In recent Overwatch League news, Blizzard has announced their decision to add two more teams to the Overwatch League: Hangzhou, China and Washington D.C. This comes in the wake of four teams having already been added to the original 12 – Atlanta, Guangzhou, Paris, and Toronto.
ESPN has reported that these two new teams can begin signing players on September 9, which is when the signing window for new teams opens. The new teams will have a well of talent to choose from before the wider signing window on October 1, which is also open to Season 1 teams.
With Shanghai Dragons’ letting go of eight players from their 11-player roster, as well as releases by top teams such as Philadelphia Fusion and the Los Angeles Gladiators, there are a lot of players with an entire season of experience actively looking for teams. This includes Georgii “ShaDowBurn” Gushcha, who is widely considered to be one of the best Genji players in the world. Top players such as Janus, iRemiix, Asher, and Mistakes are also currently unsigned to any team.
Even people like Miro, who has two World Cup titles under his belt, are without a professional squad. Miro’s experience could lend itself well to one of the clubs coming in a season late, especially if they intend to sign players who haven’t got any Overwatch League experience. With extra teams comes extra players, so there will likely be an influx of players from Contenders, as well as an opportunity for Twitch streamers to make the transition to competitive play.
Now at a total of 18 teams, there are still two slots remaining until Blizzard’s rota of 20 teams becomes full. Nothing has been revealed yet as to where the remaining teams will be based, but it is likely that the slots will be snapped up quickly, as the signing window is set to open in less than a week.
