BlizzCon 2018 kicks off later today and as promised, Blizzard Entertainment has released the Overwatch World Cup Viewer. It can be accessed in the Battle.net launcher via the “Region” drop-down menu. Download it and you’ll have a wider range of spectating options when matches for the Overwatch World Cup go live.
Though it’s currently in beta, Blizzard is working on a permanent version for the future. Speaking about the viewer’s power, the developer said in a blog post, “We’ve taken professional esports observer tools from the big stage and put them in your hands at home so you can curate your viewing experience. Watch live games alongside hundreds of thousands of other players around the world from all of the first or third-person, birds’, or worms’-eye views that are most important to you.”
For shortcuts, go to the Spectate menu of the viewer. Head to the Controls tab in the Settings and you’ll find all the available shortcuts (alternatively, they can be viewed in the official blog post). Some of the options included are the ability to spectate a single player for the entire match, an overhead map with hero icons to see team fights playing out, and much more. Many of the tools are also used by the Overwatch World Cup observer team, so there’s plenty of customization to be had.
After several qualifying stages, the Overwatch World Cup 2018 will conclude at BlizzCon. The quarterfinals will take place on November 2nd, with the semi-finals and finals scheduled for November 3rd.