Overwatch League expansion continues

With the recent announcement of Washington, D.C. and Hangzhou teams joining the Overwatch League in 2019, the number of rosters competing in the upcoming season is still increasing. As reported by ESPN’s Jacob Wolf, OWL has secured two more investments with Vancouver, Canada and Chengdu, China, as the final cities in the expansion process. 

The team representing Vancouver will be owned by Aquilini Investment Group, the owners of ice hockey team Vancouver Canucks and the Rogers Arena, the venue which recently hosted DotA 2’s The International 2018. The acquisition of an Overwatch League slot is reportedly the investors’ first foray into esports.

The Chengdu team will be run by Huya, a chinese streaming platform, which is also one of the official streaming partners of Overwatch League in China.

Although the exact price of each slot has not been made public, it is estimated the buy-in fees range from $35 million to $60 million, with the Toronto deal closing at $35 million in August.

For the time being, the Overwatch League will still be broadcast from the Blizzard Arena in Burbank. It is expected the league will attempt to move all of its teams to their home region by 2020. So far only the Los Angeles Valiant have chosen their home venue - the Microsoft Theatre in the heart of the City of Angels.