Mentioned in this article Games: Overwatch

The Overwatch League (OWL) will cut the length of the season from 40 games to 28 for every team in 2019, freeing up more time for teams to build local fan bases and produce non-competition content for sponsors. Also, the season will start Feb. 14 instead of early January, giving the preseason marketing window more distance from the late December holiday season.

Last year, teams played twice weekly with just one week off between season stages. This year, some teams will have bye weeks or play just one game each week, and there will be a longer break around the all-star game. All contests will again be at the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, but teams’ local revenue depends on them being able to activate in their home markets.

“One of the most consistent pieces of feedback we received from teams is that if we’re playing two matches every week and just a one-week break between stages, it’s really hard to get the players back to Houston, or Boston, or even San Francisco to spend time with partners, or to do fun events with fans,” said Jon Spector, director of franchises/competition for the Overwatch League. “It’s a big priority for us to enable more of that type of local activation.”

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There’s also a sense coming out of the OWL’s first season that fewer games can better focus fan enthusiasm on higher-stakes contests, Spector said. Despite the cut in schedules, there will be a net increase of 40 games operated by OWL because of the addition of 8 expansion teams.

Also, OWL announced today that the expansion franchises would be placed in the two existing divisions, Atlantic and Pacific. Paris, Toronto, Washington D.C. and Atlanta will join the Atlantic Division, while Vancouver, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou will join the Pacific Division.

Ben Fischer is a staff writer for Sports Business Daily, where this article appeared first.