Interview: Reinforce on forging tomorrow’s Overwatch 2 esports champions

Jonathan "Reinforce" Snowden, a Swedish broadcast talent and former professional Overwatch player, returned to the 2025 Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS) World Finals at DreamHack Stockholm as part of the broadcast team. He sat down with esports.gg to talk about his journey from player to caster and how the OWCS 2025 circuit, along with the 2026 Overwatch World Cup, shapes the next generation of esports stars.

In his interview with esports.gg, Reinforce revealed that he's always been a big fan of esports. In fact, he used to help a Swedish website with event production and tried to volunteer in the industry as a teen. However, it was the year 2016 when his dream of being fully involved in esports really started to become a reality.

"And then Overwatch was released in 2016 and I was like, 'This is my last chance to become a pro gamer,'" Reinforce said. 'Like, 'I gotta do everything I can.' Because that was the one thing that escaped me. I was like, 'I can never become a pro player, but I [can] give it one last go with Overwatch. And so I played really hard. I managed to find teammates. We were able to push each other and become quite successful in 2016. We even won a couple of tournaments."

Also around that time, some of the folks organizing broadcasts at Blizzard Entertainment noticed his potential as an on-camera talent due to his personality. This led to his first opportunity to transition from player to broadcast talent.

"And so for the 2016 World Cup, because I was not selected for Team Sweden, they reached out and were like, 'Hey, well, you're not going to play this event, so would you be interested in doing some on-camera work?'" Reinforce recalled. "And that was my first opportunity to work as a broadcast analyst for Overwatch esports. And since then, I recognized I was pretty good at and it was something I enjoyed doing. And so it just so happened that. The offers kept coming in."

Then, when the Overwatch League (OWL) kicked off in 2018, it became his go-to role. "It's something I can comfortably work with every single year, and I feel very lucky to do so."

In terms of a career highlight, Reinforce said he had many to choose from but ultimately pointed to the 2025 OWCS World Finals. He said that the event showcased the strength of the Overwatch 2 esports ecosystem since it allowed previously unknown players to compete without needing franchise invitations. Swedish players like William "Willys07" Ersson and Leo-Kristian "Zorrow" Sundin from Team Peps, for example, also rose from relative obscurity to qualify for the World Finals through consistent improvement.

"There's been a lot of great examples of players who weren't necessarily known before, but just climbed the ranks and manifested their own careers," he said. "A couple of players from Team Peps who competed here at the World Finals, Willys and Zorrow -- they are two young Swedish players, and they were mostly unknown going into this year of 2025. They've grown month after month and improved their play. And they ended up qualifying for the World Finals. So I think that just speaks to how good the ecosystem is for promoting new players to gain entry and get access to esports as a whole. I think that's an amazing thing to see."

Reinforce also pointed out the historic achievement of EMEA teams Twisted Minds and Al Qadsiah reaching the grand final. "It's two EMEA teams, which has never happened before in Overwatch esports," he said. "It's always been Korea number one. They've been the best region with the best players, but this is the first event where EMEA has been competitive with those guys and are now the two best teams in the world."

When we asked about rising stars, Reinforce mentioned xomba from Sakura Esports in North America. Despite being on a lesser-known team, according to Reinforce, xomba has shown impressive performances against some of the best players in the region. Reinforce also mentioned Xavier "zeruhh" Zambrano from Team Liquid as another talent to watch.

In terms of the future, Reinforce told esports.gg that he's setting his sights on Overwatch World Cup 2026. This circuit will feature 30 Overwatch 2 teams, including 19 invited squads and 11 wildcard teams. The final esports matches will then happen at BlizzCon 2026.

"I'm really excited about the Overwatch World Cup next year because I think it's one of the best programs we have in Overwatch esports," Reinforce said. "The Overwatch World Cup has a special place for a lot of [people's hearts] just because of it bringing everyone together. People being able to represent their countries in a World Cup format is just an amazing thing. It's part of what made Overwatch esports successful in the first place back in 2016, and we've had a few events since then. But with Overwatch esports committing to a year-long approach for the Overwatch World Cup, I think there [are] a ton of reasons to be really excited about the return of [it]. As a Swedish former player and fan, it's something I very much look forward to -- seeing how the young generation in Sweden can perform at the top level."

That's all for now. Stick around on esports.gg for more Overwatch 2 news, interviews, and updates.