Overwatch League will get in-game items so players can show support for their favourite teams

Overwatch League commissioner Nate Nanzer has revealed that Overwatch players will be able to show their support for the new esports competition's many regional teams with in-game items that will be introduced to Blizzard's hit shooter.

With the Overwatch League, Activision-Blizzard is pitching an ambitious new setup for pro video game competition which will see teams represent cities around the world and players offered professional contracts.

Today (12 July), Activision-Blizzard announced the first seven team owners and where each of their teams will be based.

Ahead of this announcement, IBTimes UK talked to Nanzer about the plans, including how the League will integrate with the PS4, Xbox One and PC shooter. Our full interview will be published at a later date.

"In terms of in-game items, we're definitely going to have Overwatch League team branded items in the Overwatch game," he said. "We think it's really important for fans to be able to show off to other players who their favourite team is, and express their fandom in the game in that way."

"That's something that's also really important for us to be able to create value for our team owners, and our team owners will be sharing in the revenue that's made from selling those in-game items."

An Activision-Blizzard statement elaborated slightly, saying: "Teams will have a license to operate and monetise up to five amateur events in their home territory each year, and to benefit from the sale of league-affiliated fan items in Overwatch, with 50% of the revenues going into the net shared revenue pool for all teams."

Speaking to Nazer we also asked about the possibility of Overwatch players being able to watch League matches through the game itself - as Dota players can during Valve's annual Dota 2 International tournament.

Nanzer wasn't ready to give anything away, but did reveal that it's something the studio is looking into.

"We don't have anything to share today about watching Overwatch League, and the Overwatch game client," he said. "It's definitely something that we've seen done really successfully in other esports, and something that we'll continue to look into."

Overwatch has been enormously successful since it launched in May 2016, passing the 30 million player milestone in late April. Activision-Blizzard has yet to announcement full details regarding when the Overwatch League will finally begin.