More and more companies are getting behind Overwatch as the new FPS readies its launch on Tuesday May 24th.
London’s Meltdown gaming bar will be hosting a launch event on Saturday May 28th. Matches will get underway from 6pm and there will be T-shirt and cocktail giveaways for the top players.
The bar is also thinking of turning the event into a weekly or monthly spectacle going forwards. Check out more info on this Facebook event post.
Elsewhere, Coke eSports and Blizzard Entertainment have teamed up with Odeon to screen a series of Overwatch animated shorts – featuring Winston, Widowmaker and other game characters – on the evening Monday May 23rd.
An exclusive developer panel will also be shown, giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the heroes and lore of the game’s universe, plus free merchandise will be handed out.
These showings will be screened in a variety of cinemas, including the below:
- Birmingham Broadway Plaza
- Cardiff
- Glasgow Quay
- Greenwich
- Liverpool One
- Manchester Printworks
- Metrocentre
- Milton Keynes Stadium
- Southampton
More details on the Odeon viewings can be found here.
The Overwatch UK Facebook group is also hosting a separate meet-up at the Overwatch launch celebration event at VUE Westfield, London, starting from 6.30pm.
This will also have free Overwatch swag given away on the evening.
Other VUE cinemas are also showing the animated shorts, including Edinburgh Omni Centre, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Swansea.
You can buy tickets to the VUE screenings or find out more details here.
Of course, Overwatch is changing the pro eSports scene in the UK too. Some competitive League of Legends players have moved across to the game, and the likes of MCM London Comic Con and Multiplay I-Series are hosting tournaments too.
i58 will feature an Overwatch tournament with a £5,000 prize pool at the Birmingham NEC from August 26th to 29th, while MCM’s competition will get underway on Sunday May 29th, with £500 worth of official merchandise up for grabs for the winning team.
Further reading: How will Overwatch change the UK eSports landscape?
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
I am definitely on the hype train for this game release! Can’t wait for it to come out, I have been working on increasing my aim & reflex time and using TF2 (the most similar game I own) to practice before its release. How have the rest of you been passing the time or practicing for its launch?