2017 Overwatch World Cup

The 2017 Overwatch World Cup was an Overwatch esports tournament, organized by Blizzard Entertainment, the game's developer. It was the second Overwatch World Cup and featured 32 represented nations from around the world, with the final tournament taking place at the Anaheim Convention Center from November 3–4, 2017.[1]

2017 Overwatch World Cup
Tournament information
GameOverwatch
DatesNovember 3–4
Administrator(s)Blizzard Entertainment
Tournament
format(s)
Knockout
Venue(s)
Teams32
Final positions
Champions South Korea
1st runner-up Canada
2nd runner-up Sweden
MVP Félix "xQc" Lengyel

The event had notably been controversial and criticized due to several issues, including China's visa denial, Twitch MVP voting, and redrawing of playoff matches. Twitch streams of the event accumulated over 5.4 million views.[2]

The final took place on November 4 between South Korea and Canada. South Korea won 4–1, winning their second straight World Cup title.

Teams

Players and committees

Each qualified region had three representatives form that region's Competition Committee. Blizzard chose a shortlist of candidates for each nation, in which the players and viewers of their respective nations voted from April 30 to May 5 on to become their nations committee. The committee members of each nation were announced on May 8. They players representing each country were selected by their National Competition Committee.[3]

Qualification

The top 32 countries/regions based on the average skill rating of the top 100 players from that particular country/region qualified for the tournament. Qualification began on March 29, and the qualified countries were announced on April 25.[4] The top 32 national teams were seeded into eight groups spread across four different regions: Shanghai, China, Sydney, Australia, Katowice, Poland, and Santa Monica, California. Each group played a round-robin schedule of matches. The top two teams in each group advanced to a single-elimination, one-game playoff bracket to qualify for the final tournament at BlizzCon.[5]

Venues
Shanghai Sydney
Yun Space, Baoshan Venue The Star Event Centre
Capacity: 1,500[6]
Katowice Santa Monica
ESL Arena Barker Hangar
Capacity: 150[7] Capacity: 1,600[8]
Anaheim
Anaheim Convention Center
Capacity: 7,500[9]

Group stage

Shanghai qualifier
               
Group Finals Qualified
     
1   China  3
      China
2   Thailand  0    
     
1   France  3
      France
2   Norway  0    

Source: OWWC

Sydney qualifier
               
Group Finals Qualified
     
1   Sweden  3
      Sweden
2   Spain  0    
     
1   Japan  2
      Australia
2   Australia  3    

Source: OWWC

Katowice qualifier
               
Group Finals Qualified
     
1   Canada  3
      Canada
2   Netherlands  0    
     
1   South Korea  3
      South Korea
2   Russia  0    

Source: OWWC

Santa Monica qualifier
               
Group Finals Qualified
     
1   United States  3
      United States
2   Germany  0    
     
1   United Kingdom  3
      United Kingdom
2   Chinese Taipei  0    

Source: OWWC

Knockout stage
South Korea versus Canada in the 2017 Overwatch World Cup Finals.

On August 28, brackets were drawn to determine the match-ups for the quarterfinals. The bracket draw was only announced after the final group stage, which is one of the reasons why many people believe that Blizzard added in a bracket draw to prevent team USA from playing South Korea in the quarterfinals as that was the match-up by default after the group stage.[10] A week before the actual playoff stage, 4 out of 6 players in China's Overwatch World Cup team were denied from the tournament due to visa issues, receiving widespread criticism.[11][12]

Quarterfinals and semifinals were both supposed to be played on Nov 3, but due to the quarterfinals games running later than expected, the semifinals games were moved to Nov 4, right before the final match.[13]

Bracket
 
QuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinals
 
          
 
 
 
 
 China 1
 
 
 
 France 3
 
 France 1
 
 
 
 South Korea 3
 
 South Korea 4
 
 
 
 United States 2
 
 South Korea 4
 
 
 
 Canada 1
 
 United Kingdom 0
 
 
 
 Sweden 3
 
 Sweden 2
 
 
 
 Canada 3 Third place
 
 Canada 3
 
 
 
 Australia 2
 
 Sweden 4
 
 
 France 2
 

Awards
gollark: Where can I listen to this alleged "internet radio"?
gollark: Go listen to osmarks internet radio™ or something.
gollark: It'll take a while for the DNS to propagate, but I also registered https://☭☭☭☭☭.tk.
gollark: I am now registering osmorons.tk.
gollark: Well, give me the CODE to ADD.

References
  1. Howell, Leo. "Overwatch World Cup 2017 announced". ESPN. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  2. "Overwatch World Cup 2017 detailed stats". Esports Charts. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  3. McKeand, Kirk (April 30, 2017). "Voting is now open for each country's Overwatch World Cup Competition Committee". PC Games News. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
  4. Morrison, Sean (April 27, 2017). "Blizzard announces Overwatch World Cup participants". ESPN. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
  5. "World Cup 2017". worldcup.playoverwatch.com. Retrieved 2017-04-01.
  6. "The Star Event Centre". Retrieved May 1, 2019.
  7. "ESL Arena w Katowicach otwarta!" [ESL Arena in Katowice is open!]. Turtle Entertainment Polska (in Polish). June 13, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
  8. Dubin, Alesandra (May 7, 2012). "10 Biggest Venues for Events and Meetings in Los Angeles". BizBash. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
  9. "Arena Capacities". anaheim.net. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  10. "Overwatch World Cup brackets drawn following Overwatch Contenders". Retrieved 2017-09-02.
  11. "Most of China's Overwatch World Cup team won't be at the tournament due to visa issues". Dot Esports. Retrieved 2018-04-10.
  12. "Four Chinese Overwatch World Cup Team Members Denied US Visas - The Esports Observer". The Esports Observer. 27 October 2017.
  13. "Watch Day 1 of the 2017 Overwatch World Cup at BlizzCon here". Heroes Never Die. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
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