The 2018 Overwatch World Cup was an ''
Overwatch
''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: '' Overwatch'' released in 2016, and '' Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games f ...
''
esports tournament, organized by
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, ...
, the game's developer. It was the third
Overwatch World Cup
The Overwatch World Cup (OWWC) is an annual international ''Overwatch'' esports tournament organized by Blizzard Entertainment, the game's developer, with the first edition taking place in 2016. The tournament ran every year until 2019; after a ...
. It featured 24 represented nations from around the world, with the final tournament taking place at the
Anaheim Convention Center
The Anaheim Convention Center is a major convention center in Anaheim, California and is the largest exhibition facility on the West Coast of the United States. It is located across from the Disneyland Resort on Katella Avenue. The original co ...
during
BlizzCon
BlizzCon is an annual gaming convention held by Blizzard Entertainment to promote its major franchises including ''Warcraft'', ''StarCraft'', '' Diablo'', '' Hearthstone'', ''Heroes of the Storm,'' and '' Overwatch''.
The first BlizzCon was he ...
from November 2–3, 2018.
The final took place on November 2 between South Korea and China. South Korea won 4–0, winning their third straight World Cup title.
Teams
Committees
Each country has a National Competition Committee, consisting of a general manager, head coach, and community lead. Blizzard selected each team's general manager, while the head coach and community leads were selected through a two-step voting process, that took place from May 24 to May 30.
Any player with a Blizzard account in good standing was welcome to apply for a head coaching position for their country; the country's top 150 players voted for who they would like to be their country's head coach. The top three candidates from the first round of voting moved on to a second round of voting, and the person with the most votes in the second round was selected as the country's head coach.
The community leaders are responsible for "rallying their community and marketing their team to the masses."
Like the head coaches, the community lead for each country was chosen through a two-step voting process. A country's entire player base voted for the community lead. After the first round of voting, the top 10 from that round were candidates for the second round; the person with the most votes in the second round was selected as their country's community lead.
Players
They players representing each country were selected by their National Competition Committee. The Committees selected up to 12 players from June 1 to July 5 to represent their country and then had to cut it down to 7 players to be their final roster.
Qualification
From March 28 to April 28, 2018,
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling ...
tracked the average skill rating of the top 150 players from the top 20 countries to determine the countries who qualified for the tournament. The four host countries,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
,
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
, and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
, automatically qualified.
;Automatically qualified as Hosts (4)
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;Qualified by skill rating (20)
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Venues
Group stage
The top 24 national teams were grouped into four different
round-robin style groups, with the matches played in
Incheon,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
,
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...
, and
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
. The top two teams in each group advanced to a single-elimination playoff bracket, with the matches played in
Anaheim
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-mos ...
.
Incheon stage
Source
OWWC
/small>
Los Angeles stage
Source
OWWC
/small>
Bangkok stage
Source
OWWC
/small>
Paris stage
Source
OWWC
/small>
Knockout stage
The top two teams from each group advanced to the playoff bracket. All of the playoff rounds took place at the
Anaheim Convention Center
The Anaheim Convention Center is a major convention center in Anaheim, California and is the largest exhibition facility on the West Coast of the United States. It is located across from the Disneyland Resort on Katella Avenue. The original co ...
in
Anaheim, California
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most ...
during
BlizzCon
BlizzCon is an annual gaming convention held by Blizzard Entertainment to promote its major franchises including ''Warcraft'', ''StarCraft'', '' Diablo'', '' Hearthstone'', ''Heroes of the Storm,'' and '' Overwatch''.
The first BlizzCon was he ...
.
To coincide with the event, Blizzard launched the "Overwatch World Cup Viewer," a standalone program that allows users to view World Cup matches in real time in Overwatch's spectator mode, roam around the map in a
free camera
Shaky camera, Mekas, Jonas. "A Note on the Shaky Camera." '' Film Culture'', issues 24-27, 1962. shaky cam, jerky camera, queasy cam, run-and-gun or free camera is a cinematographic technique where stable-image techniques are purposely dispensed ...
, and take the perspectives of the players. Users were also able to view replays of each map played in the client.
Bracket
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third place
Finals
References
External links
Official website{{Overwatch League
Overwatch
''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: '' Overwatch'' released in 2016, and '' Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games f ...
Overwatch World Cup
Overwatch
''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: '' Overwatch'' released in 2016, and '' Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games f ...
Overwatch
''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: '' Overwatch'' released in 2016, and '' Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games f ...