The first ever Overwatch League season is fast approaching, and esports fans around the world are eager to see exactly how the broadcasts will pan out.

We got a taste from the preseason matches in December, but Pete Vlastelica, CEO of MLG, has told Mail Esports that there's a lot more to come.

As we head towards the regular season start date on January 10, keep an eye out here for more interviews with Overwatch League commissioner Nate Nanzer, as well as Cloud9 and London Spitfire owner Jack Etienne.

The inaugural Overwatch League season begins next week on Wednesday, January 10

Pete Vlastelica has a history in digital media and sports, and became CEO of MLG in 2016

The Overwatch League is global and currently contains 12 teams from cities around the world

'The team that we've assembled to put on the show is the best team that's ever been put together to work on an esports broadcast,' Pete Vlastelica told Mail Esports.

'The combination of production talent, the technical crew, and the on camera personalities are really gelling as a unit, and are really focused on a level of production quality and storytelling that's new to the guys from the world of esports.'

Vlastelica's background is in digital media and sports. He was head of digital at FOX Sports for six years until he was recruited by Activision Blizzard to head up MLG in 2016.

He's brought that sporting know-how over to competitive gaming, and he's looking forward to what the future holds.

'We've got guys from a traditional sports background who are bringing what they've done in the broadcast television world to this format, which is very exciting.'

All of the teams will be based in the Burbank studio in California for the first OWL season

People were pleased with what they saw from the preseason OWL matches in December. The studio in Burbank, California, looks impressive, and the on camera talent did indeed put on a good show.

Before the Overwatch World Cup last year, esports broadcasts of the game were often hard to follow. The addition of team uniforms and upgrades to the spectator mode have improved things greatly though.

When the season kicks off, Vlastelica says we should be expecting even more.

'The team that put on the preseason is part of the broadcast team for the regular season, but we've been expanding that team even since then. There's going to be a lot more programming throughout the week than what you saw in the preseason.'

MLG and Blizzard are keeping quiet on the exact details of the extra content, but we do know a lot of it will be centered around the players.

'There's a large content production team based in our Burbank studio that's going to be producing content about and around the League all week long during the season,' said Vlastelica.

'They'll be building content around the players, telling stories, and creating stars. That's ultimately one of the things that's going to drive the success of the League.

'The storytelling we do around the League is going to be unlike anything that's been seen in esports. I'm proud of the work the team is already doing, and I think the audience is going to be pleased with what they see.'

There will also be weekly wrap up shows on Sundays, and preview shows on Tuesdays, according to Overwatch League commissioner Nate Nanzer's Reddit AMA last month.

There will be weekly content beyond just the match broadcasts, a lot of it do to with players

According to Vlastelica, the OWL's partners are pleased too. While he remained tight lipped on viewing numbers for the preseason and their projections for the regular season, he says that the sponsors and the 12 team owners have been very encouraged so far.

'We have milestones, and some of those will be met in the first season. It's entirely in Burbank, but once the teams move to their home markets we think that's going to unlock all kinds of new opportunities.

'It's how we built the League in the first place, to unlock local revenue opportunities, ticketing, merchandise, concessions, and marketing. We'll also unlock a whole lot of new fans who will have a great reason to root for their local team.

'Throughout the first season we'll look at what we did well, what we could've done better, and make adjustments along the way.'

As for the future, there are plans to expand the Overwatch League into new cities, but the organisers are extremely happy with the 12 they've got so far.

'When we set out to create the League, the first thing we did was make a list of the top Overwatch cities in the world,' said Vlastelica. 'All 12 of the cities represented in the League were at or near the very top of that list.

'Only after we had the cities in mind did we identify our ideal owners, and wherever we could we mapped them to cities. For all the cities we spoke to multiple owners, and in every case we moved forward with the owner who presented the most compelling plan for how they would create a fanbase and business locally.'

Activision Blizzard and MLG had a list of cities in mind for the first season and got most of them

This explains how the London Spitfire came to be owned by Cloud9, a predominantly American organisation with American investors.

'I will tell you Cloud9 came to us with a very impressive plan, as well as a very compelling set of data about their existing audience in the UK,' said Vlastelica.

Finally, we asked him which team he thought would be winning the inaugural Overwatch Season. Understandably, he was reluctant to do so.

'I can't do that,' he said. 'What I'm rooting for is 12 competitive teams.'

The Overwatch League starts on January 10 at midnight GMT when the San Francisco Shock take on the Los Angeles Valiant.