According to a report from ESPN's Jacob Wolf, Vancouver, Canada and Chengdu, China are to be the last pair of Overwatch League expansion franchises added this offseason.
Vancouver and Chengdu, China are coming to the Overwatch League, sources say, bringing the total reported number of expansion teams to eight. https://t.co/fa55PthsOE pic.twitter.com/wDwHd1EBo8
— ESPN Esports (@ESPN_Esports) September 5, 2018
The Chengdu franchise will be owned by Chinese streaming platform Huya, which has investment from Tencent, one of China's largest companies. The Vancouver spot will be owned by Canucks Sports & Entertainment, the same group that owns the Vancouver Canucks NHL team.
Chengdu is located in central China, as opposed to the coastal locations of the three other reported Chinese franchises. According to World Population Review, Chengdu is the hub of the fifth largest urban area in China.
Vancouver is the second Canadian team to be reported to join the Overwatch League in 2019, the first being Toronto. The Vancouver metro area is the third largest in Canada.
This report follows yesterday's ESPN report stating Hangzhou, China and Washington, D.C. would be the fifth and sixth expansion franchises to join the league this offseason. According to the two reports, the Overwatch League will stop at eight expansion teams for 2019 for a total of 20 teams overall.
The only two confirmed expansion franchises are Atlanta and Guangzhou. Should all of the reports be true, the other six expansion franchises will be Toronto, Paris, Hangzhou, D.C., Chengdu and Vancouver.
The reported teams would mean three additional Chinese franchises, two additional American franchises, two Canadian franchises and a French franchise. In total, the league would have 13 teams based in North America, five in Asia and two in Europe.