It’s normal to see payouts of tournaments take place after an event is over, but people start to speak out once payments are not received after a certain point. This case involves Blizzard and their tier 2 scene of the Overwatch League called Overwatch Contenders.
Earlier this year we started hearing rumblings that those who competed in the first season of Overwatch Contenders 2019 North America had not been paid by mid-July despite the last matches of the regular season taking place on April 15 and the grand finals taking place on May 1. We were able to confirm with former Second Generation head coach Liam “Calyoon” Murray and another competitor who wished to remain anonymous that none of the players or coaches had been paid after the 90 day mark. This delay in payment had become such a normal occurrence that Calyoon told us:
The general rule of thumb we tell players is you won’t be getting paid till the next season starts in the best case.
After rumblings of players getting paid in regions such as Australia and Europe, we thought that everyone had gotten paid and never finished writing up a piece that we were working on addressing the matter. However, we can now confirm that several players within North America have still not been paid as recently as today (September 18, 2019). Some of these players who have spoken publicly include Zholik and Salty from Third Impact, and Bogur from Revival.
The combined payout for Overwatch Contenders North America East and West is $400,000.
