Overwatch Commissioner: League's Appeal Lies in Local Teams

*By Jacqueline Corba* The commissioner of the Overwatch League has some thoughts on what makes the esports competition so popular: attaching teams to cities to get fans excited. "What you see in esports is the fandom around Overwatch Leagueーaround these cities. It manifests in exactly the same way that you see fandom manifest in traditional sports," said Nate Nanzer in an interview with Cheddar from the Cannes Lions festival Tuesday. "We wanted to make an esport league that was really easy to follow and really easy to be a fan of." And so far the strategy seems to have worked. The league, which was announced just last January, has already [inked a $90 million, two-year](https://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/news/2018/05/24/activision-blizzard-shops-new-deals-for-overwatch.html), exclusive deal with gaming site Twitch to stream all of the league's games. And the inaugural season's Grand Finals sold out more than 20,000 seats at Brooklyn's Barclays Center in a matter of days. "We are excited to bring it to Brooklyn and show the biggest city in the world what kind of show we can put on," Nanzer said Six of twelve teams in the league qualified for this season's playoffs: New York Excelsior, Los Angeles Valiant, Boston Uprising, Los Angeles Gladiators, London Spitfire, and Philadelphia Fusion. The Grand Finals take place July 27-July 28 at the [Barclay's Center](http://www.barclayscenter.com/events/detail/overwatch-league-grand-finals-2018). For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/inside-the-growth-of-esports).

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