The Overwatch World Cup can be more than a stepping stone to the OWL

Last year, the Overwatch World Cup felt like a precursor to the world of Overwatch esports. In many ways it was, giving us all a chance to imagine what the Overwatch League (OWL) would look like when it kicked off later that year, and how it would perform. But this year’s Overwatch World Cup is different. No clearer were the changes than at the Paris group stage. One of the new and upcoming OWL teams is owned by DM Esports, and is to be based in Paris. That makes the final World Cup group stage’s audience the home crowd for the new Paris OWL team. As such, the enthusiasm for the competition from the arena can be taken as a positive sign for the new Paris team - a warm up before the sprint. Speaking to some of the players in Paris, it’s clear that a key motivator for taking part in the Overwatch World Cup is the chance to be spotted by an OWL team. ChrisTFer, one of the UK team’s players, described the Overwatch World Cup as “effectively a stepping stone, a way to get there,” whereas CrusaDe from the Netherlands team said it’s “such a good place, even for unknown players, to showcase talent, because not every country is as popular.”