Blizzard Entertainment has revealed plans for Overwatch’s 2018 World Cup, which will pit the world’s top 24 Overwatch-playing countries against each other.
Esports have been a major part of Blizzard’s team-based shooter. This year saw the debut of the Overwatch League, a city-based, ongoing competition that offers players regular salaries. This will be the third year for the Overwatch World Cup. Last year’s biggest matches drew close to 300,000 viewers on Twitch. South Korea has won the two previous World Cups.
Blizzard will track the average in-game skill rating of the top 150 players from each country. The top 20 will be invited to play in the World Cup. France, South Korea, Thailand, and the U.S. will host group stage tournaments and automatically qualify. The finals will take place at Blizzcon 2018 in Anaheim, California.
You can track the leaderboards for qualification here.
