It has been years since the Overwatch World Cup gathered the best players from across the globe for a major competition. Now, Blizzard reveals that a long-awaited competition will return in 2023.
According to Blizzard's official press release, the Overwatch World Cup will return in 2023 with 36 different nations and regions participating, according to Blizzard's plans. In case you missed it, the United States won the Overwatch World Cup for the first time in 2019 by defeating China 3-0. Since then, the tournament has been on break.
Overwatch World Cup 2023: What We Know So Far
As of now, Blizzard's announcement for the 2023 World Cup included limited information but included a schedule for when more details will be revealed. The Overwatch World Cup, which is separate from the Overwatch League, provides more chances for players worldwide to participate.
Game Rant reports that Blizzard will reveal the 36 nations and regions taking part in the 2023 Overwatch World Cup in January, and applications for the competition committee will also go on sale at that time. Each competition committee will be responsible for organizing tryouts for their country and region, following Blizzard guidelines.
How to Sign Up for Overwatch World Cup 2023
Blizzard has come up with a new way for players to audition in addition to the standard tryout process. Interested players can test their skills to compete through the upcoming World Cup Trials, an open competition format.
Winners of the World Cup Trials tournament in February will be guaranteed a seat in their team's tryouts. Players can still register for the normal tryouts that will be held in March. Aspiring players should start moving up the ladder now since regular tryouts have a Competitive Rank requirement of Diamond and higher!
In addition, Blizzard will provide various challenges and rewards for all players in 2023 to help celebrate the Overwatch World Cup's comeback.
The Overwatch World Cup qualifiers are scheduled to take place through a regional online competition in June after team rosters have been confirmed, reducing the field of 36 teams to 16 for the following round of the competition. Those 16 teams will then battle it out in a LAN environment in the fall of 2023 to determine the first World Cup champion following its last tournament in 2019.
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Why Was the Overwatch World Cup on Hiatus?
Due to the sudden surge of COVID-19 in 2019, the Overwatch World Cup has been dormant for three years, and many in the industry have written it off as a lost cause since then.
Additionally, BlizzCon, which is the company's annual celebration of its games and fans that frequently takes place around Halloween, has not yet been confirmed by Activision Blizzard. However, Sportslumo reports that the Overwatch World Cup's timetable predicts a comeback in 2023.
The Overwatch World Cup Finals were last held in 2019, and after four years of competition, Team USA won its first championship. Previously, World Cup Finals were always hosted during BlizzCon. Team South Korea won the championship for the first three World Cups and is favored to repeat as champion in 2023. Team Brazil and Team Canada.
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