With so much doubt surrounding the future of the Overwatch League, those in charge have reportedly begun contacting third-party tournament organizers about next year—that is, if the OWL survives until next year with the looming end-of-year owners vote.
The OWL has been pursuing talks with both the ESL FACEIT Group and WDG Esports about organizing league competition, according to sources who spoke to GGRecon, with ESL FACEIT being considered for both North American and European competition while WDG would organize the Asia circuit. Before the inception of the OWL, ESL ran multiple competitive Overwatch events during the game’s early days.
But before these reported talks progress any further, the effective future of the league has to be decided by the owners of each OWL franchise. This past July, Activision Blizzard said teams will vote on an “updated operating agreement” at the end of the current season. Teams that don’t vote to continue operating in the league will receive a $6 million buyout.
According to a source who spoke to GGRecon, “two-thirds of the remaining franchises would be required for the continuation of the Overwatch League under the new operating agreement.” At time of writing, there are 19 teams competing in OWL, meaning 12 or 13 (depending on if you round up or down) teams would need to agree to the new deal. If they don’t, then the OWL will seemingly cease to exist.
WDG Esports is well-versed in Overwatch production, having run Overwatch Contenders and the Korean broadcast for OWL since 2019. ESL FACEIT Group owns and operates ESL, FACEIT, and DreamHack while organizing events and circuits across various esports, and was purchased and merged by the Saudi-backed Savvy Gaming Group at the start of 2022.
