It’s that time of year again. Blizzard has announced the Overwatch World Cup for 2018. It will be taking place this November in sunny Southern California.
From today to April 28 (the end of Competitive Season 9), Blizzard will be tracking the average performance (skill rating or SR) of each country’s top 150 players. The top 20 countries with the highest average SR by the deadline will receive invites to play in the tournament. People can actually watch the standings in real time as Blizzard has put them for all to see here. However, France, South Korea, Thailand, and the United States have no need to worry about making it into the competition. As these countries will be the four Group Stage host countries, so they will automatically qualify to play. So if one of these countries make it into the top 20, the 21st country will take their spot. This will result in a total of 24 countries competing in the 2018 Overwatch World Cup.
For those interested in becoming a part of their country’s National Competition Committee, Blizzard has laid out the way in a quote below. Each committee will comprise of a General Manager (GM), a coach, and a community leader. Since these are very important roles for one’s nation, it’ll be a long judging process. So Blizzard has split it up into two-time frames, specifically a Phase 1 (May 1–14) and a Phase 2 (May 17–29). It’s important to note that these phases will only affect the Coach and Community Lead positions.
- GM: GMs will be selected by Blizzard. Applications will be accepted, but we also will scour each country for qualified individuals, whether players, talent, or community members. (Application links for all three positions will be provided at a later date.)
- Coach:
- Phase 1: Any player with an account in good standing may apply for their national team’s coach position. Candidates will be provided with a custom URL to share, which will allow the top 150 players (by SR) from the candidate’s country of residence to endorse one candidate.
- Phase 2: We reveal the top three candidates per country, and hold a second, runoff vote, again among the top 150 players. Each player may vote once.
- Community Lead:
- Phase 1: This will follow the same process as coach selection, but voting is open to the country’s entire player base. Players may vote for multiple community leads.
- Phase 2: We reveal each country’s top 10 candidates, and players cast one final vote.
Results for the National Competition Committees will release on May 31.
Player Tryouts will take place from June 1 to July 5. Players, including those playing in the Overwatch League, can compete for a position of a country where they hold citizenship. The judging Committees will submit rosters from June 15 to July 5. These rosters may contain up to 12 people, but only seven will be selected to compete and travel to live events