Overwatch League Confirms 2 New Teams
By: Bryce L. Jackson
On Thursday, the Overwatch League confirmed rumors of 2 of the new cities that will be the home of new franchises: Atlanta, Georgia and Guangzhou, China.
The Atlanta team will be owned by media and automative services company Cox Enterprises and Province, Inc. under the "Atlanta Esports Venture" (AEV) banner.
The Guangzhou team is owned and will be operated by Nenking Group, a Financial and Entertainment conglomerate that also owns the Guangzhou Long Lions in the Chinese Basketball Association.
In an interview, the CEO of AEV, Paul Hamilton, expressed the goals of following fellow Atlanta Sports newcomer Atlanta United of Major League Soccer, in tapping into the fandom of the state of Georgia and also producing a winning team very early on.
“I want the best players possible,” said Hamilton. “If possible, I would love to engage the southeast with players that are there and up-and-coming players, and we’ll certainly develop some strategies around cultivating that in our home market. That’s the long-term plan, but short-term, we want to win, and we want to do that with players that fit the mantra of Cox Enterprises. We’re family-owned, and we want to create an environment in Atlanta, where if all things are equal, they’d rather play for us than anyone else.”
The logos and team names of both franchises will be announced at a later date. These new franchises are the first 2 of a potential 6 new franchises that have been a rumored goal set by Blizzard Ent, the parent company of Overwatch and the Overwatch League. With 4 slots remaining, the next teams have been slated to be more focused for European clubs. One city had been thrown out at the same time as the rumor of Guangzhou, China but since then, talks have cooled down. With 5 months before the next season and Overwatch World Cup in the middle of that, there is plenty of time for some major Poko Bombs of news to drop.
Stay tuned to Careful 4 Spoilers for more Overwatch League Expansion news!