Activision Blizzard's eSports Leagues Have A New Home

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GAMING | February 12, 2020

(Image Source: eSports Insider/Overwatch League)

The inaugural season of the Call Of Duty League officially kicked off last month prior to the global celebration of Chinese New Year followed by the start of the new season of the Overwatch League a few weeks later. But, there is one huge development that would surely benefit millions of gamers around the world, especially Filipinos, and push more to catch up on what they should enjoy from a newcomer to the world of eSports and one of the most watched professional gaming channels on Twitch. And to anyone's surprise and curiosity, they have a new home and it's not Twitch.

Why is it so? Well, the Overwatch League was exclusive only to Twitch when it began in 2018. However, there were no negotiations for a renewal following the expiration of its two-year deal. This is where Google comes in as it stepped up and forged a partnership with Activision Blizzard, publisher of Overwatch and Call of Duty, which allows its online video sharing service YouTube to broadcast the new season of the Overwatch League and eventually become the exclusive home of Call Of Duty League's maiden voyage. In case you didn't know, Activision Blizzard has one of the most developed initiatives for professional gaming in the Overwatch League and has recently gained phenomenal success in its foray into mobile games thanks to Call Of Duty Mobile.

"With more than 200 million gamers a day watching more than 50 billion hours of gaming content per year, YouTube provides gamers and their passionate fans with the most popular gaming video platform in the world. Both the Overwatch League and Call Of Duty League are quintessential examples of world-class eSports content. As a former Call Of Duty commentator myself, I couldn't be more excited for Activision Blizzard to choose YouTube as its exclusive home for the digital live streaming of both leagues. This partnership further demonstrates our dedication to have a world class live streaming product for gaming," said YouTube Gaming's Ryan Wyatt. On the other hand, Activision Blizzard's Pete Vlastelica expressed the company's excitement at its new partnership which promises to further propel its commitment of delivering high-quality competitive entertainment that fans around the world can follow anytime, anywhere and celebrating the players as the superstars they are.

Here are the twelve teams competing in the inaugural season of the Call Of Duty League which began on late January. (Image Source: Dexerto/Call Of Duty League)

While Overwatch League continues to delight fans and gaming enthusiasts with more exciting and action-packed Overwatch goodness, the Call Of Duty League poses a different premise compared to the Overwatch League as it is considered to be a franchise-based professional gaming league with 12 squads from four different countries competing for pride and glory using the PlayStation 4 version of Call Of Duty Modern Warfare. The best thing about these two leagues is that they are now more valuable to YouTube than Twitch and it is something that any gaming and eSports fan should hold on to throughout the year and maybe the foreseeable future.

Catch the games of the Overwatch League and the premiere season of the Call Of Duty League live or on-demand on their official YouTube channels. For more news and updates, visit the official websites of the Overwatch League and Call Of Duty League.