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Cox Enterprises Picks Up Atlanta Expansion Slot for Overwatch League

Season 2 of the Overwatch League looks to have its first expansion team, according to an ESPN Esports report.

Ozzie Mejia

July 28, 2018 6:45 PM

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With the Overwatch League having concluded its first season and crowned its first champion, Activision Blizzard are wasting little time in looking ahead to next season. That next season will include the returning teams, along with some new cities looking to get in on the action. And there already looks to be a new city on board.

According to ESPN Esports' Jacob Wolf, Cox Enterprises appears to have bought into the Overwatch League, picking up a new expansion slot for Atlanta, Georgia. Wolf adds that a representative from the Cox-led group was in attendance during the Overwatch League Grand Finals, where he attended a private owners meeting. Cox Enterprises is based in Georgia and oversees Cox Communications, Cox Media Group, Kelly Blue Book, Autotrader.com, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and more.

Atlanta is the first to finalize an agreement for the upcoming Overwatch League season. Paris, France and Guangzhou, China are currently in negotiations, with Activision Blizzard seeking to add more expansion teams in the coming months. Back in February, Overwatch League Commissioner Nate Nanzer indicated to Shacknews that the process for naming new franchises would be similar to last year, with the key difference being that there's now a successful first season to build upon. While Overwatch League franchising fees peaked at roughly $20 million for the first season, the rumor is that this number will balloon around the $30-60 million range.

It should be noted that while Activision Blizzard hopes to attract teams as far as Asia-Oceania for Season 2, the next season of the Overwatch League will continue to be contested from the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles until Overwatch League venues for each of the League's home teams are ready to go.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?