After months of seemingly no information, Activision Blizzard has finally announced the first teams sold for the Overwatch League, along with the cities and entrepreneurs involved.
These team owners include: Robert Kraft, the Chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group who also owns the New England Patriots for Boston and is rumoured to have picked up Kungarna; Jeff Wilpon, Co-Founder and Partner of Sterling.VC who also happens to be the COO of the New York Mets (New York); Noah Whinston, CEO of esports team Immortals (Los Angeles); Ben Spoont, CEO and Co-Founder of esports team Misfits Gaming (Miami-Orlando); Andy Miller, Chairman and Founder of NRG Esports (San Francisco), of which the famous Seagull used to be a part of; NetEase (Shanghai); and Kevin Chou, Co-founder of Kabam (Seoul).
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick celebrated the news by noting that, “Overwatch already connects over 30 million players worldwide. The Overwatch League will celebrate and reward our most accomplished players and give fans more opportunities to engage with each other. We’re excited to be working with leaders from esports and traditional sports to celebrate our players and to establish the Overwatch League.”
Blizzard Entertainment CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime chimed in to state that, “Overwatch is a game about a diverse group of international heroes who fight for an optimistic vision of the future, and the Overwatch League is an extension of that spirit.
“We’re building this league for fans – esports fans, traditional sports fans, gaming fans – and we’re thrilled to have individuals and organizations who are as passionate about professional competition as we are, and who have extensive experience in all three fields, representing our first major international cities in the league.”
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