esports: IBM (IT) "presenting partner" of Activision-Blizzard's Overwatch League Grand Finals

IBM, an American company specialised in computer software, hardware and IT services, has become a partner of the video game publisher Activision-Blizzard for the Overwatch League from the 2020 Grand Finals, for two seasons (2021 and 2022), announced the group on 09/10/2020. This is the first esports agreement signed by IBM.

IBM will "help power interactive and analytical content for the Overwatch League, engaging fans and players through cloud, IBM's Watson artificial intelligence, and machine learning," said the software company.

As part of the agreement, IBM became the "presenting partner" of the 2020 Overwatch League Grand Finals. The Seoul Dynasty - San Francisco Shock (2-4) match was played in Seoul (KOR) from 20:00 (local time, 15:00 CET and 06:00 on the West Coast of the USA). This final recorded 120,000 simultaneous views on YouTube according to the Washington Post on 10/10/2020. The other playoff matches played on 08 and 09/10/2020 posted an average audience per minute of 375,000 viewers on the platform belonging to Google, according to Blizzard Entertainment on 09/10/2020.