Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Overwatch League, Call of Duty League shift from live events to online matches

By

The Overwatch League and Call of Duty League, both of which Activision Blizzard envisioned would mirror traditional sports leagues with live audiences, is moving online for now as a safeguard against the novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19.

Recommended Videos

The Overwatch League said that the homestand events for March and April, which were recently canceled, will be played live in online matches that will start on March 21.

The league is working on a revised schedule to minimize the lag between matches of teams in different parts of the world. For the online matches of March and April, Overwatch League teams will be divided into three groups based on their region.

The Call of Duty League, similarly, is moving all of its scheduled live events to online matches, all of which will be broadcast live. The dates of the matches will be announced soon.

Both leagues said that they will return to city-based matches with live audiences as soon as it is safe for everyone involved. However, due to the nature of the coronavirus, it is not possible to determine an expected return date.

The online matches of the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League will be exclusively streamed and stored on their dedicated channels on YouTube, after Activision Blizzard and Google entered a multi-year partnership in January. YouTube was supposed to host the official live broadcasts from the stadiums where the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League matches would be held before they were suspended amid the pandemic.

The Overwatch League recently started experimenting with hero pools for the March 7 and March 8 matches at the Washington Justice Homestand, with McCree, Widowmaker, Reinhardt, and Moira making up the first batch of heroes who were temporarily banned. The hero pools will continue once Overwatch League matches resume.

E-sports continue through COVID-19

While various traditional sports leagues have been forced to suspend their seasons, including the NBA, NHL, and MLS, the digital nature of e-sports will allow the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League to continue this year after making certain adjustments. Cities may not be able to root for their basketball, hockey, or soccer teams, but they may still cheer for their favorite e-sports teams.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Aaron Mamiit
Aaron Mamiit
Contributor
Aaron received a NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was 4 years old, and he has been fascinated with…
Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is out to eliminate mobile gaming’s stigma
Gameplay from Call of Duty: Warzone mobile

Activision may be under new ownership at Xbox, but that’s not slowing down its flagship series. After a few years in development, Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is finally launching worldwide under the Microsoft banner. It’s a major moment for the shooter series that’s endured multiple industry changes over its long lineage. The new mobile game is the latest evolution for Call of Duty, bringing a high-quality battle royale experience to phones.

The importance of that evolution isn’t lost on Chris Plummer, the co-head of mobile at Activision. In an interview with Digital Trends ahead of Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile’s launch, Plummer painted a picture of how much has changed in the game industry since Call of Duty Mobile launched in 2019. An industry-shifting war between Epic Games and Apple, an enormous acquisition that’s turned Xbox into a mobile king, and a gradual shift in the general attitude towards mobile games -- all of that has led to this moment. Plummer believes that the old days of players bemoaning cash-grab mobile games are coming to an end. The industry just needed its killer app; he believes Warzone Mobile could be that game.

Read more
All Call of Duty games in order, by release date and chronologically
e3 2021 missing games call of duty

Call of Duty is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. The original Call of Duty set a new standard for first-person shooters, the series' online multiplayer work has been a must-play for gamers for nearly two decades, and Warzone has been one of the top battle royale experiences of late.

The series has covered a lot of warfare, from World War II to futuristic fictional wars in 2187, but never in any set order. Players have been bounced around from era to era with each annual COD release and even revisited the same conflicts multiple times from different perspectives through direct sequels and remakes.

Read more
Call of Duty: Warzone is finally coming to mobile in March
Gameplay from Call of Duty: Warzone mobile

Activision's popular battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone is making the jump to mobile in March. Specifically, it launches for iOS and Android devices on March 21.

This is a separate game from Tencent's Call of Duty: Mobile, which is currently available on the App Store and Google Play Store. Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is made in-house by several Activision teams, including Beenox, Digital Legends, Solid State Studios, and Shanghai Studios. Further signifying that connection is that Warzone Mobile has shared progression with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and the PC and console versions of Warzone. Payers can level up the same weapons, access content from the BlackCell Battle Pass and store, and gain XP on the same account across all three games. Warzone Mobile will also have full controller support, although it will have a virtual controller overlay that's highly customizable.

Read more