Overwatch League commissioner Nate Nanzer has confirmed that beginning in 2020, “all Overwatch League teams will be playing in their home cities.”
The @overwatchleague is coming home – and away! Starting in 2020, all Overwatch League teams will be playing in their home cities. We’re super excited to see our original vision brought to life. Thanks to all of our fans for your amazing support!
— Nate Nanzer (@natenanzer) March 15, 2019
Late last year when the 2019 schedule was announced it was also revealed that three Overwatch League teams would be hosting games in their home cities: Dallas Fuel, Atlanta Reign, and Los Angeles Valiant. Dallas hosts in the Allen Event Center with a 6,275 capacity and Los Angeles hosting at The Novo at L.A. Live which can hold 2,400.
This push will hopefully boost attachment to certain teams if they are playing within the city they are representing in order to more closely tie teams to locations instead of intangible team names like Evil Geniuses or Team Liquid. Whether players will begin to be referred to with their last names instead of usernames remains to be seen, so feel free to continue referring to Minseok Kwon of Boston Uprising as AimGod.
Shanghai Dragons were finally able to break their 42 game losing stream (yikes) in late February by defeating the Boston Uprising team 3-1. Despite the upset Boston Uprising fans were still cheering since the win was a much-needed morale boost for the Dragons who went the entire of the first season of Overwatch League without a single win. Cleveland Browns fans circa 2017 can relate.
We are currently in Stage 1, Week 5 of this season of the Overwatch League. For those who want to partake in viewing the current season of the Overwatch League you can do so on ESPN, Disney XD, and ABC channels and as always, their Twitch channel. Currently the New York Excelsior’s are the top team with 7 wins and no losses. Week 5 begins in the Blizzard Arena tomorrow with the Washington Justice facing Paris Eternal at 12:00 PM Pacific. Eight new teams were added for Season 2 and you can get a look at their jersey’s here.
The post Overwatch League Teams Will Play in Their Home City Beginning in 2020 by Steven Santana appeared first on DualShockers.