Blizzard continues raking in the big bucks for its fledgling Overwatch League, adding two new teams to its roster: a London team purchased by Cloud9 founder Jack Etienne and a Los Angeles team picked up by Stan and Josh Kroenke, well-known to sports fans here in the US for having their fingers in multiple meatpies, and by meatpies I mean actual sports teams like the LA Rams. Etienne and the Kroenkes will join venture capitalists including reps and owners of the New England Patriots, New York Mets, Immortals, Misfits Gaming, NRG Esports, Netease, and Kabam, which superficially secures the Leagues’ future on three continents.
We’ve previously reported on the structure of the League and its absurd $20M ante, which at least one gaming industry analyst firm has deemed unlikely to achieve much success, given its assessment that Overwatch is difficult to watch, unapproachable, expensive, in competition with Amazon’s Twitch, and on a collision course with antitrust law. Whee. Major League Baseball is also disputing Blizzard’s right to OWL logo.
