The teams have been chosen, the players signed, and now the Overwatch League is ready to go. The preseason starts on December 6, and yesterday Blizzard revealed all the details about how the season will pan out. Each of the 12 teams will play 40 games between January and June before half of them make it into the month-long post season. The winner, taking home a handy $1 million for the championship game, will be crowned on July 28.
The season is made up of four stages, each five weeks long. During these stages there will be three matches a day, four days a week (Wednesday through Saturday). So, if you want to watch there will always be something to enjoy. Each match in the league will take place across a set of four maps, leaving the door open for draws.
At the end of each stage there will be a playoff based on a team's record during that period (the winner will take $125,000) and then a 10-day break before the next batch of games begin. The overall league standings are based on a team's record across all stages.
Got that? Okay, because now it gets a little complicated. The League is broken into two divisions: Pacific and Atlantic. The Pacific Division is made up of West coast US teams and the two Asian sides, and the Atlantic Division consists of the East coast teams plus London Spitfire. Teams will play 20 games within their division and 20 games cross-division.
The top team in each division goes into the post season and gets a bye week, and they're joined by the four teams with the best record, regardless of division. So you could theoretically get a lopsided postseason.
The total prize pool is $3.5m, and you can see exactly how that breaks down on Blizzard's announcement post. Oh, and all the matches are happening in Los Angeles because teams don't yet have venues in their 'home' cities.
I'm actually genuinely excited for this. I'm not sure I'll watch it religiously, but it's good to know that there will always be a game on if I fancy tuning in. Will you be following one team in particular, or just enjoying the spectacle?
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