'Overwatch' heads to Vegas with $100,000 MLG tournament
One of the year's last big Overwatch tournaments is going down in Sin City.
MLG Vegas will host a $100,000 invitational December Overwatch tournament in the gambling capital along with a $100,000 open Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare tournament to kick off the 2017 World League season.
Eight Overwatch teams will be invited to compete against each other Dec. 16-18 while 12 North American Call of Duty teams will be invited to compete against 96 other teams over the weekend. Details on which teams will be invited have not been released.
MLG is owned by Activision Blizzard, the pair of companies behind Overwatch and Call of Duty. Not only is MLG Vegas the first big Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare tournament, it is also MLG's first Overwatch tournament and Blizzard's first time being involved with a professional Overwatch tournament outside of the Overwatch World Cup.
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick recently mentioned in an interview that there will be an Overwatch league, The Street reported.
"What we're doing is creating professional content. So we're organizing around teams and leagues," Kotick said. "You will have the Overwatch league which will have a certain number of teams. Those teams will be a combination of professional...and endemic sports teams as owners."
That vague mention of an Overwatch league led many to believe that Activision Blizzard is creating the Overwatch League, although at this point the exact details of such a league are unclear. Whether MLG Vegas is a part of this league is unclear.
Alongside the tournaments, MLG Vegas will be hosting something called End Game, which is a festival-like event featuring music, interactive experiences and video game competitions for fans.
MLG Vegas will take place at the Mandalay Bay resort and casino in Las Vegas, and three-day tickets are available online. If you can't make it out to Vegas, the action will be streamed live on MLG's website.
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