Mentioned in this article Games: Overwatch

This is the first of a two-part series on the origins of the Atlanta Overwatch League franchise. Read the second part here.



Atlanta Esports Ventures president Paul Hamilton had a feeling about Overwatch’s potential as an esport before the Overwatch League (OWL) was even announced.

About a year and a half ago, Hamilton was playing the game one night when he noticed his children gathering around him to watch. In the moment, he thought it was funny but didn’t put much more thought into what had happened.

A couple nights passed, and when he played Overwatch again, the same thing happened.

“I started to realize that no matter what they were doing, how much fun they were having, they would prefer to watch me play Overwatch than anything else that they were doing,” Hamilton said. “That sort of piqued my interest in something that I was already super interested in.”

Hamilton has spent his entire life playing video games. It all started with the Atari 2600 when he was a kid, and evolved from there. As he aged and matured, so did video games.

“It became way for us to bring the gap with people who had moved away and really just unwind at the end of the day with friends,” he said.

So naturally, as he became a businessman with the potential to invest in esports, the Overwatch League was on his radar.

“I watched all of them [esports leagues] trying to think about which one was right for me in the space because I believe one hundred percent that esports will be bigger than everything else within the next few years, and I believed that back then as it was just starting to get its legs,” Hamilton said.

Once Hamilton realized the Overwatch League was where he wanted to be, the next step in the process was finding the right partner.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”I believe one hundred percent that esports will be bigger than everything else within the next few years.”[/perfectpullquote]

Cox Enterprises is a privately held communications and mass media conglomerate based out of Atlanta. The company generated $20 billion dollars in 2017 and has 60,000 employees, about 9,000 of which are in Georgia.

Boasting a strong regional presence and numerous media entities to leverage, Cox perfectly fit the mold for what Blizzard Entertainment and the Overwatch League are looking for in an owner. Being based in a city with a diverse and substantial population only helped their cause.

Hamilton developed a relationship with Cox from his work as president and CEO of The Greenspun Corporation, which has a history of partnering with Cox in media ventures.

Cox executive vice president & CFO Dallas Clement said that numerous of his fellow executives have developed relationships with Hamilton over the years, and the company knew that his values lined up with that of Cox making their marriage for Atlanta Esports Ventures a natural fit.

Clement added that Hamilton’s combination of esports industry knowledge, leadership, and enthusiasm made him the right fit for running the joint venture between Cox and Hamilton’s firm Province Inc.

“He wants to do what’s right for the business,” Clement said. “That includes the players, the coaches, the fans, and the city of Atlanta.”

Clement met Hamilton in person for the first time when the two visited Burbank together at the end of January to get a first-hand view of the OWL and it’s operations.

What happened from there only furthered the duo’s urge to get in on the Overwatch action.

“I was blown away by the quality and professionalism of the Activision Blizzard Overwatch production,” Clement said. “I was thrilled with the enthusiasm of the fans and blue-chip advertisers. It looked just like a media business and a traditional sports business.”

Hamilton said that after he and Clement spent five or six hours touring Blizzard’s facilities and watching OWL matches live they knew they needed to be a part of the league’s expansion. At that point, Hamilton said, they started “really digging into figuring out how to bring a team to Atlanta.”

For the Love of the Game

Hamilton openly admits that just because a he’s made a deal with someone, that doesn’t mean he confines himself to only saying nice things about them.

After working with Activision Blizzard to land an Overwatch League expansion spot in Atlanta, Hamilton said he wouldn’t be afraid to say if Blizzard was unfair or difficult to work with throughout the bidding process or negotiation.

Hamilton had nothing bad to say about the developer. Instead, all he could speak about was how impressed he was by the people who work to make OWL happen.

“It’s funny because it’s the one thing that I talk about privately,” Hamilton said. “Every person that you meet at Activision Blizzard from Bob Kotick to Pete Vlastelica to their general counsel to their chief marketing officer to any person that you meet—CEO down to runner—every one of them are as excited about what they’re doing as we are about having a franchise with them.”

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“It’s probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in terms of business.”[/perfectpullquote]

Hamilton couldn’t stress enough how palpable the enthusiasm of Blizzard employees was.

“That was apparent to Dallas and I from the minute we landed there to the minute we landed a team, and it’s only increased as we got a team and have started working,” he said.

While Clement wasn’t necessarily surprised by the demeanor of Blizzard employees, he said that their nature is consistent with that of Cox’ workforce.

“We really try to get the right people,” Clement said. “So the Cox employees are enormously enthusiastic about what they’re doing no matter what they’re doing. It’s consistent with what I’ve seen, but I would agree that there was great enthusiasm.”

Hamilton made it abundantly clear that he had caught a case of that contagiously positive energy.

“It’s probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in terms of business.”