According to a report coming out of ESPN, Blizzard has sold expansion team slots for two additional teams for the coming Overwatch League season. The teams will be located in Chengdu, China and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Last night prior to this report being released, ESPN also reported that Washing, D.C. and Hangzhou, China will be receiving expansion teams. The announcement of today’s teams is reported to be the final expansion season two will see, bringing the total number of teams for the second season to twenty. This is eight more than the twelve teams season one sported.
The popular Chinese streaming platform Huya, will own the Chengdu team. While the Aquilini Investment Group-owner of the Canucks Sports & Entertainment, the parent group of the Vancouver Canucks – will own the Vancouver team. While there’s no official word on the price for a slot price, ESPN has reported that they range from $35 million to $60 million.
Thus far Blizzard has only confirmed the sale of franchise teams in Atlanta and Guangzhou, China. But if all reports are to be believed, we should expect announcements from Blizzard before the start of season two for teams in Vancouver, Paris, Toronto, Hangzhou, Chengdu, and D.C.
With free agency signings opening on Sep. 9 for expansion teams exclusively, we should expect to see a number of big announcements out of Blizzard in the next few days. All teams will be able to sign free agents starting Oct. 8 and all teams are required to have a minimum of eight players on their roster by December 8.
No word is yet available on the start of season 2.
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