It was at BlizzCon this weekend that giant game developer Blizzard launched early details of its Overwatch League to launch in 2017.
The promotional video launched featured 22 time Tennis Grand Slam winner Serena Williams – as she becomes the latest celebrity to be in some way affiliated to the blossoming world of esports.
Esports is so cool! Very excited to be a part of the #Overwatch League launch! Check me out: https://t.co/1qHccnxQRQ pic.twitter.com/gydrmDcyj3
— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) November 4, 2016
Blizzard have not revealed too much detail of their Overwatch League just yet and thus it’s unclear as to what role, if any, Serena will play. It looks likely that she may just be a brand ambassador for the league.
It’s clear that Blizzard launched Overwatch with esports in mind, as it looks set to join the ranks of Dota 2, League of Legends and CS:GO as the Starcraft 2 scene wanes. It’s not meant in offence to their other big titles World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Diablo and Heroes of the Storm – but the game developer have revealed they didn’t build the other games with esports the initial intention.
Overwatch has grown extremely quickly as an esport since its release and although there’s still room for improvement from a spectator’s point-of-view, the fast-paced FPS/MOBA twist has amazing potential to be up there with the most exciting of esports.
Esports Insider: It’s great to see another big name from the sporting world endorsing esports. Although it’s likely that Blizzard just threw money at Serena to appear in the video and subsequently tweet about it – she will have hopefully learned a little bit about it. It’ll be interesting to see if she appears again in 2017 when the league is set to launch.
