ESL is planning to organise UK Overwatch community cups – which could lead to the creation of an official ESL UK Overwatch Premiership.
The first tournament will take place next week on Wednesday June 15th, and will likely be cast by experienced UK casters Joe “Munchables” Fenny and Ciernan “Excoundrel” Lowe on the UK Overwatch Twitch channel.
ESL UK tournament admin Will “Fridgecake” Attwood told eSports News UK that the tournament format hasn’t been decided just yet, but it will likely be single or double elimination.
It will be cast by two pairs of casters and the ruleset will be in line with the go4overwatch cups.
It’s a tester cup with no prizes to start with, so that ESL can gauge the popularity of competitive Overwatch in the UK.
eSports News UK understands that a prize pool or UK Premiership could be introduced in the future based on the number of teams who enter and how many spectators watch on Twitch.
Like the ESL UK Premiership, teams will have a limit on the number of non-UK-based players in their roster (likely a maximum of two).
“All of us on the ESL UK Overwatch staff team are extremely passionate about growing a large and fun scene for the UK, and think this game will really take off.”
Nick Ray, admin for the Overwatch UK community on Facebook, will help organise the cups.
Nick told eSports News UK: “Basically I was really trying to get into community management, and when I played Overwatch, I saw it as a great opportunity to build a community based around this great game.
“Once the community picked up, I was contacted by ESL. Several of their staff members were looking to jump ship and start an ESL Overwatch UK Premiership – they asked me to join and help them run things.
“All of us on the ESL UK Overwatch staff team are extremely passionate about growing a large and fun scene for the UK, and think this game will really take off.
“My aim is to really develop the UK scene and hopefully turn this into one of our main games going forward.”
Keep an eye on the ESL UK Twitter feed for more concrete news soon.
The competitive UK gaming scene has embraced Overwatch since the game launched a few weeks ago, with MCM London Comic Con hosting a tournament and Multiplay Insomnia58 set to run a competition in August.
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.
