ESL announced that they will be hosting a large Overwatch tournament at this year’s Gamescom, with a prize pool of $100,000. The finalists will consist of eight teams split between the US and Europe. Open qualifiers begin on June 27th and Signups for the tournament will also begin around that time.
Teams who sign up in the open portion will play multiple games for a few weeks until they do or do not qualify for the next bracket. Those who qualify will move up to the regional qualifiers and compete for one of the final eight spots on the bracket. The final eight teams (Four US teams, and Four from Europe) will be flown to Germany in August, all travel costs paid, to compete in the grand finals at Gamescom. The grand finals will take place between August 20th through the 21st.
ESL also announced that casters Jason Kaplan, Mitch Leslie, and Leigh Smith will be commentating over most the games taking place in the tournament. This tournament will also use ESL’s new map voting system, which means teams will be able vote and veto specific stages. Based on previous ESL events there will not be a character limit in this tournament. When the tournament begins it will contain the largest prize pool in Overwatch’s short history, surpassing the previous record holder OG Overwatch. ESL also claims that this will be the first ever international tournament for Overwatch. ESL has been promoting Overwatch events for the past few months, and a schedule can be found on their website.
For more information on when teams can sign up for the open qualifier be sure to check the ESL official Overwatch tournament page. We’ve reached out to the tournament organizers for more information and we’ll post them here if we learn anything.
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