Blizzard announces 2018 Overwatch World Cup

It’s like World Cup soccer, except better.

March 27, 2018

Blizzard has announced that for its third consecutive year Overwatch World Cup will return in 2018 this November and culminate in Southern California.

https://twitter.com/PlayOverwatch/status/978641303217950720

Last year the World Cup came down to eight finalists: Australia, Canada, China, France, South Korea, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States, with South Korea defeating Canada in the finals to win the cup.

Qualification begins today and runs through the end of Competitive Season 9 (April 28th). Blizzard will be tracking the average skill rating (SR) of the top 150 players from each country. Be sure to visit the Overwatch World Cup website to track your country’s progress. Once the qualification period is over, the top 20 countries will be invited to complete in the World Cup.

This year France, South Korea, Thailand and the United States will be the four Group Stage countries. All four host countries automatically qualify for the tournament, resulting in a total of 24 teams. Should a host country make the top 20 via average SR, the 21st-ranked country will be obtain their spot and so on.

Blizzard announces 2018 Overwatch World Cup

Countries’ National Competition Committees will be compromised of three individuals: a coach, a GM and a community lead. All members of the committee will be compensated for their time, effort and travel accommodations during Group Stages and Finals. Committees will be building during Phase 1 (May 1-14) and Phase 2 (May 17-29), with full National Competition Committees revealed on May 31.

Players will have the opportunity to try out from June 1 through July 5. Overwatch League players are eligible to compete and all players will be competing for a spot on the team of their country of citizenship.

Expect more updates to come during Phase 1 through the Overwatch Twitter account.