A lot of major announcements for Blizzards popular FPS Overwatch at Blizzcon this year. Firstly, Blizzard revealed new Overwatch support hero Moira. Her origin wasn’t shown at the opening ceremony but was instead debuted at one of the panels. Moira is a bit of a mad scientist carrying out all kinds of dangerous research and experimentation.
But aside from new heroes, there’s even more to drool over. A truckload of new skins based on other Blizzard franchises are also being added to Overwatch.
The video below shows some of the Overwatch characters decked out in these new skins based on other Blizzard franchises. There’s Starcraft, Diablo and WoW inspired skins being added, this includes Immortal Orisa, Magni Bronzebeard Torbjorn, Nova Widowmaker, Blackhand Doomfist, Barbarian Zarya, Butcher Roadhog, Crusader Reinhardt, and Ecopoint Mei. See some of the skins in the video tweet below.
New cosmetics are coming to Overwatch in early 2018!
Unlock skins, emotes, highlights intros, and more for all 26 heroes. pic.twitter.com/AZVFeSx3nt
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) November 3, 2017
And finally, we have some more details about the upcoming Pro League for Overwatch. It’s finally here after more than a year of waiting.
The twelve teams are split into two divisions, the Pacific Division and Atlantic Division.
- Pacific Division: Dallas Fuel, Los Angeles Gladiators, Los Angeles Valiant, San Francisco Shock, Seoul Dynasty, Shanghai Dragons
- Atlantic Division: Boston Uprising, Florida Mayhem, Houston Outlaws, London Spitfire, New York Excelsior, Philadelphia Fusion
The schedule is quite intense with 40 games being played over a season. 20 matches in each team’s division and 20 cross-division games. These matches will decide which teams will automatically qualify for the championship playoffs. It’s a busy schedule overall, with 40 games played, including 20 cross-division games in a single season.
The League will begin 19 January following pre-season exhibition matches between December 6-9. The real matches start on 10 January, running until 10 February for Stage 1. Each stage lasts one month, and there are four stages in total. Stage 2 starts on 21 February until 24 March, Stage 3 until from 4 April – 5 May, and finally Stage 4 between 16 May – 16 June.
Once all that is finished in June, six teams will move on to compete in the final series for the ultimate championship. The grand final for the big $1 million prize will take place between 26-28 July.
Over the whole event there’s a lot of cash up for grabs and it’s broken down as follows:
Stage Title Match bonuses:
- First place: USD $100,000
- Second place: USD $25,000
- Total: USD $500,000 over four stages
Regular Season placement bonuses:
- First place: USD $300,000
- Second place: USD $200,000
- Third and fourth place: USD $150,000
- Fifth and sixth place: USD $100,000
- Seventh and eighth place: USD $75,000
- Ninth and tenth place: USD $50,000
- Eleventh and twelfth place: USD $25,000
- Total: USD $1.3 million
Championship playoffs placement bonuses:
- World Champion: USD $1 million
- Runner-up: USD $400,000
- Third and fourth place: USD $100,000
- Fifth and sixth place: USD $50,000
- Total: USD $1.7 million
