2017 Will Bring Back Overwatch World Cup

The year 2017 will mark the return of the Overwatch World Cup and this time the competitive ratings of ladder skills will be taken into account. Yesterday, Blizzard announced that the final event of this Overwatch competition would be played in November at the BlizzCon as it was the case with the previous installments. Unlike in some earlier years, this year’s Overwatch World Cup competition will have four stages, and the first stage has already started without anyone realizing.

This announcement said that the top 100 players based on the skill rating from each country would be a deciding factor in determining which countries will qualify for the World Cup. Based on that, it can be said that the countries that have the top 32 skill rating will move on to the next stage of the competition.

As the announcement indicated, this stage of the competition will last for the next 26 days after which the second phase of the competition will start. After the first stage and after 32 teams have been determined, the voting stage begins in which Blizzard will be putting forward ten nominees that will eventually create a committee whose job would be to recommend the players that will be the best possible choice for the selection.

Players for each of the 32 countries will vote to select the three members of that committee and the main purpose of such a committee, according to Blizzard Entertainment, is to have more professional players at the final event unlike it was the case with last year’s tournament. On a still unspecified date, the World Cup will expand, and it will feature competitions in Europe, North America, and in Asia and those competitions, together with eight single-elimination matches that will be played at BlizzCon 2017, will decide which team will be the winner of the Overwatch World Cup 2017.

Current Standings

Last year’s Overwatch World Cup was dominated by the South Korean team, and they eventually won the title at the final event. At that event, Russia managed to finish in the second place while the team from Sweden finished this tournament in the third place. Since the first phase of the Overwatch World Cup 2017 has already started, we should take a look at the current SR standings for the World Cup.

Once again, South Korea seems to be dominating as they are in the first place, but they have only three points more than China in the second place. In the third place is the United States with 34 points behind the South Korea in the first place. When it comes to the European countries, there are three countries placed between 4th and 6th. In the fourth place is Sweden with 4346 points, while the United Kingdom is in the fifth place with 4284 points. France is in sixth place with 4279 points.

There still 25 days for the teams to change their rankings and the fight to reach the first 32 places will be tough, as each team will be attempting to achieve this same goal. Just like last year, South Korea is the biggest favorite, and it will be very interesting to see if any other team will be able to go against them at this tournament.