The Overwatch Premier Series Summer kicks off today, with China's best teams set to face off against one another across two months of play. Competitors will hope to dethrone 1246, the reigning champions of the Spring Series and earn the lion's share of the 990,000 CNY ($145,000~ USD) prize pool.

The tournament starts with a round robin group stage, in which the twelve participants will play each other once in best-of-three matches. The top eight teams from the group stage then advance to the single elimination playoffs phase, with playoffs matches played in a best-of-five format until the grand final which is a best-of-seven.

Prize money is not the only reward for high placements, as the top eight teams will be awarded points that contribute towards their qualification for the Premier Series Grand Final. Eight teams will be invited to the final as per the points they have accumulated in the Spring and Summer Premier Series. 1246 and LGD Gaming are already sitting pretty in this regard, having already amassed 150 and 100 points respectively.

The top eight teams from the Spring Series automatically qualified for the Summer Series, alongside four teams who qualified through the preseason. 1246 are the team to beat as victors of the previous Premier Series title. Fellow grand finalists LGD Gaming will also be well respected, after going undefeated in the group stages of the Spring Series and just falling short in the end. Invictus Gaming Ice have been replaced by Team CC and Black Ananas have been replaced by SKG as per off-season transactions.

The event starts with Lucky Future vs LGD Gaming, pitting the victors of the Summer Nexus Cup against the runners up of Premier Series Spring. Games can be watched live at cc.163.com/owps and you can keep track of the scores at the event page.