Several Japanese Overwatch esports organizations have announced women's teams, hinting at a possible tournament for women and marginalized gender players coming to Japan.
While Blizzard's Calling All Heroes (CAH) initiative, a tournament series for players of marginalized genders, has found great success in North America, with some participation from European players and teams, no similar tournaments have existed on a large scale in Asia. CAH was launched in December 2022, with the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons each comprising 6 tournaments, a last-chance qualifier, and a championship. The tournament series saw strong viewership and several commerical partners.
VortexWolf, which competes in Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS) Japan, got the CAH ball rolling with its announcement. The team includes several Japanese streamers and is coached by VortexWolf substitute DPS AOKIGAHARA.
DPS Tallemi_Ella, who played in Crazy Raccoon’s massively successful streamer tournament, the CR Cup, has over 47,000 Twitter followers and 116,000 YouTube subscribers. Meanwhile, support Naruru adds another 20,000 from Twitter.
Japanese heavyweight Nyam Gaming, who placed 2nd in OWCS 2024 Japan Stage 2 and currently stand undefeated in OWCS 2025 Japan Stage 1, announced their NG GALS roster. Of note here is Brigitte specialist Usagi, who became one of the first Korean players to play in Calling All Heroes when she joined Hypnos Icelus alongside flex DPS Sil2nce for CAH Minor 3 in 2024. Nyam Gaming also promoted flex support Liz from NG Academy (who competed in OWCS Japan qualifiers) to NG GALS.
REVATI also jumped in the mix, posting that they were recruiting players for a women's team.
REVATI's application form mentions that preference will be given to players who can communicate in other languages, such as Korean. While the teams are Japanese, there will almost certainly be many Korean players and coaches along for the ride as well, like Usagi on Nyam Gaming.
These announcements come after an all-female team, called Vs Pro, competed in OWCS Japan Open Qualifiers. Several major Japanese teams announcing women's rosters in short succession is almost certainly not a coincidence. Could Calling All Heroes, or something like it, be coming to Japan? With wider budget cuts affecting Overwatch esports in Asia, the prospect of a tournament series to empower underrepresented talent in Japan with support from major OWCS Japan teams is exciting.
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