Since Overwatch already has numerous tournaments and pro leagues ongoing, Blizzard has decided to do things a little bit differently with the newly announced Overwatch World Cup 2016.

Instead of simply inviting the current top players, Blizzard will nominate a mix of representatives (pro gamers, streamers, high ranked competitive players, and apparently me) from each eligible country, after which the community will be able to vote on which nominees they would like to see represent their nation. What follows next is a series of exhibition matches where the teams will partake in best-of-three battles until only the sixteen best teams remain standing.

There is a bit of a caveat here, however, since the whole system is designed to be as fair as possible to the various regions of the world. In other words, the grand tournament at BlizzCon will be populated with six teams from the Europe game region, six from the Asia-Pacific region, and four from the Americas region (which doesn't include Australia this time around).

As far as prizes are concerned, each of the finalists will receive an "appearance bonus", a free trip to BlizzCon and a whole bunch of other Blizzard goodies. What exactly all of that will entail, nobody knows, but if you tune into BlizzCon on November 4-5 I'm sure all will be revealed in due time.

If you're looking for a bit more information, Blizzard has issued a brief FAQ over at the official website. And as a final note, here are all of the eligible countries: