One of the five Overwatch League teams that operate from China has commented on the collapse of Activision Blizzard's deal to release games in China. This comes as Overwatch 2 was taken offline in the region, barring any fans from the region from playing the game. As the game was taken offline yesterday, Chengdu Hunters issued a solemn statement to fans, saying "goodbye, and see you again". It definitely seems that this isn't a permanent goodbye, but it does raise questions as to how Chinese players are meant to find teams and practice until Blizzard manages to secure another Chinese partner to publish its games. So far, Chengdu Hunters are the only Overwatch League to comment on the matter, but they are far from the only team to be affected by the news. Hangzhou Spark, Guangzhou Charge, Shanghai Dragons, and Los Angeles Valiant all mainly operate in China, and will presumably have to move their players elsewhere to compete in the Overwatch League this year.
While the tweet from Chengdu Hunters may seem definitive, it's likely that they are hoping this is only a temporary hiatus. One of their liked tweets reads: "Guys I’m pretty sure this is about Overwatch not being available to be played in China anymore, not Chengdu leaving the league".
We have reached out to Chengdu Hunters owners and Activision Blizzard itself for comment on the matter, elaborating on how its Chinese Overwatch League teams will operate until the company finds another partner in the region. Until it can, all of its games will be unavailable, as Chinese law requires games to be published by a company based in the country.
Until recently, that company was NetEase. Activision Blizzard has had a deal with NetEase for 14 years, but everything came crashing down late last year. With the two failing to secure another deal, all Activision Blizzard-owned games were taken offline yesterday - with NetEase even taking down its World of Warcraft statue to mark the occasion.