Blizzard Opens First eSports Stadium To Host Overwatch Tournaments

Blizzard Entertainment, the parent company of Overwatch, opened its first eSports stadium Thursday in Taipei, which will be dedicated to hosting Overwatch events. The venue reportedly held an exhibition League of Legends game at the opening event.

"Asia is the founding land of competitive gaming. The development of gaming in Asia usually serves as the marker for how their company predicts the development of gaming will go globally," Blizzard co-founder and CEO Michael Morhaime told China Post on Friday.

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The stadium, called the Blizzard eStadium, can seat up to 250 people and spans 1,653 square meters. It will have a game room, a snack bar and a memorabilia shop. According to China Post, the company hoped that the stadium will act as a base for future large-scale gaming tournaments. The construction of the stadium began in 2016, the report added.

The stadium will host both local and international matches for players from the Asia-Pacific region. It will open on April 8 with the first games from the Overwatch Pacific Championship being held at the location. Eight teams from four places -- Taiwan, Japan, Australia and Thailand -- will compete for 11 weeks and the top three would be chosen to compete in playoffs and then in the Overwatch World Cup 2017, which will be held later this year.

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The venue will also host competitions for Blizzard’s other games such as Hearthstone and Starcraft 2 in the future, but the biggest tournament that it could host would be the upcoming Overwatch World Cup, which was announced Friday. Blizzard has been trying to diversify its operations since 2016 when it held the first Overwatch World Cup. The competition is set to come back later this year with the top 32 countries participating in it.