It’s been a long time coming, but after many promises and much uncertainty, Blizzard has finally unveiled the fully-realized Overwatch League and announced its season openers. Philadelphia, Dallas, and Houston will round out the current roster of nine cities, which includes Boston, New York, London, Miami-Orlando, San Francisco, Shaghai, Seoul, and two Los Angeles-based teams. The preseason will begin on December 6 of this year and feature exhibition matches in LA, with the regular season starting on January 10, 2018. Philadelphia will be represented by Comcast Spectacor, who also own the Philadelphia Flyers. They’re far from the only franchise that has a stake in professional sports, however. Robert Kraft and Stan Kroenke, who own Boston and LA slots respectively, are the owners of the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams. Jeff Wilpon of New York is the current COO of the Mets, and San Francisco’s Andy Miller co-owns both the Sacramento Kings and NRG eSports. In Blizzard’s original November 2016 press release for the league, they noted a focus on integrating the “best practices of major professional sports.” The prevalence of owners with that experience shows a commitment to their word, and should also help Blizzard iron out the remaining issues with the league’s structure—anonymous sources have told both ESPN and Kotaku that there will not be guaranteed revenue sharing until 2021. A core value of the Overwatch League from the beginning has been the rivalry between franchises; Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick told USA Today in 2016, "Even if you think about soccer, there isn't city-to-city competition that exists in sports today. It's a unique construct." They’ve already delivered with such promised matchups as LA vs. LA and Boston vs. New York, but their Texas teams could potentially provide one of the greatest eSports matchups in American history. Team EnVyUs will relocate to Dallas, and Houston with play host to OpTic Gaming. Call of Duty fans may recall that this is one of the most heated rivalries in the game’s history, a matchup with its own name: the “eClasico.” EnVy and OpTic have met in the Grand Finals of the Call of Duty World Championship two years in a row now, with a 1-1 record in those matches and a lot left to prove on both sides. OpTic has never fielded an Overwatch team before, while EnVy may have the best squad in North America. If OpTic can be competitive right out of the gate, then Dallas-Houston might really be the eSports incarnation of Madrid-Barcelona—and a dream come true for the Overwatch League. Look for these questions and more to be answered when this ambitious endeavor finally gets rolling in January.
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