ESL, the world’s largest esports company, today announced the Overwatch ® Atlantic Showdown at ESL gamescom, the first international competition featuring Blizzard Entertainment’s new team shooter to offer a six-figure prize pool. The main event will take place this August 20–21 at gamescom, Europe’s largest trade fair for interactive games and entertainment, on the ESL main stage in Hall 9.

Coming just three months after Overwatch’s blockbuster global launch, the Overwatch Atlantic Showdown at ESL gamescom tournament will award US$100,000 in prize money to eight teams—four from North America and four from Europe—along with travel costs for the qualifying teams.

The first of four open qualifiers for the tournament will begin on July 4th, operated by ESL and hosted on ESL Play. These will be followed by regional qualifiers and a final online qualifier, all of which will be played out online and broadcast in conjunction with ESL’s numerous streaming partners—further details will be announced at a later date. Once the qualifiers kick off, there will be four days of online Overwatch competition per week throughout July. From Monday to Thursday, Jason Kaplan, Mitch ‘Uber’ Leslie and Leigh ‘Deman’ Smith will cover all of the Overwatch action live from the ESL Studios in Cologne, Germany.

The group stages of the competition will play out live on the Saturday of gamescom, with the finals playing out on Sunday. All of the competition will be brought to online audiences live by industry-leading analysts and commentators, yet to be announced.

For more information regarding the tournament, please visit ESL Play. For more on Overwatch, follow Blizzard's Overwatch account on Twitter and like Blizzard's Overwatch page on Facebook. For regular updates on the tournament, follow the ESL Overwatch account on Twitter and like the ESL Overwatch page on Facebook.

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