We made it. We have truly arrived as a sports city. Philadelphia is the home of the 2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals. Press release after the jump: IRVINE, Calif. – May 8, 2019 – The Overwatch LeagueTM today announced the date, venue, and ticketing availability for the 2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals. The Grand Finals, which will determine the league champion, will be held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, September 29th. The two teams that qualify for the Grand Finals will compete for the League’s championship trophy and a share of the US $1.7 million prize pool—with the winning team getting $1.1M and the runner-up taking home $600K. “Philadelphia is a legendary sports town with amazing fans and the Wells Fargo Center is the perfect venue to crown our next champion,” said Nate Nanzer, Overwatch League Commissioner. “The 2018 Grand Finals in Brooklyn was epic but we’re looking to up the ante for our season finale in Philly. We have 20 teams in the League now, so the path to the championship is going to be extremely competitive and very entertaining.” The 2019 Grand Finals will be livestreamed on Twitch in 190 countries, and broadcast in the U.S. on ABC from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. EDT on September 29. It will also be available on the ESPN app, overwatchleague.com, and the Overwatch League app. Additionally, the Grand Finals will air in the following countries via additional platforms: Canada (TSN), China (Zhanqi, NetEase CC, Bilibili and Huya) France (Mediawan), Germany (Sport1), and Russia (E Terra TV). Tickets for the 2019 Grand Finals go on sale June 7th, for more information visit overwatchleague.com. The Wells Fargo Center, one of the busiest arenas in the world hosting more than 250 events each year, is home to the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, NLL’s Philadelphia Wings, and the Arena Football League’s Philadelphia Soul. With more than 2.6 million fans walking through its doors each year, the Wells Fargo Center has hosted a long list of nationally-recognized events, including the Republican National Convention (2000), NBA All-Star Weekend (2002), ESPN X Games (2001 and 2002), Stanley Cup Finals (1997 and 2010), NHL Entry Draft (2014), NCAA Men’s Frozen Four (2014), and the Democratic National Convention (2016). “Last year we witnessed thousands of passionate Overwatch® fans at the Grand Finals and we can’t wait to bring this electric event to Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center,” said Dave Scott, Chairman and CEO, Comcast Spectacor. “Overwatch League fans will be some of the first guests to enjoy the arena’s new advancements and we look forward to hosting an international audience for premier programming. We are thrilled to bring world-class gaming to Philadelphia’s expanding technology, esports, and entertainment scene.” The arena is currently in the midst of a multi-year, $250-million renovation initiative—Transformation 2020—which is aimed at reinventing every aspect of the fan experience within the venue. The Overwatch League Grand Finals will be the first major event hosted at the facility following a summer of major upgrades and advancements, including an overhaul of the main concourse, brand-new lower bowl seating, and the installation of the world’s first kinetic 4K center-hung entertainment system. The Grand Finals represents the culmination of the 2019 Overwatch League season playoffs, which will feature 12 of the League’s 20 teams. For the postseason, the two division winners along with the next best four teams by record, regardless of division, will automatically qualify. Two additional teams will qualify through a play-in tournament between the seventh- through 12th-place teams. Those eight teams will compete in a double-elimination bracket. The final two teams that advance out of the bracket will compete in the Grand Finals. Additional Grand Finals event details—including ticket pre-sale availability and match times—will be announced at a later date. Visit www.overwatchleague.com/emailto receive the latest Grand Finals news and ticketing updates.<doc-sep>The next Overwatch League grand finals are reportedly set to be held in Philadelphia, according to a report by Rod Breslau for ESPN Esports. The report states that Blizzard Entertainment has revealed plans for Philadelphia to host the 2019 grand finals in meetings with team owners. The presumable venue for the finals would be the Wells Fargo Center, which is operated by Philadelphia Fusion’s parent company Comcast Spectator. Blizzard has been focused on preparing for the Overwatch League’s third season, where teams will be operating their own home venues and preparing for away games. The Dallas Fuel recently hosted the League’s first home game, where a crowd of over 9,000 fans assembled to watch the weekend matches. The 2018 Overwatch League season culminated with a grand finals in New York City at the Barclays Center, where the 11,000 seats sold out for both days of competition. The Philadelphia Fusion was one of the teams in attendance for the grand finals, along with the eventual champions London Spitfire. Additional home games will be hosted in Atlanta, by the Reign, and in Los Angeles by the Valiant in 2019. These events will continue to test the waters before the 2020 launch of home games.<doc-sep>The second Overwatch League season is almost at the halfway point and after weeks of rumors, Blizzard has announced that the 2019 Grand Finals are heading to Philadelphia. The Season 2 finals will be hosted at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday, September 29. This is the second time in a row that the Overwatch League Finals have gone to the east coast of the United States, with season 1’s finals being held in New York. The Wells Fargo Center is the home arena for some of Philadelphia’s most legendary sports franchises like the 76ers and the Fliers — whose owners also own the Philadelphia Fusion and the Wells Fargo Center itself. The Grand Finals will feature the top two teams to emerge from the Overwatch League’s end-of-season playoffs. The two teams will face off on Sunday, Sept. 29 for a combined prize pool of $1.7 million. The finals will be broadcast on ABC, Twitch, and the ESPN app. Tickets for the Grand Finals will go on sale on June 7th. The arena holds just below 20,000 fans for most events, though it isn’t clear how many tickets will be sold for the Grand Finals.<doc-sep>The grand finals of Overwatch League season two will be held in Philadelphia, according to a report from ESPN. According to ESPN's sources, the OWL season conclusion is expected to take place in Wells Fargo Center, the home of Philadelphia's NBA and NHL teams, the 76ers and Flyers. This is a change from last year, where the OWL grand finals were held in Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Regular-season OWL games will continue to be held at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, CA for the time being, aside from a handful of "homestand" matches in select teams' home markets. The first of these were played this past week in Allen, Texas, hosted by the Dallas Fuel. Two more are scheduled later this season, hosted by the Atlanta Reign and the Los Angeles Valiant. Next season, the plan is for games to be played in teams' home markets. According to ESPN's report, the grand finals move is in part due to the Wells Fargo Center being operated by Comcast Spectacor, owner of the Philadelphia Fusion OWL team. Comcast Spectacor is also an investor in the upcoming $50 million esports arena that will play home to the Fusion for their home games next season. A date for the OWL grand finals has not been announced, however the regular season wraps at the end of August, so a date sometime in September can be expected.<doc-sep>
Activision Blizzard will host the Overwatch League 2019 grand finals in Philadelphia, league sources told ESPN this week. The Overwatch developer revealed the finals plans in a meeting to owners several weeks ago. Several sources, when asked, told ESPN that the grand finals are expected to be at the Wells Fargo Center, which is operated by Comcast Spectacor, owner of the Philadelphia Fusion and home to the 76ers and Flyers. The sources could not confirm whether the venue was discussed in the meeting. In February, Overwatch League partner and sponsor T-Mobile revealed through a sweepstakes contest for free finals tickets that the event will be staged Sept. 29. In March, Comcast Spectacor announced plans to build a $50 Million, 60,000-square-foot arena -- currently named the Fusion Arena -- for the Fusion to play in Overwatch League starting next year. One source close to the league speculated Philadelphia was the choice because of Comcast Spectacor's investment in the future arena, the heavily reduced costs of using a venue owned by an Activision Blizzard team partner and the easier logistics of hosting the finals in the U.S. than an international city. Representatives for the Philadelphia Fusion declined to comment. Activision Blizzard did not respond to a request for comment. While one source who spoke to ESPN said they would like more transparency from Activision Blizzard on the process of hosting the Overwatch League finals, and more transparency in general for a variety of issues tied to the game and the league, the near consensus was that planning for the launch of Overwatch League home games in 2020 is where the focus is right now. This past weekend, the Dallas Fuel hosted the first-ever Overwatch League homestand in front of a sold-out crowd at the Allen Event Center in Allen, Texas, as part of the league's 2019 road show. Additional home games are set to be contested in Atlanta and in Los Angeles, hosted by the Reign and Valiant, respectively. Jacob Wolf contributed to this report.