The Overwatch World Cup is one of the year's most anticipated esports tournaments. The tournament sees the greatest Overwatch players from across the globe put their franchise teams to the side and represent their nation.
The main tournament takes place every year at BlizzCon, with preliminary qualifiers taking place in the days leading up to it. Only two nations have ever won the Overwatch World Cup, which has been held four times. The first three events were won by South Korea, but the current winners are the United States, who scored a surprise victory in 2019.
The top five teams from each of the top 10 nations are given a bye and go directly to the group stage. The remaining five nations will compete against other qualified countries from across the world. Unseeded nations must create, manage, and finance their own teams in order to participate, but this may change in the lead-up to the next tournament after more than a dozen teams dropped out of the 2019 World Cup, mostly owing to a lack of money.
Jump to:
- When will the Overwatch World Cup take place?
- What is the location of the Overwatch World Cup?
- What is the prize pool for the Overwatch World Cup?
- Which esports event is the biggest of them all?
- What were the groups for the 2019 Overwatch World Cup?
- What is the best way for me to watch the Overwatch World Cup?
- What were the winners of the Overwatch World Cup?
- The complete winning Overwatch World Cup squad for the United States was:
When will the Overwatch World Cup take place?
The Overwatch World Cup is usually held at BlizzCon, the annual conference hosted by Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of Overwatch. However, due to the worldwide pandemic, no World Cup has been held since 2019. Blizzard was looking at February 2021 as a possible date, but that is no longer the case, according to Senior Manager of League Operations Adam Mierzejewski.
In 2019, the group stage started on Friday, after the BlizzCon opening ceremony, and several group stage matches were played at the same time.
On Saturday, the top three teams from each group advanced to the single-elimination bracket, which culminated in the grand final at the conclusion of the day.
Preliminary qualifiers will take place before the main event to decide which five teams will join the top five seeded countries, who have been given automatic byes into the group rounds.
What is the location of the Overwatch World Cup?
The 2019 Overwatch World Cup was hosted at the Anaheim Convention Center at BlizzCon in Anaheim, California.
Anaheim hosted the event for the fourth year in a row, and when the OWWC returns after the pandemic, it will most likely be in the same location.
In 2019, South Korea is holding the Overwatch World Cup trophy aloft.
What is the prize pool for the Overwatch World Cup?
Blizzard has yet to announce the prize money for the upcoming Overwatch World Cup, mostly because we don't know when the next one will take place.
In the past, the World Cup had a prize pool system, unlike any other sport, giving the same amount of prize money to every team that competed in the finals, regardless of how far they advanced in the tournament.
Which esports event is the biggest of them all?
The overall prize fund for the 2018 tournament was $488,000 (£395,000), which included prize money given to teams in the group rounds. The eight teams that participated at BlizzCon were each awarded $16,000 (£12,900) in the finals.
This reward fund will almost certainly grow, although the exact amount is unknown at this time.
Which teams competed in the 2019 Overwatch World Cup?
The top five countries in the Overwatch standings have already qualified for the 2019 World Cup. They were as follows:
- Canada
- South Korea
- France
- China
- America
The five nations that will be joining them will be decided through preliminary qualifiers held in the days leading up to the main event.
The preliminaries were guaranteed for the nations ranked 6-10 in the rankings, and Blizzard provided full financing and expenses. They were as follows:
- United Kingdom of Great Britain
- Australia
- Sweden
- Finland,
- Russia
Following that, these five teams will compete against other countries that have successfully financed and formed a national squad. These were the following:
- Austria
- Colombia
- Germany/Denmark
- Hong Kong
- Iceland
- Japan
- Latvia
- Mexico
- The Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Paraguay
- Philippines
- Portugal
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- Spain
- Thailand Taiwan
What were the groups for the 2019 Overwatch World Cup?
Ten nations are participating in the main event of the Overwatch World Cup. They are split into two five-person groups.
The top team in each group advances directly to the semifinals, while the second and third teams in each group compete in a quarterfinal to decide who will join the top team in the semifinals.
Because they were the top five seeded teams, five of the 10 teams were automatically qualified for the group rounds (South Korea, China, USA, Canada, and France).
The preliminaries qualified the other five teams for the group rounds (UK, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands).
What is the best way for me to watch the Overwatch World Cup?
On the Overwatch Twitch channel, the Overwatch World Cup is streamed live.
Owners of Overwatch were also given the option of watching the event via the Overwatch World Cup Viewer throughout this year's tournament. This is a broadcast service that enables you to watch the games live in-game from whatever viewpoint you choose, such as a bird's-eye view, a worm's-eye view, or from the first or third-person perspective of any competing player.
At the Overwatch World Cup, South Korean fans are ecstatic.
What were the winners of the Overwatch World Cup?
The South Koreans have won the most Overwatch World Cup events, having won the first three in 2016, 2017, and 2018. In 2019, however, they were only able to finish third.
The current World Cup winners are the United States, which defeated South Korea in the semifinals to end their domination.
They then defeated the Chinese to win the championship. Three players of the San Francisco Shock, the Overwatch League winners, were on their winning roster.
The complete winning Overwatch World Cup squad for the United States was:
- Corey ‘Corey' Nigra, DPS
- Kyle ‘KSF' Frandanisa, DPS
- Jay ‘Sinatraa' is the DPS. Won
- Indy ‘SPACE' Tank Matthew ‘Super' Halpern Tank DeLisi
- Grant ‘Moth' support. Espe
- Shane ‘Rawkus' Flaherty provides support.
Because of their large talent pool and participation in the Overwatch League, the South Koreans will most likely be favorites for the next World Cup. However, 2019 has shown that they are not invincible and that there is a lot of Overwatch talent in the United States.
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