Blizzard reportedly still owes NA Overwatch Contenders payment

Imagine competing, training, and earning a spot in the North American Overwatch Contenders. Now imagine not being paid out for your efforts. That’s what has happened to a number of anonymous players from the North American Overwatch Contenders division who recently spoke to Dot Esports. Blizzard, the company behind Overwatch and of course all the competitions, kept these players waiting months to get paid, with some still not having been paid. This is quite surprising when the company is making millions a year in revenue. Blizzard has the money.

Chasing Blizzard for payment

The second season ended in August and one player said they still have yet to be paid even after contacting Blizzard multiple times to no avail. Two other players received payment in October. Players still seeking payment have had to communicate through Blizzard administrators who can reportedly take days to respond. That being said, Blizzard has no contractual obligation to pay players within a specific time period because their official rulebook doesn’t mandate any such thing. Still, why should the responsibility fall to the players to hound the company for payment? Blizzard, for its part, concedes that “less than 10%” of payments to Overwatch Contenders season 2 players are late and that they are “working directly with the remaining players to process payment this month.” A Blizzard spokesperson additionally said, “We have also recently added a dedicated staffer who regularly communicates with Contenders players and teams directly via email, phone, and instant-messaging services. This person is actively following up on missing information from the remaining players that we need to process payment.”

Hopefully, with it being a new year, NA Overwatch Contenders players won’t be kept waiting quite so long. With 2019 having put Blizzard in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, they should be quite cautious going into 2020.