The "Watch Vanguard League" officially ended, and Blizzard said it would focus on the "new e-sports direction".
Six years after its launch, Blizzard's watch vanguard league (OWL) officially ended, CTOnews.com reported on November 9. Blizzard confirmed in a statement to IGN that the company was "transitioning from the Vanguard Watch League".
A spokesman for Activision Blizzard said: "We are transforming from the watch vanguard league and pushing the competitive nature of the watch vanguard in a new direction. We thank all those who made OWL possible and continue to focus on building our vision of revitalizing the e-sports program. We are pleased to share the details with you in the near future."
According to ESPN's Jacob Wolf, Activision Blizzard staff are preparing to sign a contract with Saudi Arabia's state-owned ESL FACEIT Group to run the 2024 Watchman Vanguard season, thereby disbanding the existing Watchman Vanguard League.
Activision Blizzard approached the owners of 20 teams in the Watchman Vanguard League in October to put forward plans for the future of Watch Vanguard 2 e-sports and asked to vote for or against the continuation of the existing league. Teams that choose not to participate will receive a cash compensation of $6 million (CTOnews.com Note: about 43.68 million yuan currently).
The end of the "Watch Vanguard League" does not necessarily mean the end of the "Watch Vanguard" competitive competition. Sean Miller, commissioner of the Watch Vanguard League, has said that regardless of the final outcome, Blizzard remains "committed to building a competitive ecosystem in 2024 and beyond".
Blizzard promoted the "Watchman Vanguard League" as a bold attempt in the field of e-sports. The team is linked to various cities, and buying a team quota costs 20 million US dollars (currently about 146 million yuan). Chinese mainland has four teams, namely, Shanghai Dragon team, Hangzhou Lightning team, Guangzhou stormtrooper and Chengdu Hunter team, to buy the quota, but with the downline of national service, the Chengdu Hunter team has announced its complete withdrawal.
In the OWL2023 finals of the Watchman Vanguard League in October this year, the Florida Carnival (Florida Mayhem) won the championship in 2023, while China's Hangzhou Lightning team took the third place in the league in 2023, which is also the best result in the Chinese class of OWL.
After the game, Blizzard officially issued an ambiguous announcement that it would be "committed to building a revitalized e-sports project."
