Structure of OW esports

Hello,

I'm trying to make sense of the 4 league formats that Overwatch has and condense their structure into a list of bullet points so that I can follow the scene more easily. Below you can see what I have come up with. Please correct any mistakes, add if something important is missing and if possible provide answers for the questions that I have put into parentheses. Please also tell me if I'm being silly because there is an easier/better way to follow the scene already.

||| Overwatch Open Division |||

[The very first Season started Sat, 08 Jul 2017, 18:00 GMT]

[Regular Season]

• Anyone can participate if in a team and Master Rank or higher (skill rating 3500+)
• Sign up here:
  https://www.faceit.com/en/blizzard
• Teams play Best of 7 maps in each matchup
• Default match date & time: Every Saturday, 19:00 CEST
• Matches may be rescheduled to start between 17:00 - 21:00 CEST on Thursday-Saturday.
• Lasts for 6 Weekends in total

[Playoffs]

• Top 8-16 teams advance to playoffs
• Teams play Best of 5 maps, except for Finals, which is Best of 7
• Playoffs happen on the 7th Weekend of the Season
• Playoffs are played over the course of 2 days (Sat/Sun)
• Prize money is $50.00 Blizzard Balance for 1st Place
• No matches on 8th Weekend
• New Season starts on the 9th Weekend

||| Overwatch Contenders: |||

[The very first regular Season started Sat, August 19 2017]
[There was a test Season "zero" in the months before that]

[Regular Season]

• 8 best Overwatch teams in each region (how is this determined? are these the teams that competed in the Open Division?)
• Matches played every Weekend (Sat/Sun)
• 6 Weekends of matches
• 7th Weekend no matches
• Top 4 teams of each region advance to playoffs

[Playoffs]

• 8th Weekend
• Prize money of $100K per region

||| Overwatch World Cup: |||

• Average skill rating of top 100 players from each nation determines which countries qualify (is this based on the Skill Rating of the Competitive Ladder or/and related to the Open Divison and Contenders results?)
• 32 countries can qualify and then move on to Group Stages
• An elected committee in each nation crafts a roster to represent the nation (Who is this elected committee, who elects them?)

[Group Stages]
[Top 32]

• 8 groups of 4
• Compete at group stage events in various countries
• The top 2 of each group move on to Top 16

[Top 16 Playoffs]

• The top two nations of each group play against eachother
• The winners move on to the Finals

[Top 8 Finals @ BlizzCon]

• No prize money
• Claim title of best players in the world

||| Overwatch Leage: |||

[Preseason]

• Early December
• Played at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles

[Regular Season]

• Played at Blizzard Arena
• Every Wednesday through Saturday
• January till June
• 4 Stages of 5 Weeks with 1 Week Break between each Stage
• Sunday of Week 5 of each Stage is the Title Match for Bonus Prize Money

[Postseason]

• Best teams (how many??) advance to playoffs
• Playoffs happen in mid July
• The Grand Finals happen end of July
• Winner received OWL trophy + $1 Million bonus

[All-Star Weekend]

• Weekend in mid August
• Community's favourite players (how is this determined?)
• Funny game rules, unexpected challenges

[No matches until Preason time in December]

(Can we expect the format of the Open Division, Contenders, League and World Cup to remain like this? Or can we expect a drastic change in structure like the one from Contenders Season Zero to Season One?)

The OWWC (cause Overwatch World Cup gets long after a few times) format is subject to change. The next iteration may be as different from the 2nd as the 2nd was from the first so I wouldn't worry or focus on it. Contenders could see changes since we don't even know how team participation will be determined for Season 2.

I think tournament format should probably be less of a focus since things are relatively new and very subject to change, but the different tournament tiers I can think of would be these:

1. OWL
2. Contenders/APEX/OWPS/OPC
3. Region Specific Open Division

I don't know what Blizzard has in mind when it comes to the support structure for anything below OWL, but i'm hoping they can make it sustainable, at least from the tier 2 level.

I wonder if there will be any presence of 3rd party tournaments in NA/EU that would allow teams from all tiers to mix, although I think it would be tough for OWL teams to participate given I don't know what their contract with the league would allow, and it seems they will already be playing a ton of matches.

KoleeKo [#3]

I wonder if there will be any presence of 3rd party tournaments in NA/EU that would allow teams from all tiers to mix, although I think it would be tough for OWL teams to participate given I don't know what their contract with the league would allow, and it seems they will already be playing a ton of matches.

Each OWL team can run up to 5 tournaments themselves but that would likely only happen during the off season so I don't know what the plan is for 3rd party, sub 10k tourneys that would run during OWL.

I think raising the Prize pool limit to 15k would probably do the scene some good and allow for more flexibility in online tournaments.

I guess we'll find out as thing unfold, but I really would like Blizz to do a better job nurturing the scene outside of OWL.

Best of 17 Kappa

Thanks

I wonder how much the Tespa series could affect this cycle. Sort of like how current leagues have a draft system

I am interested to see what next years off-season holds.

irishfire [#7]

I wonder how much the Tespa series could affect this cycle. Sort of like how current leagues have a draft system

For NA? Probably, it's more supported by Blizzard than the Open Divisions or at least looks like it.

For the rest of world? Not a bit

Im interested in the future of Contenders ;(