Nate Nanzer announced today that the Overwatch League’s home team skins will be available to purchase in early 2018. I am assuming that they will be available to be bought when the regular season starts or a couple of weeks into the season.

The difference however, isn’t the fact that they are making us use some of the currency that they have now to buy skins with, but they are creating a new currency called “league tokens” to help support the league, and the players. Which is great to me, because I want to see the players make the most money as possible for (and from) the company and this will help.

Get ready to show your teams some love. Overwatch League skins arrive early next year. #OWL2018 pic.twitter.com/NjplXd3rSa — Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) December 4, 2017

“Just like with traditional sports jerseys, purchasing Overwatch skins will provide monetary support for teams in the league, and also a way to show off the team pride in the game. To ensure that the correct amount for the league related purchases go towards the team, we developed a separate league token system for these items. League tokens will only be used for Overwatch league in game content. In addition to allowing us to account for these purchases another upside is you can use them to buy the exact team skin you want.” Nate Nanzer, the comminsor of the Overwatch League stated.

Ok, so this is great. One of my main concerns since the Overwatch League was announced, was how well Blizzard is going to treat the players. I was worried that they would, well, screw the players out of well PAYING them. The organization not paying the players became an epidemic. The kids (Yes, most of them are in the age range of 17-25. They are still kids in this world.) were being use by these organizations as volunteers more than anything. The players were being not being paid in a timely manner, and with esports slowly becoming a full time job, they would also need benefits. Blizzard fixed that, and they fixed it extremely well. Hopefully the other esports are watching and are looking at how the Overwatch League (and DOTA to a point) are doing it. If you treat your players well, then the fans will come for the game and together you have something sustainable.

One main question though, is will the money directly go to the players? Will it help Blizzard with paying the salaries of the players or will it go straight into their pockets? Or will be an added bonus, maybe to the champions of the inaugural season akin to DOTA and League of Legends. Most of the Esports championships use some sort of crowd funding to help add money to the pot. Understanding that, if Blizzard does that, then the pot should be well enough for the players to be content (for now). The owners will of course want their piece of the pie as well, and if they can sell their skins (and soon other merchandise) then they will surely be able to make some, if not all of their money back. The owners said that they understand that it may take a little while to get that money back, but if fans are willing to put money into their skins, like they do their jerseys, the owners will be happy.

As for the tokens themselves, I wonder what else we can buy with them? Maybe sprays, although I find them totally useless. What would be cool would be voice lines of your favorite players saying a quote that they use in stream or in game. I would like to see alternate jerseys, as I am a collectors of alternate jerseys. What would you like to see? Leave it in the comments below.

The Overwatch League starts Wednesday, which the six of the twelve skins will be shown. Here is hoping they look dope as hell.