Overwatch World Cup returns in 2023 with 36 competing countries and regions

^{Image: Blizzard}

After three long years, the Overwatch World Cup is making its grand return.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced the return of the Overwatch World Cup, which hasn't been held for three years now. The competition will be ‘bigger than ever’ when it returns in 2023, with Overwatch 2 being played instead of the first game and new players flocking to new teams. 

Blizzard’s initial announcement is light on the finer details of this tournament, but the company promises more information is coming soon. It won't be a long wait, as we’ll find out more about the 36 countries and regions competing in the 2023 Overwatch World Cup in January, which is also when competition committee applications will open up. Each country and region’s committee will be responsible for organising their own tryouts. 

Tryouts aren’t the only way players can get a spot on a World Cup team, however. Blizzard is also hosting an open tournament format called World Cup Trials, which kicks off in February. The competition will give winning players a direct spot in the tryouts for their team, but everyone can still sign up for the regular tryouts happening in March. These tryouts will have a Competitive Rank requirement of Diamond and above, so you’ll need to do some rank climbing now if you want to get a foot in the door. 

Obviously, Overwatch 2 players can expect Blizzard to make a big marketing push for the World Cup within the game as well. According to the company’s blog, this will come in the form of ‘some challenges and rewards’. Once team rosters are finalised in June, the Overwatch World Cup qualifiers will begin via regional online matches. These will narrow down 36 teams to 16 for the next phase of the tournament. 

Once those 16 teams are decided, competitors will duke it out in a LAN environment in Fall 2023 to crown the first World Cup champion since 2019. More details on the tournament will likely trickle out over the coming months, so stay tuned. In related news, xQc has hinted that he might return for the Overwatch World Cup - but no formal announcement has been made on that matter.