Overwatch News: India Prepares for the Overwatch World Cup with Global eSports

The Overwatch World Cup (OWWC) is an annual international Overwatch tournament held in Anaheim, California by Blizzard Entertainment. Powered by Global eSports this year, Team India will be making its debut in the Overwatch World Cup.

The tournament involves a preliminary stage, top five countries from the preliminary stage move on to the group stages, along with five teams that automatically qualified for the group stages. Three teams from each group will advance to a playoff, finally culminating towards the semi-finals and finals of the World Cup.

The road to Anaheim, began earlier in May when the community banded together to endorse first and then vote for candidates in two phases to form the Competition Committee. The Overwatch Competition Committee for India includes

General Manager - Dr. Rushindra ‘Salbatic’ Sinha (CEO & Founder of Global eSports)

Head Coach - Vasu ‘Method’ Chaturvedi (Head of Player & Streamer Development at Global eSports)

Community Lead - Ashwath ‘Ashr’ Ravee (Head of Committee Operations at Global eSports)

As part of the World Cup regiment, the Competition Committee began a three-phase open tryout system to ensure that the country was being represented by only the best Overwatch players the entire nation has to offer. While other countries are conducting closed trials based on invites and SR limitations, the Competition Committee for Team India decided to do an open trial to ensure that everyone gets a fair and equal shot to represent the country. Phase One commenced on 17th June and ended on 24th June.

The response was overwhelming, with over 150 players signing up and participating in the tryouts. The selection process for this phase was extensive, with each player being evaluated for their potential, their understanding of the game and their mechanics. After a rigorous evaluation, 24 players were shortlisted for Phase Two of the Overwatch World Cup trials.

Phase Two will be commencing on June 25 and ending on July 1, after which, twelve players will be shortlisted.

Phase Three will be a rigorous tryout schedule where each player’s individual mechanical skill, team play, communication & understanding of the game will be tested as well as their ability to cope under high-pressure situations and will also be tested before the 25th of July which is the deadline for submission of the team to Blizzard Activision.

This year, due to the revamped format, Blizzard Activision will only be accommodating travel and flights for the Top 10 teams as per the point system from last year. Every other contingent has to raise funds via sponsors or themselves to travel for the tournament. Global Esports has helmed this initiative and will be taking Team India to the World Cup. This includes finding sponsorship for the same, managing the team on a day to day basis, and ensuring the team is well provided for during the entire duration of the campaign. It’s a long road to the World Cup and in order to ensure that Team India has the best facility and staff, Global Esports will be providing a training facility in India and Korea for the players along with access to top-tier coaching staff to make the team World Cup ready by October. The contingent will also be doing road-shows, player signings, meet & greet & many such online and offline activity to raise awareness for the campaign and increase visibility amongst gamers and non-gamers alike.

Our goal has always been to put India on the map, India’s debut in the Overwatch World Cup is going to be a giant leap for the entire Indian esports community as a whole. We’re here to #PlayTrue and #SlayTrue.

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