Blizzard says Overwatch League cities featured in image are ‘examples’

Update 1PM PST: Blizzard’s director of Overwatch Esports Nate Nanzer has further clarified on Twitter, calling it a slide he “made for the audience here to illustrate the vision.”

The original story follows below.

An image has been posted online allegedly highlighting the proposed cities for Blizzard’s Overwatch League.

While the slide features 11 cities in North America, three in Europe, and two in Asia, it’s worth noting that the text on the bottom right says they are “Illustrated cities.” Yahoo Esports reached out to Blizzard for comment on the authenticity of the image. A representative confirmed to us a statement:

“The logos and team examples shown at the Leaders Summit were for illustrative purposes only and are not the League’s actual teams. That’s noted on the bottom of the full slide.”

These cities were featured on the slide:

• Los Angeles

• New York

• Boston

• D.C.

• Dallas

• San Francisco

• Seattle

• Chicago

• Miami

• Toronto

• Mexico City

• Shanghai

• Seoul

• Paris

• Frankfurt

• London

The slide was allegedly shown at The Leaders Sport Business Summit taking place in New York.

Overwatch League was first announced at BlizzCon 2016. The league will feature localized teams in a format similar to that of the franchising model in traditional sports. Not much new information has been revealed since, but earlier this month new reports stated that spots in the league could cost upwards of $30 million.