Rumored New Rulebook Casts the Overwatch League in a Restrictive Light

The Overwatch League has been pushing forward in full force. The Stage 2 Finals are coming up and the competition has been intense. Though controversy grows when a rumored new rulebook has some weirdly specific requirements.

The rulebook was released by RLewisReports, who initially intended to have legal experts comb through the documents and highlight problem areas. They instead chose to release the book uncommented, providing a PDF of scanned document pages.

The league has a history of being firm in their rules, reprimanding players for using the pepe meme frogs. We previously reported the suspension of xQc for using a Twitch emote in a racially disparaging way. This version, which sources have confirmed to be different from the initial rulebook, contains a few oddly restrictive rules. Here are a few examples:

• The league owns the player's likeness. Meaning content and merchandise can be sold without player royalties.
• Players are not allowed to criticize any Activision Blizzard games. Nor can they question the legitimacy of the Overwatch League.
• Players cannot directly or indirectly endorse the playing or purchase of any non-Activision Blizzard game in any manner.
• Players cant compete in organized competitive play for any game.
• Players cant use a name that references any Activision Blizzard character while playing non-Activision Blizzard games.
• Players can only participate in standard modes, without using any sort of cheats or custom game servers. This includes non-Activision Blizzard games as well.

I can understand why they'd not want their players bashing on the Overwatch League, but many of these rules are rather restrictive. Activision Blizzard encompasses a large number of games. So to not be able to criticise any of them, while also not being allowed to promote any non-Activision Blizzard game, leaves little commentary to provide.
 
We have reached out to Activision Blizzard for a statement.