Blizzard Shakes Up ‘Overwatch’ Esports with Two New Hype Anthems

For sports fans of every kind, a memorable theme song is essential. It can the be the sound of their childhood, college dorm, or weekends with friends. Even people who don’t watch professional sports know the melodic hook of the NBA’s “Roundball Rock,” or the triumphant horns and drumline of “NFL on FOX,” if only through cultural osmosis.

With that, a huge part of any new sports league is finding the right theme song, one that will stick viewers, carrying them through victory and sorrow, and worming its way into the back on their mind after endless hours of repetition.

For the recently launched Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS), that song has yet to be revealed — until now. Founded just this year as the global competitive esports’ tournament series for Overwatch 2, the OWCS is celebrating the end of its inaugural season with a gift for fans in the form of not one but two official themes intended to become the sonic staples of circuit play and official broadcasts and, potentially, synonymous with Overwatch for years to come.

Both songs come from Dutch composer Justin Welgraven, who previously worked on collaborations with Overwatch developers Blizzard Entertainment on the music for games like World of Warcraft, in coordination with Blizzard’s own music team led by director Derek Duke. The tracks aim to elicit the hype of an esports anthem while staying true to the sweeping, heroic sounds of the game’s original score.

Rolling Stone has the exclusive premiere of both tracks, which can be heard for the first time below. Ahead of their reveal, we spoke with Derek Duke and Justin Welgraven, as well as the head of Overwatch esports, Sean Miller, about how the songs were made to evoke the spirit and legacy of the game and inform its future.

The first song is titled “OWCS Anthem,” and will serve as the hero track for the tournament series. It will also be the victory track that plays when a team wins a round, making it one players and fans will want to be hearing a lot.

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The song evokes the bombastic highs and orchestral sweeps that are part of the DNA of Overwatch’s in-game music, with which fans and players are deeply familiar. For Sean Miller, the song immediately struck a chord, emotionally.

“When I first heard this song for Overwatch Champion Series, it felt like the perfect combination of this competitive, aspirational, magnetic field that we’ve been really trying to shape OWCS to be, combined with that optimistic, futuristic kind of feel that the game has come to represent,” he says.

The anthem is intended not just to align with the heroic tone of the game, but with the highs and lows of the esports journey. For Derek Duke, it’s important for the main theme to drive home a specific feeling of pride. “It’s about the function, making sure that this is that victory moment, that ultimate punctuation mark,” Duke says. “‘The Anthem’ is the ultimate celebration and victory moment, as a perfect use.”

Conversely, the second track, titled “OWCS Overtime,” serves a different purpose. While the “OWCS Anthem” evokes the highs of something like an NFL broadcast intro where no one is speaking, “Overtime” delivers a powerful, more synthetic baseline that can keep listeners hooked even when game or commentary is layered on top.

Welgraven calls “Overtime” a “more modern” track, with more drum and bass, but both songs have their own place. “Part of it is dynamics,” Welgraven says. “‘Overtime’ goes up and down a bit more, whereas the ‘Anthem’ has this baseline of power [in] the track that’s just higher. It just keeps pushing forward. It just wants to capture your attention all the time.”

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“For both tracks, it’s about capturing that victorious, anthemic feeling,” he adds.

Delivering the tournament’s official theme songs toward the end of its inaugural season might sound strange, but it’s in some ways fitting for OWCS, which has spent the year finding its footing. The first iteration of Overwatch esports, Overwatch League (OWL), was founded in 2017 and ran for six seasons before shuttering after struggles in a post-pandemic era. OWCS is the successor to OWL, and the first Overwatch competitive circuit to be run independently from the game’s publisher, Blizzard Entertainment.

As a new chapter for the competitive Overwatch community, there’s been an impetus to set OWCS apart and define its identity. Part of that is the theme song; whereas previous Overwatch League tracks may have aspired to feel that NFL or NBA type of hype, the music for OWCS is intended to sound truer to the game.

“It was really important as we developed this song [that] it needed to feel and sound like Overwatch,” Miller says. “Having this sound like a traditional sports league theme song was actually not high on our list. Whereas maybe previous iterations of Overwatch esports, that was more important. For us, the focus is now staying connected and authentic to the game more than anything.”

Although the songs can now be heard online and will soon be incorporated into the series’ broadcasts, there’s another surprise in store for fans. The tracks will be played live — with a full orchestra — for audiences for the very first time during the Overwatch Champions Series 2024 Finals, taking place at DreamHack Stockholm from Nov. 22 to 24. Miller says that everyone who worked on the songs is excited to bring them to fans in person and those watching online as a reward for supporting OWCS through its kickoff.

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Though the future of Overwatch esports is unwritten, it remains an inclusive, competitive game that often brings out the best in its fandom. Miller feels the same about the game itself.

“To me, Overwatch represents, as a game, as a world, and the heroes that are in the game just resonate with my own value and my own outlook on life,” Miller says. “The sense of optimism; it’s accessible, it’s energetic. These are all words that come to mind when I think about Overwatch, [and] it’s what hooked me back in 2017 when I first started playing. A lot of what keeps me playing is just the positivity of it.”