ESPN reports Hangzhou and D.C. to be expansion franchises

According to a report from ESPN's Jacob Wolf, two expansion franchises for the Overwatch League have been sold to investors in Hangzhou, China and Washington, D.C. ESPN has also reported the league hopes to expand to 20 teams as opposed to the 18-team goal set before the start of the offseason.

The @OverwatchLeague continues to expand, with teams representing Washington D.C. and Hangzhou, China, coming in Season 2, sources told @JacobWolf.https://t.co/mWCBCOE4uL pic.twitter.com/3gYoHCz9Sh
— ESPN Esports (@ESPN_Esports) September 5, 2018

The Washington, D.C. slot was purchased by Capitol Investment Corp., a group led by Mark Ein. Ein is a minority owner in aXiomatic, the parent company of Team Liquid. Team Liquid dropped out of Overwatch in 2017, shortly before the beginning of Contenders Season One.

The Hangzhou spot was purchased by Bilibili, a Chinese video sharing website. It is set to be the second 2019 expansion team to call China home and the third Chinese team overall.

These are the fifth and sixth expansion teams to be reported. Atlanta and Guangzhou were confirmed by Blizzard earlier in the offseason, while Paris was first reported by ESPN and Toronto was first reported by over.gg.

The Overwatch League's newest ownership won't have long to settle in. The exclusive period for expansion teams to sign free agents begins September 9. Follow all of the offseason moves and news with the over.gg roster tracker.

TBH, a team supported by Bilibili is a tremendous move. I have never expected this.

Bilibili is one of the most popular, if not the most, video website among teenagers in China. The website formed a huge community with very rich subcultures associated with them. The company just submitted IPO on the NASDAQ in March, 2018 and this will be the best chance to expand their culture and market abroad.

While for Overwatch, this is the best chance to refocus the sight of Chinese gamers back to the game. In China, people are mostly playing LOL and PUBG, both of which are somehow experiencing recessions. On the meantime, OWL started when OW was having the hardest time in China; thus, there are few people in China actually watch OWL, especially with an extremely limited access to the live games (the viewers count on Chinese streaming websites are generally few times of the actual number, which they named after 'popularity' than 'viewers count'). Back then, there is no major streaming or video site in china have access to the game other than the one powered by NetEase. So most people will watch the game on twitch via setting up VPN. I hope the joining of Bilibili will solve this (shame on NetEase for the worst team and management of OWL).

I will say, this is a huge chance for re-popularizing Chinese OW. I highly doubt that it is Blizzard China who supported Bilibili with the team.