Big news coming from Blizzard today: after three years of absence due to real-world setbacks and general bad vibes, Overwatch World Cup is returning for 2023. The announcement didn’t grant a bunch of insight into the upcoming events surrounding the Overwatch World Cup 2023, but with the new game, they promise “new players and new ways of spotlighting your country and region on a global scale”.

Additional details will be rolled out into the full view of the public as they are ready for their piercing gaze, but we did get the board strokes of a larger picture today.

Overwatch World Cup 2023 timeline

January 2023: Blizzard will announce the 36 countries and regions competing in the 2023 Overwatch World Cup. At the same time, the competition committee applications will become available.

Each competition committee will be responsible for organizing tryouts for their country and region, following Blizzard guidelines.

Blizzard Entertainment

February 2023 will see the rise of the World Cup Trials. The Trials competition will earn the winners a direct ticket to the tryouts, but everyone will still be able to sign up for regular tryouts which will go down in March.

Please note that the regular tryouts will have a Competitive Rank requirement of Diamond and above.

All players will be able to get into the Overwatch World Cup 2023 spirit with the upcoming challenges and rewards that are also coming next year.

June 2023: is reserved for adding some finishing touches to the team rosters. Then, the Overwatch World Cup qualifiers will take the form of a regional online skirmish, whittling down the competition from 36 teams, down to the 16 required for the next phase of the Cup.

The 16 remaining teams will treat their fans to a LAN extravaganza in the fall of 2023, and, after the dust has settled, we’ll have our victors for Overwatch World Cup 2023, three years in the making.