Overwatch World Cup 2017: Selection Process, Voting, Ticket Availability, Livestream And More

Blizzard Entertainment held its first Overwatch World Cup in 2016. The company is holding the second edition of the tournament, of which the selection process began Friday.

In the 2017 Overwatch World Cup tournament, Blizzard will be tracking the skill ratings of top 100 players from each participating country between March 29- April 26 to determine the average national ranking. On the basis of these rankings, the top 32 countries will be selected to participate in the tournament. At the time of writing, South Korea, China and U.S.A., were the top rated countries on the Overwatch World Cup website.

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In the second phase, which will also be held in April, each participating nation will have to vote for a national committee, based on nominations chosen by Blizzard, which will include analysts, coaches and statisticians. This national committee would be in charge of recommending rosters for all stages of the tournament.

The next phase of the tournament will be held in summer and will have four live group stage competitions, which will be held across Asia, North America and Europe. In this phase, eight national teams will battle each other for a full week and the top two teams will be chosen to compete in the Overwatch World Cup finals at BlizzCon 2017 in November. Tickets to the competitions live will go on sale in May. Blizzard will also run a free livestream of the competition online.

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The Overwatch World 2016 was the first edition of the tournament and was held at BlizzCon in Anaheim in November 2016. The finals were held between South Korea and Russia, at the end of which South Korea won.