JoshOG, the popular CS:GO and now Overwatch streamer, has announced a North American Invitational tournament featuring 8 top teams and a $25,000 prize pool. The JoshOG Invitational will span two days of online Overwatch action, and you can catch it on the 25th and 26th June from 12pm - 8pm EDT. This is the largest Overwatch prize pool to date, with only the recently announced ESL Overwatch Atlantic Showdown trumping it, but two months later.
The currently announced teams invited to the tournament are Cloud9, Team Liquid, Gale Force Esports, Northern Gaming Red, Luminosity Gaming, Team EnVyUs, and nubris. The final team is yet to be announced, with tournament organisers exploring "a few options".
Hero limit 1 will be used for the JoshOG Invitational, as has been the trend with recent tournaments due to popular demand from professional players. The tournament organiser have stated that further information about seeding and bracket format will be announced "soon".
This will be the first region-locked online tournament of this size. European players have expressed frustration at the plethora of tournaments happening in North America, and certainly one of this size that they are unable to play in will be disappointing, but this is a great event to see exactly how the top teams in North America line up. The fans in Europe can cheer at least one team on anyway; EnVyUs are counted as a North American team due to the fact that they are currently living and practising out of the gaming house in North Carolina. They'll be favourites to make the final, along with the powerhouse Cloud9 side.
This tournament promises to be a spectacle of the finest North American talent in Overwatch, and provides the perfect setup for the upcoming NA teams to prove their worth.
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