Blizzard has announced the return of the Overwatch World Cup with changes in store for the 2019 edition. Most notably, all competition will take place in the final week before Blizzcon and the qualification process for teams has changed.

Teams will be ranked by their previous World Cup performances, in which points will be given to teams based on their placement in the previous years. A team is given one point for a Round of 32 performance and 10 points for a World Cup title.

In order to favor recency, the amount of points received will also depend on when the team made their placements. Teams receive 100% of their points for 2018 finishes, 50% from their 2017 performances and just 25% of points from their results in 2016.

The World Cup will begin with Preliminary Rounds held before the start of Blizzcon. The five highest ranked teams from Blizzard's point system will automatically make it into the next round, the Group Stage, and will be joined by five teams from the Preliminary Rounds. The Group Stage takes place Friday, November 1. The top six teams from the Group Stage will enter a single-elimination on Saturday, November 2.

The 10 highest ranked teams (based on Blizzard's points system) confirmed to compete in this year's World Cup will receive full financial support from Blizzard. Any other nation is welcome to compete in the World Cup but will receive some support for their hotels but will not receive any support from Blizzard for travel.

Fans will now get to vote for their nation's general manager, a contrast to last year's competition where Blizzard selected each country's GM. The GM and staff for each team will have a more restrictive player pool to choose from: the minimum age for World Cup competitors has been raised to 18. National committees will go through a three phase process that begins with committee nominations and ends with player tryouts.

The Preliminary Rounds will be broadcast online. Multiple Group Stage matches will occur at once.

Fans can find out more information from Blizzard's World Cup news post.