The Overwatch League is, undoubtedly, one of esports biggest success stories. The city-based competition has proven popular with fans and players and has established a blueprint that Activision is following with Call of Duty.
The publisher announced today that it has already sold five franchises in the Call of Duty Esports League; Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Paris and Toronto.
The five teams are owned by groups that are long-standing players in the esports industry or are advocates of esports looking to promote it within their region.
Call of Duty Esports League
The first five teams in the new Call of Duty Esports League are;
- Atlanta, GA – Atlanta Esports Ventures, a joint venture owned by Cox Enterprises and Province, Inc. dedicated to bringing esports entertainment to the city of Atlanta
- Dallas, TX – Envy Gaming Inc., a staple in esports since 2007 with teams competing this year in the Call of Duty World League (Envy) and Overwatch League (Dallas Fuel)
- New York, NY – Sterling.VC, an early stage sports and media company backed by Sterling Equities – a family-run group of companies owned by the Wilpon and Katz families with several business operations including the New York Mets
- Paris, France – c0ntact Gaming, LLC., is the parent company of both the Overwatch League team, Paris Eternal, and the Paris Call of Duty esports team
- Toronto, Canada – OverActive Media, an integrated company delivering esports and video game entertainment to the Canadian market
The owners of each of the teams state their strong belief in the city-based model established with the Overwatch League. They believe the same success can be replicated with a Call of Duty Esports League and call Activision “the ideal partner for this endeavour.”
A timeline has not been announced for Call of Duty Esports League, but stay tuned as we receive more on it.