award subsequent slots.

Creating a storyline and controlling the narrative for the future of the Overwatch League is important. When Season 1 was announced, there were talks of how it was dominated by North American organizations. Season 1 has twelve teams, nine of which are from the US. From the remaining three teams, two have their parent organizations located in the United States. This raises questions about the ‘global nature’ of the Overwatch league. With the vast majority of organizations involved in OWL coming from North America, was it truly a Global league?

The first season being centrally located in Los Angeles did not help matters either. But when it comes to the future, and we are talking about 3 to 4 years down the line, we hope to see a Global league fully functional. This includes travel to cities in other parts of the world and a rivalry between cities and nations. For this, Blizzard needs to think about the distribution of franchise slots. There are reports of Paris and Guangzhou coming on as new cities for season 2. It is encouraging, but these are unconfirmed reports. Meanwhile, there seems to be a fair sense of confidence around the Atlanta report, which makes it yet another North American team to be added to OWL.

There are many advantages to becoming a Global League

Is it really that big a deal if Overwatch League were confined to North America? Not really. However, Blizzard has already envisioned a global league and that is the roadmap already laid out. There are several reasons for this, one of which is that esports is a global phenomenon.

Twitch viewers are not limited to any one particular geographic region. Esports is easily accessible online via streaming platforms such as Twitch and Youtube. While every region has different esports penetration levels, it is not a phenomenon confined to one region. As such keeping the true nature of esports intact is important for OWL & Blizzard.

It is an opportunity to showcase to investors and sponsors, the potential of their reach. Having a global platform increases the reach of the Overwatch League. We have seen an average of around 100,000 viewers for Season 1, but with subsequent seasons this number can increase by leaps and bounds. It would mean more financial backing to the League and an increased chance of success and advertisement. Blizzard can further divide the sponsorship rights depending on the location of the team. There are multiple sources of revenue possible if the League were to be truly global.

Another advantage of having a global league would be to become the forerunner when it comes to establishing and managing esports. Blizzard is already a big company and if they can prove their worth in nurturing esports on such a large scale it speaks volumes for future possibilities.

But Globalisation of esports has its fair share of hurdles.

Having a Global League is lucrative and a wonderful thought, however, there are several problems associated with such an idea. The foremost and most important part of such a setting would be the huge traveling costs for the teams. Flying across the world is not cheap especially since the support staff, the coaches, chefs, trainers all have to move across the world. The increase in the traveling costs would create problems for the team owners.

Another issue that is pressing would be the changing time slots for the Overwatch league. Even for season 1, most of the matches were at midnight for European viewers. When teams travel across the world, one part of the world is going to find it difficult to follow the matches. Ensuring decent viewership numbers regardless of the location of the match is going to be a challenge for Blizzard.

The return on investment from cities outside of North America is another aspect that will prove to be a hindrance for new teams. While Overwatch League is thriving and is already doing well, it is due to the North American base of the League. The venue for all the matches was Los Angeles and the streaming schedule was also suitable for an NA audience. But for franchises such as London Spitfire, Seoul Dynasty, and Shanghai Dragons it is going to be difficult to secure good returns on their investment. This can be offset depending on how Blizzard wishes to sell franchise slots in other regions. It is obvious that the population of a city and its importance in esports are crucial factors before deciding the price of the slot.

Season 2 should have more teams from Asia and Europe

It is still a few weeks before we get more information about OWL Season 2 teams. But we can only hope that there are more EU and Asian teams in 2019. There were also rumors of Blizzard looking to establish Brazil and South America as a potential market. Which cities would you like to see in OWL Season 2? Do you agree that we need more teams from Europe and Asia? Let us know in the comments below.