After the World Cup final, Blizzcon ended with a presentation dedicated to the Overwatch League. Within it was information on the league structure and schedule, as well as more information accessible through the Overwatch League website.
Overwatch League Commissioner Nate Nanzer revealed that the OWL would be divided into two divisions: Atlantic and Pacific. The Atlantic Division will be made up of the Boston Uprising, Florida Mayhem, Houston Outlaws, London Spitfire, New York Excelsior, and Philadelphia Fusion. The teams in the Pacific Division will be the Dallas Fuel, Los Angeles Gladiators, the Los Angeles Valiant, the San Francisco Shock, Seoul Dynasty, and Shanghai Dragons.
Each team's schedule, which has been released in its entirety on the Overwatch League website, will be influenced by what division they are in. The regular season's schedule will be divided into four stages, played between January 10 and June 16. There will be four match days per week, with each team playing twice a week, and five weeks in each stage. At the end of each stage, the top teams from the past five weeks will play title matches to determine stage winners and fight for $125,000 prize pools, making the total prize pool for the four stages $500,000. Each phase will have a different map pool consisting of eight maps.
The structure and schedule of the league is designed to ease the burden of international play on the players and fans. Between each phase there will be a week-long break in which no matches occur, and as a result, no travel either. The divisions will be kept in mind as the Overwatch League expands and adds more teams, and matches are scheduled with the timezones of the teams' homes kept in mind.
The playoffs will be held throughout the month of July and finish off in a championship venue that has yet to be determined. After the season has ended, there will be an all-star weekend in August.
Looking ahead into the future, there are plans to allow audiences to support their favorite teams in-game, possibly hinting at team skins becoming available to Overwatch's playerbase. Additionally, the Overwatch League is prioritizing future expansion in Europe and Asia for the time being.
The Overwatch League four-day preseason kicks off on Wednesday, December 6 with a match between the Florida Mayhem and Philadelphia Fusion.
Discord