Last month we learnt that Blizzard was planning to change the Overwatch World Cup in a big way, and now we finally have our top 32 countries ranked ahead of the event’s next stage.
Last year’s event saw some three million people cast their votes in order to help establish national rosters, with more than 50 countries represented in the final tournament.
Unsurprisingly, South Korea came out on top, with Winston main Miro walking away with the tournament’s MVP award.
In 2017, Blizzard took a little more control over the team recruitment process, with the studio tracking the top 100 players across each country.
The studio hopes this will open the door for more countries to participate, as the voting system restricted the number of players from each country in last year’s event.
To determine the rankings, Blizzard took the average skill rating of the top 100 players in each country to determine the top 32 countries by skill in the world.
With those teams now determined, the live qualifiers can begin, with groups of eight established to battle it out for a spot at BlizzCon 2017.
The voting system will return at this stage, with players voting for three representatives. Blizzard will nominate the rest of the team based on expertise. Rosters can be adjusted between events.
Four live group stage events will take place in North America, Europe and Asia. These groups will each have eight teams, with two from each group playing through towards BlizzCon 2017.
You can influence your country’s skill rating and improve its chances by grinding your way into the top 100. You never know: you could be a pro Overwatch player, but you might not even know it!
Here are the top 32 countries ranked in order. There aren’t many surprises.
- China 4550
- South Korea 4522
- United States 4470
- Sweden 4309
- Finland 4295
- United Kingdom 4293
- Canada 4291
- France 4268
- Denmark 4259
- Russia 4221
- Germany 4219
- Japan 4184
- Australia 4184
- Taiwan 4162
- Netherlands 4147
- Hong Kong 4113
- Norway 4101
- Poland 4093
- Brazil 4071
- Italy 4068
- Spain 4051
- Israel 4007
- Singapore 4002
- Thailand 3999
- Argentina 3992
- Turkey 3960
- Belgium 3942
- Vietnam 3941
- Portugal 3930
- New Zealand 3922
- Austria 3900
- Romania 3861
