The 2023 Overwatch World Cup, the official esports nationals powered by Overwatch 2, will return this year.
The Overwatch World Cup is an international tournament organized by Blizzard Entertainment, and has been held for four consecutive years since its inaugural edition in 2016 through 2019, thrilling fans around the world with countless memorable moments and thrilling stories created by the best players from each country. During that time, the Korean national team won three titles, raising the country’s status as an esports powerhouse.
The 2023 Overwatch World Cup, which will be held for the first time in four years and the fifth time in history, will mark the first year of Overwatch 2, which launched last October. While reigning champions South Korea and defending champions the United States will look to repeat as the most decorated teams in history, a new crop of contenders will be looking to shake things up.
With the highlight of the World Cup journey – the Group Stage (Round of 16), followed by the main event and LAN Finals – scheduled for this fall, the full list of nations and groupings for the online qualifiers this June have been revealed.
Excluding China, 36 countries and regions have been organized into three conferences – Asia-Pacific, Americas, and Europe & Middle East – which in turn have been reorganized into six groups of six teams each. The countries and regions were selected based on Overwatch 2 player population data.
South Korea will begin their quest for a fourth title in earnest in Group A of the Asia-Pacific Conference against Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong (in alphabetical order). There are a total of three World Cup Round of 16 berths allocated to Asia-Pacific Group A.
This will be preceded in February by the World Cup Trials, an open tournament that serves as a precursor to the national and regional team selection process. It will be played in a double-elimination format and bracket seeding will be randomized. In South Korea, the event will take place online from February 18-19 (Saturday-Sunday). While the winners of the Trials will not be guaranteed a spot on the Overwatch World Cup roster, winners of the World Cup Trials will have the opportunity to compete in the March Tryouts for their respective national and regional teams, which will be held separately by the Committee. Registration will begin on Thursday, February 2.
At the same time, the selection of the national team committees representing each country has begun. The committees will be selected in three categories, and applications are open until Tuesday, January 31st. 토토사이트 They will analyze the results of the trials and national team selections to finalize the roster.
