{"id":38427,"date":"2023-11-08T22:58:27","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T22:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\/"},"modified":"2023-11-08T22:58:27","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T22:58:27","slug":"overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"Overwatch League Officially Ending as Blizzard Focuses on &#8216;New Direction&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<section class=\"article-page\">\n<p>Six years after its glitzy launch, Blizzard&#8217;s grand experiment appears to be over. Blizzard confirmed in a statement to IGN that it is &#8220;transitioning from the Overwatch League,&#8221; seemingly spelling the end for the competition once billed as the future of esports.<\/p>\n<section data-transform=\"mobile-ad-break\"><\/section>\n<p>&#8220;We are transitioning from the Overwatch League and evolving competitive Overwatch in a new direction,&#8221; an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told IGN. &#8220;We are grateful to everyone who made OWL possible and remain focused on building our vision of a revitalized esports program. We are excited to share details with you all in the near future.&#8221; <\/p>\n<section data-transform=\"image-with-caption\" data-image-url=\"https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/2023\/11\/08\/overwatch-league-1699483897284.jpg\" data-image-title=\"England fans watch a match between the London Spitfire and Houston Outlaws in 2019. Photo credit: Leon Neal\/Getty Images\" data-image-class=\"article-image-full-size\" data-image-link=\"https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/2023\/11\/08\/overwatch-league-1699483897284.jpg\" data-caption=\"England%20fans%20watch%20a%20match%20between%20the%20London%20Spitfire%20and%20Houston%20Outlaws%20in%202019.%20Photo%20credit%3A%20Leon%20Neal%2FGetty%20Images\"><\/section>\n<\/section>\n<p><em>Developing&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<section data-transform=\"divider\"><\/section>\n<p><em>Blogroll photo credit: Hunter Martin\/Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Kat Bailey is IGN&#8217;s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\">Go to Source (IGN.com)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>All content and images belong to their respected owners. This article is aggregated for informational purposes only with full credit to the source.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Six years after its glitzy launch, Blizzard&#8217;s grand experiment appears to be over. Blizzard confirmed in a statement to IGN that it is &#8220;transitioning from the Overwatch League,&#8221; seemingly spelling the end for the competition once billed as the future of esports. &#8220;We are transitioning from the Overwatch League and evolving competitive Overwatch in a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38428,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[667,1441,735,748,1091,6405,11117,605,13,312,67],"class_list":["post-38427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pc","tag-after","tag-appears","tag-blizzard","tag-blizzards","tag-confirmed","tag-experiment","tag-glitzy","tag-grand","tag-nintendo","tag-statement","tag-years"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Overwatch League Officially Ending as Blizzard Focuses on &#039;New Direction&#039; | Xtreme Servers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"View Overwatch League Officially Ending as Blizzard Focuses on &#039;New Direction&#039; for free, here on XtremeServers. Discover more great articles on our site. Join us today.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Overwatch League Officially Ending as Blizzard Focuses on &#039;New Direction&#039; | Xtreme Servers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"View Overwatch League Officially Ending as Blizzard Focuses on &#039;New Direction&#039; for free, here on XtremeServers. Discover more great articles on our site. Join us today.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Xtreme Servers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-08T22:58:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Garry Smith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Garry Smith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Garry Smith\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0e3012a14873422d692e8ce07d584041\"},\"headline\":\"Overwatch League Officially Ending as Blizzard Focuses on &#8216;New Direction&#8217;\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-08T22:58:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":169,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/overwatch-league-blogroll-1699484172487-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"after\",\"appears\",\"Blizzard\",\"Blizzard's\",\"confirmed\",\"experiment\",\"glitzy\",\"Grand\",\"Nintendo\",\"statement\",\"years\"],\"articleSection\":[\"PC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\\\/\",\"name\":\"Overwatch League Officially Ending as Blizzard Focuses on 'New Direction' | Xtreme Servers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/overwatch-league-officially-ending-as-blizzard-focuses-on-new-direction\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.xtremeservers.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/overwatch-league-blogroll-1699484172487-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-08T22:58:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"View Overwatch League Officially Ending as Blizzard Focuses on 'New Direction' for free, here on XtremeServers. 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