page_title: Overwatch League
section_title: Buildout
hierarchical_section_title: Overwatch League / History / Buildout
caption_attribution_description: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft on the field prior to an away game against the Oakland Raiders. The Patriots won 49-26.
context_page_description: The Overwatch League is a professional esports league for the video game Overwatch, produced by its developer Blizzard Entertainment. The Overwatch League follows the model of other traditional North American professional sporting leagues by using a set of permanent, city-based teams backed by separate ownership groups. In addition, the league plays in the regular season and playoffs format rather than the use of promotion and relegation used commonly in other esports and non-North American leagues, with players on the roster being assured a minimum annual salary, benefits, and a portion of winnings and revenue-sharing based on team performance. The league was announced in 2016 with its inaugural season taking place in 2018, with a total prize pool of US$3.5 million given to teams that year.
context_section_description: Blizzard sought out potential team owners, aiming to include teams that were localized to a geographic area. Blizzard believed having such local teams would spark more interest in esports from spectators and potential sponsors through new activities around supporting their team. A first meeting for prospective team owners was held at BlizzCon 2016 after the announcement of the league's creation, with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke among the attendees. During the formulative period, Blizzard hired Steve Bornstein, former president of ABC Sports and CEO of NFL Network, to serve as the company's esports chair, with particular emphasis on the broadcast and presentation of games played in the Overwatch League.
  Blizzard anticipated the Overwatch League would have a seven-figure payoff for the winning team at the end of a season. The first, shortened season of the league was expected to start in Q3 2017, with full seasons starting in 2018, with the league having half-year long seasonal breaks starting in Q4 of that year. Prior to starting the league, Blizzard planned to run a "combine," where players are invited to try out for guaranteed team contracts.
  Little information about the league came out of Blizzard following the initial November 2016 announcement for the next several months, leading to some speculation that the league was having trouble. In May 2017, ESPN reported that the league had been having difficulties in signing franchises, which they ascribed to two issues: the high base cost of starting a franchise, starting at $20 million with higher costs in more urban markets like New York City and Los Angeles, much higher than other esports league buy-ins, and the fact that there would be no revenue sharing until 2021, making recovery of the franchise costs difficult. These difficulties led to a delay for the start of the first season.
  However, during this time, Activision Blizzard was working behind the scenes to engage potential team owners, wanting to hold back as to provide large comprehensive announcements rather than trickles of information. Activision had seen the Kraft Group as a key team owner. Robert Kraft had been previously interested in investing into esports; he and Kotick had met earlier in 2013 when Kotick was looking to invest in an NFL franchise, where Kraft told him they were looking to seek investment in an esports team. Kraft spent time over the next few years evaluating other esport competitions but was not comfortable with their grassroots nature, but the Overwatch League, as explained by Kotick during BlizzCon 2016, caught his attention. By March 2017, Kraft and Activision had worked out the deal to secure the first team ownership group for the Overwatch League. Once the Kraft Group agreed to support a Boston-based team (later named the Boston Uprising), this had a snowball effect towards establishing of six other teams. The Kraft Group themselves helped to convince some of the other owners to buy into the Overwatch League.
  The first seven teams were revealed in July 2017, and additional teams announced in the months following. With its first twelve teams set by mid-December, Blizzard announced that its first season ran run from January to June 2018, with a pre-season in December 2017 and the championship game in July 2018.
  In September 2017, Blizzard announced that they would make permanent use of Studio 1 at The Burbank Studios in Burbank, California, which it converted into the "Blizzard Arena", an esports venue which was initially used for both Overwatch Contenders and Overwatch League matches. Having a dedicated arena was seen to help establish the Overwatch League as a more orchestrated event compared to other esports tournaments, and to better connect players with their fans. Blizzard operated Overwatch Contenders in the Blizzard Arena in October as a means to test the facility's capabilities and make modifications to improve both the players' and audiences' experience in time for the pre-season of the Overwatch League in December.
  In July 2
caption: Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots American football team, was one of the first businesspeople approached to own an Overwatch League team.
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