Photo: Blizzard
Almost 18 months since the acquisition, Blizzard are ready to fully tap into the potential of the MLG assets.
Overwatch’s competitive might be struggling with more and more teams announcing their departure from the scene each day, but in the upper layers of the scene, Blizzard keeps pumping fuel into the fire. According to an official press release issued on May 9, Blizzard “has formed a dedicated division within the company that will handle management, operation, sales, and distribution for Overwatch esports programs, including the Overwatch League and Overwatch World Cup.”
The formation of said division includes the incorporation of Major League Gaming, whose assets were acquired by Activision Blizzard in late 2015 in a deal reportedly worth $46 million. An organizer with 15 years of experience, MLG are largely directly responsible for the development of the industry in North America and continued to be involved in the scene despite the acquisition, organizing events even for games not published by Activision Blizzard, such as Counter-Strike, Call of Duty and Gears of War. In fact, since January 2016, MLG’s brand has been directly associated with only two events for Blizzard titles, the 2016 NA Road to Blizzcon for World of WarCraft and MLG Vegas last December, which featured a $100,000 Overwatch LAN.
MLG will keep its name moving forward and will fuse with Blizzard’s esports crew to execute live events and content production, as well as league management and the securing of sponsorship sales, among other duties.
There is still no information regarding when Overwatch League itself is supposed to start, but the timeline for the Overwatch World Cup has been progressing steadily. The tournament most recently entered “phase three”, which included the group pairings for the 32 teams.
