Blizzard Entertainment has signed a multi-year broadcast deal with ESPN and Disney to broadcast the Overwatch League on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, Disney XD and ABC, along with digital ESPN and Disney channels. The deal includes the Grand Finals for Season 1, taking place on July 27th and 28th at the Barclays Center in New York. It will also see hundreds of hours of both live programming and highlights.

On ESPN.com, ESPN Vice President of Digital Media Programming John Lasker said, “We are turning the corner here in terms of our interest and engagement in the e-sports category. We’ve had an interest and have been watching pretty closely how the first year of the Overwatch League has been progressing, and we’re really excited to be a part of this.

“Clearly by the way we’re going to be covering it starting with the playoffs and the finals this year certainly speaks volumes to our excitement and our enthusiasm overall for esports moving forward.” What’s interesting is that this deal won’t conflict with Overwatch League’s current agreement with Twitch (the latter having apparently spent $90 million for a two-year deal).

ESPN is no stranger to broadcasting e-sports, with coverage for championships in League of Legends and Dota 2 over the years. For Overwatch League, the networks have a number of digital rights that they “plan to take full advantage of.” Additional content for fans that might be unaware of the game could be included along with highlights.

Overall, the goal is to bring competitive Overwatch to a larger audience. Pete Vlastelica, president and CEO of Activision Blizzard e-sports leagues, said, “It’s a cross-section that’s a hardcore sports fan, especially on ESPN channels. They love watching competition, they love watching the best in the world compete in a great game.

“Maybe they have played video games. Maybe they know of Overwatch. Maybe they even play Overwatch or play it a lot. But they’re fundamentally looking to be entertained by the highest possible level of competition around a great game. And that’s what we’ve got.”

Overwatch League’s first broadcast on Disney XD and ESPN3 will take place at 8 PM ET as the Philadelphia Fusion faces the Boston Uprising in the first quarterfinals match of the Season 1 playoffs. For the Twitch broadcast of the same, head here.

It’s a good time to be a pro-Overwatch player. On top of the Overwatch League and the recent World Cup, Next Generation eSports (NGE) has announced the Overwatch Winter Premiere. This will be a months-spanning tournament open to all teams in North America. You’ll need to register online first though.

The Winter Premiere will begin on December 4th with open qualifiers lasting four days online. After the top eight teams have emerged, they’ll battle in a double Round Robin arrangement over three weeks with the finals taking place over two days in January 2017. With a prize pool of $100,000 there’s certainly enough motivation to take part (though it’s unclear how this is divided up among teams).

CEO and co-founder of NGE Andy Vander Woude stated that, “NGE’s philosophy is to find the most ambitious esports partners and work with them to elevate their shows. That’s why we’re thrilled to work with Blizzard to create an eSports experience perfectly matched to Overwatch fans.”

What are your thoughts on the tournament? Let us know in the comments below.

Professional Call of Duty players were brought in to consult on Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

Activision eSports brand development director Jay Puryear told Games Radar that, “They play at such a high level. They’re like ‘I expected you to spawn here’ or ‘if I control the map in such a way you should spawn over here.’ So they really help with spawning and tuning, or weapons and content – they have an opinion on all of that.”

Professional players are usually a necessity in situations like this. While Treyarch has a ton of information it can rely on for fine-tuning its maps, Infinity Ward is working from scratch for its multiplayer. These pro players help to point out the overall balance and flow of maps in order to get the feel of the game just right.

Of course, Call of Duty as a franchise has been relying on input from e-Sports and YouTube personalities for the past few years so this isn’t too new. What are your thoughts on it regardless? Let us know below.

Valve hasn’t yet perfected its approach to eSports games but it’s getting closer with the announcement that it will permanently ban players who “demonstrate a willingness” to sully the integrity of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive eSports scene. This announcement comes after the company had previously issued warnings to a number of players who seemed to be taking advantage of the community as a whole.

There is a new post on the official Counter Strike blog where Valve has said it has said it will “take whatever action necessary” to protect the integrity and “entertainment value” of professional matches. The company went on to say that “As the scene grows, it’s an unfortunate reality that some individuals will seek opportunities to take advantage of their fans.” Allegations against certain players have been around since last January when it was alleged several members of a couple of Counter Strike teams had been involved in match-fixing during Cevo Season 5 back in August 2014.

Valve investigated the allegations and did indeed find the individuals had been doing what they were accused of doing. The company subsequently said they would not be allowed to participate in future competitions like this. Valve said that it understands bans like these can be disruptive and painful to the community at large but it feels that a move like this is sometimes needed in order to get it across that cheating and match fixing won’t be allowed or accepted in any way, shape or form. “We sincerely hope that we won’t have to issue more [bans] in the future.” The company included at the end of its statement.

Capcom’s Street Fighter 5 will be looking to be more approachable to general players when it releases. According to brand manager Brian Ayers in conversation with MCV, the developer is looking to make the game accessible to a newer, younger crowd but to also captivate the eSports audience.

“The ambitions with Street Fighter V were to make the game approachable and accessible again, but also to make everything with the characters feel a lot more individual and bring out more chances for people to find the right competitor that suits them. We really hope that Street Fighter V can bring in a newer, younger audience.

“Perhaps more of an eSports audience, as well. Street Fighter is actually one of the first eSports titles out there, but it’s relatively underground compared to the likes of Dota 2 and League of Legends.”

Will those two audiences intersect though? Games like Call of Duty may appeal to the masses and eSports players but fighting games have had a significantly harder time obtaining that mass appeal. We’ll find out how it works when Street Fighter 5 releases on February 16th in North America and February 18th in Japan for PS4 and PC.

Former ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd, who has already previously drawn fire for his barbed remarks on eSports and competitive gaming, is at it again- in the wake of the news that TV network TBS is forming its own eSports league, Cowherd has criticized the pro gaming scene.

“That is now going to be a league,” he said, after airing footage from a fighting game tournament. “That was the nerd equivalent of ‘band on the field.'”

Of course, the remarks weren’t allowed to pass without an interjection, even on the show. His co-host Kristine Leahy interrupted him to say, “[Competitive gaming] is a huge deal. It’s bigger than the Super Bowl in some countries.”

That didn’t stop Cowherd from getting more abrasive, and making pointed stereotypical remarks about the lifestyles of competitive gamers.

“Now he’s going upstairs to his room, a room where a girl has never entered,” Cowherd said in a mock play-by-play. “He sits down–look at that Star Wars collection!–and goes to town on the Hot Pocket; there is your eSports champion”

Disgusting. The man should simply not be given any attention, it is clear that attention is what he desperately seeks.

Doubling down on their eSports focus that started all the way with 2012’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Activision announced today the creation of the Call of Duty World League, a worldwide eSports league by Activision with the Call of Duty franchise taking the centerstage. With this new league, Activision hopes for a deeper level of engagement with the community, as well as more direct interaction with fans and players.

“Call of Duty has always been about community, camaraderie and competition, which drives incredible engagement with the game all year long.  eSports allows us to deliver these moments to our fans whether they are playing the game themselves or cheering on those who are,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, Inc.  “Three years ago, we held the first Call of Duty Championship to showcase the dedication and skill of Call of Duty players around the world. Since then, eSports has become a global phenomenon with more than 120 million people watching online competitive gaming each year and Call of Duty continues to lead as the top console eSports franchise in the world.”

The World League will be divided into two divisions, Pro and Challenge. As you may have guessed, the Pro division is where professional teams will face it off. Professional Call of Duty teams in North America, Europe and Australia & New Zealand will battle throughout the year in regional competition during The Pro Division regular season to earn their ticket to the Call of Duty Championship and will compete for the largest seasonal cash prizes in Call of Duty to date.

Meanwhile, the Challenge Division is going to be for amateur players, or players who aspire to join the competitive scene, providing them with an easy progression path into the big league.

“Treyarch’s passion for competitive gaming precedes Call of Duty: Black Ops II, a heritage that inspired us to introduce dedicated eSports features into the franchise and one that compelled us to push the boundaries of Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s offerings beyond anything we’ve delivered before,” said Mark Lamia, Treyarch studio head. “While our global fan base of players range from casual to professional, they all share a desire to compete – some at the highest levels. With Call of Duty: Black Ops III, we are introducing a series of new features, like Arena mode that not only accommodate that diversity of play styles, but also let players see how they stack up against one another. Treyarch is giving the community of Call of Duty players new ways to compete and enjoy the thrill of competition.”

Even if you are not personally interested in eSports, you should be intrigued by this focus on them, if only because this means that this year’s Call of Duty will probably a lot more balanced and fair than the average Call of Duty game usually is. But then again, this is Treyarch- they always make the best, most viable Call of Duty games anyway.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will launch on PS4, Xbox One, and PC in November. Versions of the game for PS3 and Xbox 360 are also planned.

Call of Duty has always been an eSports staple and next week, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 developer Treyarch will reveal the eSports tools being built in to the upcoming sequel. The reveal will happen at Gamescom on August 5th at 10 AM PST/1 PM EST/7 PM CST.

The “Global eSports Reveal” will provide a look at the tools inherent in Black ops 3 for eSports players. They will be demonstrated by matches featuring said professionals as well. You can either tune in to Twitch or to the official Call of Duty website for the livestream.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will be Treyarch’s run at the franchise this year and features many new additions to its multiplayer including Specialists with their own unique abilities; wall running and futuristic weaponry; four player co-op for the campaign and much more. It will be out on November 6th for PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

In spite of its incredible multiplayer popularity, Gears of War multiplayer has only ever been adequate at best. Fun, yes, but never particularly well designed or well balanced. That may all be about to change with the upcoming Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, the remaster of the original game in the franchise, that hit over ten years ago- Polygon reports that The Coalition’s Rod Ferguson revealed plans in a behind closed doors session to lay down the foundations for the future of Gears gameplay.

And those foundations include optimizing resolution and framerate, minimizing controller lag, and  spectator feature for multiplayer matches, a de facto requirement for proper “casting” — i.e., for commentators to direct view of the action and make play-by-play analysis of matches in a live capacity, and support for LAN multiplayer- all of which makes it pretty clear what The Coalition is gunning for here. They may be trying to make Gears of War a mainstay at future eSports events.

Of course, Microsoft as a publisher has a history with gearing their first party franchises towards the eSports crowds- 343 has previously done this with Halo. And while Halo has lost its core fanbase thanks to all of the changes that ensued, one can hope that maybe Gears will do better.

We will find out. Stay tuned to GamingBolt.

Considering that Google already had its foot in the door for video streaming online with YouTube, it is surprising that they did not also become the go to solution for livestreaming video games. That mantle was instead taken up by Ustream and Twitch (the latter now owned by Amazon, though there were rumors that Google was looking into acquiring the service).

There did use to be a YouTube livestreaming service, but it was a bust- now, industry insiders report that Google is planning on bringing the service back, and that it has already started to recruit engineers experienced in the field.

“The time is right as well, with Twitch moving into other areas such as music and so on. Google doesn’t want to be too far behind in the arms race,” they continued.

These same sources think that the two areas that Google will be targeting with its new service will be gaming and eSports, both of which, they feel, present Google with great opportunities.

“There’ll be huge opportunities for established streamers and organizations soon and I would say that the record numbers of eSports viewers are only going to grow when Google start promoting and partnering with these events.”

These sources claim that an announcement is imminent at E3 this year, so we’ll know soon either way. Personally, however, none of this sounds too far fetched to me.