South American and Australian Contenders schedules cause turmoil among teams

In an open letter to Blizzard, the South American Overwatch community made it clear that without changes to the schedule, the upcoming season of Overwatch Contenders 2018: South America will not happen. In addition, the scheduling for Contenders Australia shares a similar issue. The matches for the tournaments have been scheduled during business hours for these regions, and being that a large amount of players are students or have jobs to support themselves, they will find themselves unable to play their matches.

Let me just remind you all, as if I haven't said it enough: if the schedule remains the same, there will be no matches played because teams cannot play in said schedule, therefore there will be no season one for South America. We NEED this change, because we want to actually play the tournament.

Written by deh of Uprising E-sports and signed by a host of South American Contenders and Contenders Trials teams, the letter goes into detail about the issue facing the teams. Notably, their attempts to contact Blizzard are described, having been met with generic, impersonal responses that imply no understanding of the gravity of the situation. Contenders Australian teams have been similarly snubbed, until recently. Since the letter, and a popular reddit thread, Overwatch social media manager Griffin Bennett has indicated that he's passed the concerns up the ladder.

Alternate time blocks are available for both communities in hours when other region's matches aren't being broadcast, and they have accpeted that it may not be possible to have the matches be streamed. However, simply being able to play the matches seems to be the goal at this point. With less than 3 weeks before the Contenders Seasons begin, the clock is ticking for Blizzard to take action on this make-or-break issue.

Barring changes to the schedule, Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 1: South America will kick off Tuesday, March 13 at 4:00 PM UTC, and Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 1: Australia will begin Monday, March 12 at 3:00 AM UTC.