It seems the Overwatch League might be heading north, with Toronto possibly gaining a spot in the expansion prior to Season 2. According to ESPN, Activision Blizzard is undergoing final negotiations with a group of investors to expand into Toronto.
The group is led my Canadian Entrepreneur Michael Kimel and could see esports organization Splyce run the new team. While the original 12 Overwatch League slots were sold for $20 million each, this new expansion could cost up to $35 million, with funding from Kimel, his family and their ventures, as well as Splyce itself.
Splyce was previously interested in the Boston slot for the Overwatch League, due to the proximity to one of their main investors, the Boston Bruins and TD Garden parent company Delaware North, however that slot eventually went to The Kraft Group.
The Overwatch League is already expanding, with two other slots confirmed for Guangzhou, China, and Atlanta, Georgia. There are also talks that Paris might gain a slot, expanding the Overwatch league to mainland Europe. It is rumored that there will be a total of six expansion slots for the second season of the Overwatch League, so there remains two open slots at this time for fan speculation. Could we end up seeing another Korean team based out of Busan, or even more OWL teams spreading across Europe? We’ll update this story as more information comes in.
