Blizzard Wants Six More Overwatch Leagues

<p>Blizzard has been teasing for months that they want to expand the <em>Overwatch<&sol;em> eSports league&period; They first teased the expansion back in February&semi; however&comma; details at the time were pretty sparse&period; Now&comma; though&comma; Blizzard has come forward with some more details&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Six More <em>Overwatch<&sol;em> Teams<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>German site Handelsblatt recently had an interview with Activision Blizzard eSports Leagues CEO Pete Vlastelica&period; There&comma; he gave more details about the planned expansion&period; He said he wanted to add six more Overwatch teams&period; Two from the Americas&comma; two from Asia-Pacific&comma; and two from Europe and the Middle East&period; It definitely means more scope for <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;expertboosting&period;com&sol;">ow boost<&sol;a> generating companies&period; In the interview&comma; he said&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;<em>Germany plays an important role for us&period; This is particularly true of Berlin with its rich history of esports&comma; founder scene&comma; and liveliness&period; Add to this the demographic profile and the cultural significance of the city&period; We want a team in Berlin&period; We hold many discussions and&comma; without being able to reveal details&comma; we will have a team there at the latest next year&period;<&sol;em>&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Stakeholder Discussions<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Mr&period; Vlastelica also said that discussions were being had with stakeholders in a number of other countries&semi; these being France&comma; Spain&comma; and Sweden&period; However&comma; he didn&&num;8217&semi;t give much more detail than that&period; One major question is how much each franchise will cost&period; Reports estimate that the original league cost &dollar;20 million&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; Mr&period; Vlastelica declined to answer about finances&period; Last May&comma; ESPN noted that Blizzard was struggling to establish teams because the fees were too high&period; This was unconfirmed by the company&period; Responding to that allegation&comma; Mr&period; Vlastelica said&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;<em>It is clear that the value of franchises in our league has increased since then&period;<&sol;em>&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So far&comma; not much else is known about the new <em>Overwatch<&sol;em> teams&period; We&&num;8217&semi;ll update you as soon as more details become available&period; In the meantime&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;ll have to stick with the teams we have&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Source&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;translate&period;google&period;com&sol;translate&quest;sl&equals;de&amp&semi;tl&equals;en&amp&semi;js&equals;y&amp&semi;prev&equals;&lowbar;t&amp&semi;hl&equals;en&amp&semi;ie&equals;UTF-8&amp&semi;u&equals;https&percnt;3A&percnt;2F&percnt;2Fwww&period;handelsblatt&period;com&percnt;2Funternehmen&percnt;2Fit-medien&percnt;2Fe-sport-ligachef-pete-vlastelica-wir-werden-im-kommenden-jahr-eine-mannschaft-in-berlin-haben&percnt;2F22606278&period;html&percnt;3Fticket&percnt;3DST-2124495-iAnKduvjhq4OvdP5GRPf-ap1&amp&semi;edit-text&equals;">Handelsblatt &lpar;Quotes Google Translated&rpar;&period;<&sol;a><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;