Overwatch World Cup returns in 2023

After a long three-year hiatus, Blizzard has announced the return of the Overwatch World Cup in 2023. The announcement was made on the game’s official Twitter page with the series scheduled to start in January 2023.

There is a significant change to team size in Overwatch 2 — the teams will now have five players instead of six.

Moreover, the game is also facing other issues, such as players complaining about the overall game balance and server issues. If Blizzard is serious about its commitment to the Overwatch esports scene, it should face these issues head on.

 

2023 World Cup timeline

Even though not a lot of information about the 2023 Overwatch World Cup has been disclosed, we know that the competition committee applications will be opened in January, accepting teams from 36 countries and regions.

There will be a new avenue for players to earn a spot on their team along with regular tryouts which will be in the form of an open tournament format — World Cup Trails. With World Cup Trails, players will be earning direct spots in the tryouts for their team in February. 

Regular tryouts will have a Competitive Rank requirement of Diamond and above and will be eligible for signup in March. This is done so that aspiring players will have time to be able to join for the tryouts.

Team rosters will be finalised in June. Overwatch World Cup qualifiers will be taking place as a regional online competition, from where the 36 participating teams will be narrowed down to 16 for the next phase of the competition. The remaining 16 teams will go head to head in a LAN event in the fall of 2023 to decide who will be crowned as the first Overwatch 2 World Cup Champions. 

Furthermore, there will also be other ways for aspiring and casual players to get involved with the event, which will, along with other information, be announced at later date.

A little history

The first Overwatch World Cup was hosted in the United States back in 2016, with South Korea crowned as Champions. South Korea successfully defended its title for two consecutive years before the United States claimed the title in 2019. After 2019, the tournament went into hiatus because of the global pandemic.

There were also some in-game balancing issues where teams were able to abuse certain tactics. The community outcry was pretty bad back then, so let’s see how Overwatch 2 will succeed in hosting the Overwatch World Cup 2023.

 

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