Everything You Need To Know About The Overwatch League 2020

The Overwatch League is coming to a hometown near you.

What To Know About Overwatch League

After two seasons playing matches in an Activision Blizzard, Inc. ATVI studio in Southern California, the third season of league play will happen in the home cities of the 20 Overwatch League teams.

The new season starts Feb. 8 with matches in New York, Dallas and other cities around the globe, and matches through the season will be played at teams' home bases, from San Francisco to Seoul to Shanghai.

The matches will also be streamed online, of course, and under a new deal Activision Blizzard recently reached with Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGL, they'll be exclusively cast on YouTube.

Bringing The Teams To The Home Crowd

Investors in the league hope city-based teams will create a fan-base and that home matches will show whether people will follow teams because of their geographic location, as many fans of other sports do. Holding matches around the world in the home cities of the teams is seen as a major test of the marketing plan.

OWL 2020 Upcoming Match Details

Overwatch League matches will be on Saturdays and Sundays through the eight month season. The league opens this weekend with New York Excelsior hosting London Spitfire at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Midtown Manhattan. Also on Saturday, Dallas Fuel hosts the Los Angeles Valiant at the year-old Esports Stadium Arlington. Also on tap Saturday, Toronto Defiant is at Paris Eternal and Vancouver Titans host the Los Angeles Gladiators.

A little over a million people watched at least part of last year's Overwatch League Grand Finals on Twitch and ABC. That championship was won by San Francisco Shock over Vancouver Titans.

San Francisco Shock Named Top Team By ESPN

Meanwhile, ESPN recently released its coaches poll ranking the teams in the league, with The Shock starting the season on top followed by No. 2 New York, No. 3 Vancouver, No. 4 Seoul Dynasty and No. 5 Shanghai Dragons.

Los Angeles has two teams in the league, with other North American teams in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Florida, Washington, Houston and Boston and Vancouver and Toronto in Canada. Chinese teams in the league, in addition to Shanghai, are based in Hangzhou - which is currently in lockdown because of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak - along with Guangzhou, and Chengdu.

What's Coming In Esports In 2020 (Hint: More Fortnite, LoL And Overwatch)

Photo Courtesy Of Overwatch.com

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs