{"id":723454,"date":"2025-11-19T23:32:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/blizzard-announces-new-era-of-overwatch-esports-with-saudi-funded-partnership?utm_source=feed&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=feed"},"modified":"2025-11-19T23:32:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:32:17","slug":"blizzard-announces-new-era-of-overwatch-esports-with-saudi-funded-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/blizzard-announces-new-era-of-overwatch-esports-with-saudi-funded-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Blizzard announces new era of Overwatch esports with Saudi-funded partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/blizzard-announces-new-era-of-overwatch-esports-with-saudi-funded-partnership.jpg\" \/> <\/p>\n<p>\nFollowing the end of Overwatch League, Blizzard has unveiled new plans for its competitive Overwatch esports circuit. <\/p>\n<p>\nThe company sunsetted Overwatch League at the end of its 2023 season. &#8220;We will be focusing on building our vision of a revitalised esports program,&#8221; the Overwatch esports social media team said at the time. &#8220;We&#8217;re eager to share more with you as details are finalised.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThose details have since been finalised, and this week Blizzard announced a partnership with ESL Faceit Group (EFG), an esports company owned by Saudi Arabia&#8217;s controversial Savvy Games Group. The two companies aim to welcome a &#8220;new era of Overwatch 2 esports&#8221; in an &#8220;open and inclusive competitive ecosystem&#8221;, as part of a multi-year agreement. It will all be known as the Overwatch Champions Series, or OWCS.\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/blizzard-announces-new-era-of-overwatch-esports-with-saudi-funded-partnership?utm_source=feed&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=feed\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/blizzard-announces-new-era-of-overwatch-esports-with-saudi-funded-partnership?utm_source=feed&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=feed\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the end of Overwatch League, Blizzard has unveiled new plans for its competitive Overwatch esports circuit. The company sunsetted Overwatch League at the end of its 2023 season. &#8220;We will be focusing on building our vision of a revitalised esports program,&#8221; the Overwatch esports social media team said at the time. &#8220;We&#8217;re eager to share more with you as details are finalised.&#8221; Those details have since been finalised, and this week Blizzard announced a partnership with ESL Faceit Group (EFG), an esports company owned by Saudi Arabia&#8217;s controversial Savvy Games Group. The two companies aim to welcome a &#8220;new era of Overwatch 2 esports&#8221; in an &#8220;open and inclusive competitive ecosystem&#8221;, as part of a multi-year agreement. It will all be known as the&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/blizzard-announces-new-era-of-overwatch-esports-with-saudi-funded-partnership\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":723455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[85,1348,773,8711,8673,21,1386,59,44,86,54,60],"class_list":["post-723454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eurogamer","tag-activision-blizzard","tag-blizzard-entertainment","tag-first-person","tag-multiplayer-competitive","tag-multiplayer-cooperative","tag-nintendo-switch","tag-overwatch-2","tag-pc","tag-ps4","tag-shooter","tag-single-player","tag-xbox-one"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Blizzard announces new era of Overwatch esports with Saudi-funded partnership | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Following the end of Overwatch League, Blizzard has unveiled new plans for its competitive Overwatch esports circuit. 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