Players on "Overwatch" League (OWL) teams set to compete at the upcoming first season of the Esports will be paid $50,000 for an entire year.
The announcement came from Blizzard Entertainment, the publisher of the highly popular team-based first-person shooter game. Stipulations of the player benefits are clearly outlined in a Blizzard blog post. Franchise owners Robert Kraft (New England Patriots) and Jeff Wilpon (New York Mets) will have to follow these rules since the Esport will not be following the formats being observed by other titles like "League of Legends."
All players from all the seven confirmed teams competing for "Overwatch" League will be receiving contracts amounting to $50,000. The said contracts will expire in a year. Included as well are health insurance, retirement savings plans, housing and living costs during the season.
Obviously, like any professional sports league, a lot of money will be made when teams win a match during playoffs or other events. Players of each team in the "Overwatch" League will be receiving 50 percent of these performance bonuses.
In the upcoming first season of the league,there is an estimated $3.5 million worth of prize money for every match won during the entire season. The champion team will also be awarded $1 million.
Blizzard also stated in the blog post that players will not be restricted to regions. Therefore, U.S. teams can hire Korean players with the right incentives.
The seven teams that have confirmed their participation in the league are from Boston, Los Angeles, Miami-Orlando, New York City, San Francisco, Seoul, and Shanghai. Pre-season games for OWL will be held this December, while the regular season will start from January to June 2018. Playoffs for the first season will happen in July 2018. Blizzard is also planning a home/away system, but most of the matches will be played at the Blizzards Arena in Los Angeles.
