The Overwatch League is coming to D.C., with the Washington Justice hosting their second OWL homestand this Saturday and Sunday.

The event will feature three top-10 teams with matches on Sunday in the No. 3 Philadelphia Fusion, No. 5 New York Excelsior and No. 6 Atlanta Reign, and the action at The Anthem will give teams like Washington, Florida, Paris and Toronto a chance to break away from their bottom-half counterparts. Though it's unlikely, the Houston Outlaws and Boston Uprising have a shot at their first significant results of the year too.

Here's a look at the Washington homestand schedule and some questions we want answered during the first week of hero bans in the Overwatch League.

What do you expect will be the strongest composition in the first week of hero pools?

Rand: All I want is more Hackfist.

Jokes aside, I'd like to see the possible return of Winston as a harbinger for more dive compositions. There are so many main tanks in this league who are excellent Winston players and haven't been able to show off their initiation and teamfight targeting skills on that specific hero.

WInston plays much differently than Reinhardt, who has been the league's default main tank for a little over a year now, give or take. The combination of the Reinhardt ban along with two hitscan bans in Widowmaker and McCree mean that we could see a wide variety of DPS and tank lines this upcoming weekend. I expect to see at least a few attempts at dive, along with some potential Pharah compositions and, of course, more Hackfist (Doomfist-Sombra).

Erzberger: While the unbenchable Mei escaped the hero pool dungeon this week, I'm hoping to see less of the ice maker without Reinhardt available to play next to her. With the two best hitscan heroes thrown out of rotation for this weekend's matches, I'm looking for some Pharah and Doomfist to be the keys to victory for a lot of the teams. Also, it'll be nice to see Winston back as a staple in compositions, hopefully along with the Hackfist one-two punch of Doomfist and Sombra.

More: South Korean OWL homestands postponed | Overwatch League coaches rank every team | Winners and losers of the first hero pool bans

My big question, though, is if we'll ever see Ashe? Even Symmetra has had some time in the sun since Ashe was introduced into the game, and with Widowmaker and McCree being out, this feels like it should be her (and B.O.B's) time to shine. Instead, it seems like, for the umpteeth week in a row since she was released, Ashe will be a non-factor.

Ocal: Let me veer away a little bit and give a little bit of an adjacent answer: The way that the banned heroes was selected caught me off-guard. Not the fact that it was done in a fun way on Watchpoint -- that was cool. It's the fact that any hero used in over 10% of matches qualifies for a strike in the next week and that the heroes are selected at random. That allows the most-used heroes to remain in, like we saw this week. Moira gets banned and barely made the cut this week.

Would this system be better if the most-used heroes were banned? Or what if the system was weighted so that the top percentage heroes have a higher chance of being picked, sort of like how they pick draft order in the NBA draft?

Side note: Thumbs-down to hero pools being different in ranked play vs. Overwatch League.

Which team will benefit the most from hero pools?

Park "KariV" Young-seo and the Toronto Defiant have a big opportunity at the Overwatch League's second Washington homestand. Photo by Ben Pursell/Provided by Blizzard Entertainment

Rand: Of the teams we'll see this weekend, I think the Toronto Defiant and the NYXL have the potential to look a bit stronger. The Defiant have had some of the most variety in the league when it's come to their DPS hero combinations, so it will come down to how well that DPS line can coordinate with Adam "Beast" Denton who, by the way, is also known for his Winston. They could certainly use this as a springboard after a disappointing showing in Houston last week. I'm also a big fan of Kim "Mano" Dong-gyu's Winston, and think that he can almost single-handedly carry games on it.

Erzberger: It has to be Toronto. The Defiant have been one of the more disappointing stories in 2020, and this is the weekend they need to turn it all around. This lineup's strength coming into this season was their depth in the DPS lineup and how flexible their damage-dealers were, so they need to take advantage of hero pools and prove it on the main stage. On top of all that, Beast will get his hands on Winston, which he piloted to perfection during his historic Contenders run with Fusion Academy, so I'm hoping for good things from the Defiant this weekend.

Toronto, it's now or never.

Ocal: LET'S GO, TORONTO!

If you haven't noticed, I take the opportunity during this column every week to promote my beautiful hometown city of "Tronna." By the way, folks: You don't pronounce the second T. It's not pronounced ToronTo, it's Toronno. Thank you for attending my TED Talk.

Anyway, Toronto has the Sombra-Doomfist vibes, and that will continue to their advantage this weekend. Let's get some wins, boys. I'll start planning the parade.

Meanwhile, what about Paris? How will Benjamin "BenBest" Dieulafait do without Reinhardt? I'm intrigued by the players that don't have their main heroes available. Will be interesting to see.

Atlanta Reign: contenders or pretenders?

The Atlanta Reign are No. 6 in our Overwatch League power rankings, but can they really match up with teams like the San Francisco Shock and Vancouver Titans? Photo by Ben Pursell/Provided by Blizzard Entertainment

Rand: Both? Neither? Although I picked the Reign to win their matches against Toronto and Paris, I also thought they would be fairly close.

Come game time, the Reign looked significantly better than Toronto but lost to Paris. If anything, I think people are underrating this Paris team a bit. Choi "Hanbin" Han-bin has slotted right into the team where they needed him since he turned of age, and support player Brice "FDGod" Monsçavoir has been phenomenal on Lúcio. Basically, I don't think there's any shame in losing to Paris because they're looking very strong right now. I still fully expect the Reign to beat Boston this weekend.

Erzberger: Define the word "contender." If it means the Reign should be favorites to win a championship along with the San Franciscos and Vancouvers of the world, then I'm leaning toward no. But if being a contender means that Atlanta is in that top-five-ish range and is in the position the Los Angeles Gladiators have occupied in their first two seasons, a team dangerous enough for the top teams to respect, then yes.

You're scared to play a full-strength Shock team or an in-form New York Excelsior. Right now, I think teams and pundits respect the Reign, but they've done nothing to make anyone fear them.

Ocal: Contenders. They might need the game of their lives against the Shock, but that's the definition of a contender. They can contend. They can fight and put up serious competition. A contender isn't EXPECTED to win. So, by that definition, the answer is yes. I have full faith in Andrej "babybay" Francisty, Dusttin "Dogman" Bowerman and the rest of the roster to punch hard and go on a run this season.

This is the first time a team will host a second homestand this season. Will Justice fans still turn out?

Washington Justice fans showed up in force for the team's first Overwatch League homestand, but how the crowd will look the second time around is anyone's guess. Tasos Katopodis/Blizzard Entertainment

Rand: On the one hand, you have a pretty decent amount of momentum from what was a successful homestand a few weeks ago (results for the Washington Justice aside). On the other hand, you just had a homestand, and there hasn't been a lot of time between the two for people to start missing seeing their team live. I think we'll see fewer people in the audience, but the fans themselves will be equally passionate as they were in Week 3.

Erzberger: This is a big weekend for Overwatch League. They'll be going up against League of Legends and Call of Duty League both in Los Angeles, and we've already seen the viewership numbers plummet from debut weekend to this past weekend in Houston. I believe some of that is due to a lot of the more popular teams, like Dallas, San Francisco and Seoul, not really playing because of the coronavirus outbreak, but not all of the dip in online viewership can be blamed on the lack of top teams playing.

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This is also the second homestand for a team that isn't on top of the league and has struggled in 2020. While nothing will change this season, I could see Blizzard learning from its sister league's tournament-style homestand model and applying it to Overwatch League in 2021. In the Call of Duty League, every homestand feels like its own mini-championship with storylines unfolding all weekend long. That's something Overwatch League is sorely lacking at the moment.

Ocal: This is my biggest question going into this weekend. I'll be on the ground covering this homestand, and I will be watching the vibe and the crowd. Will it exceed the last homestand only a couple weeks ago? What will the mood be like? This is an important homestand not just for Washington but for all of OWL.

If this bombs, it could certainly impact scheduling. Maybe small turnout will lead to more of a WWE approach where you don't visit a market for a certain amount of time to let a sense make the heart grow fonder. But if it succeeds, and the excitement level is there, then maybe that's an indicator that weekly home/away games could actually become a thing. Which way am I leaning? I reserve judgment until I'm on the ground. I'll be asking for attendance figures across both weekends. I feel this will for sure be a weekend pointed to by both fans of the league and critics going forward.

How much have the postponed Chinese and South Korean homestands affected the league?

Rand: I miss the Chengdu Hunters so much.

Putting that instant reaction aside, it's had a massive impact for me. I'm not sure how to place these teams or even consider the Pacific teams that haven't played yet within the scope of the league. When they return, what does that look like? How fair is it that they haven't been able to play on some of these hero pool weeks, especially when it looks like this upcoming first pool would favor some of these teams specifically? I obviously don't have the answers to this, but it's always in the back of my mind when I look at overall statistics for the league.

Erzberger: It's affected the league in ways that we can't see. Since the start of the year, I've been pounding the drum that Overwatch League and its homestand model needed to work (and work big) in China for the league to have a bright future. I still believe that. In a world where the Shanghai Dragons and Chengdu Hunters become synonymous with their cities and the legion of League of Legends and Crossfire fans take notice, then Activision-Blizzard have something special on their hands.

Honestly, the homestands that they needed the most to take place and do well are the ones that have been canceled. And beyond that, Riot Games has Valorant, their own first-person shooter with a vibrant cast of characters, releasing in the summer of this year. You know Riot is going to do a full-court press with marketing in China, and for Overwatch, this should have been their year where they found a presence in the most marketable esports country on the planet.

The possibility of growing a bigger Chinese fanbase is there for Activision-Blizzard, but the coronavirus is stagnating any plans they had this year of doing so.

Picks

Saturday

Defiant vs. Mayhem

Arda : 3-0 Defiant

Emily : 3-2 Defiant

Tyler: 3-2 Defiant

Eternal vs. Outlaws

Arda : 3-0 Eternal

Emily : 3-1 Eternal

Tyler: 3-1 Eternal

Uprising vs. Justice

Arda : 3-1 Justice

Emily : 3-2 Justice

Tyler: 3-0 Justice

Sunday

Eternal vs. Fusion

Arda : 3-0 Fusion

Emily : 3-2 Fusion

Tyler: 3-0 Fusion

NYXL vs. Justice

Arda : 3-0 NYXL

Emily : 3-2 NYXL

Tyler: 3-1 NYXL

Uprising vs. Reign