Blizzard Wants Overwatch League Viewers To Pay To Cheer For Teams

Blizzard has announced a new deal that it has in place with Twitch that will roll out a new "Cheering" feature for the Overwatch League. This is the league for gaming that Blizzard first started to talk up last year and saw the game company purchase the old "Tonight Show" studio to host matches and fans. The new Cheering feature will unlock exclusive in-game items for players and Blizzard says that the system will help support the league and sponsors.

Blizzard wrote, "Here’s how it works: express your Overwatch fandom in Twitch chat by Cheering with Bits, a virtual item offered by Twitch. As individual, team-based, and global Cheering milestones are reached, you can unlock rewards including Hero emotes, Overwatch League skins not yet available in game, and more."

For every 100 Bits that the viewer cheers, they will unlock one of 26 Overwatch Hero emotes. Every 150 Bits Cheered for one of the Overwatch League teams, the player will receive that team's emote. Blizzard also has a Global Cheering threshold that combines the Cheers for everyone tuned into the Overwatch League match to get bigger returns for viewers and potentially unlock special Hero skins for each benchmark achieved.

Blizzard has a system in place that will allow fans of the match to track their Cheering progress at twitch.tv/overwatchleague. That system will show individual and team leaderboards and the rewards unlocked. To get the rewards, viewers do have to link their Battle.net account.

One big question in the minds of Overwatch League fans will be the cost of Bits. A special discount for first time buyers will get viewers 1000 bits for $10 or 100 bits for $1.40. Normal pricing is 1500 bits for $19.95 with different tiers going up to $308 for 25000 bits. The cheering will also unlock League Tokens that can be used to purchase items in game. Each match watched will earn the player a single League Token, so you get some rewards without spending money.