More details about the inaugural season of the Overwatch league have been revealed. As announced earlier, the Overwatch League will take place at Blizzard Arena, Burbank, California.The preseason will start on December 6th and the main season will start on January 10th.

The Overwatch league is the biggest esports league in the world. With around $20 million buy-ins for each of the twelve teams, this league is aiming to take esports mainstream. The twelve owners in the Overwatch League include esports teams as well as backers from traditional sports, venture capitalists and internet giants. All of these investors want to have a stake in the early development of esports.

Twelve teams are announced for Overwatch league with nine from North America, One from China, One from Europe and One from South Korea. The Global esports league is definitely skewed heavily towards the North American region as of Season 1.However this will balance out in the subsequent seasons when the league will look to expand beyond just North America.

Schedule

The teams will play twice a week with the matches taking place on Wednesdays to Saturdays. The matches will be streamed live for the Overwatch fans on Twitch and live streaming websites. The distribution of matches into four days a week ensures a balance between the different stages of the OWL.

The schedule stretches from January 10th till June 16th with matches held every week.

There will be a total of forty matches over the course of six months. All the matches will consist of four match sets similar to what we saw during the Overwatch World Cup Qualifiers. Each stage will have a map pool of eight maps which will be announced beforehand.

Every week the teams will play on the stage for the trophy. The winner of the trophy for one week will have no bearing on the standings of the subsequent weeks. The format will be somewhat similar to that of NASCAR where the teams will compete at every stage individually and then add up to the final points at the end of the season. With the matches being held in a Best of Four formats, we might end up seeing several 2-2 score lines.

Are these Best of Four matches the best format going forward towards the Overwatch league?

People were not particularly enthusiastic with the format when it was tried during the Overwatch World Cup Qualifiers.

The Overwatch league will be divided into two divisions: The Atlantic Division and The Pacific Division. This categorisation is done keeping in mind future expansion of the league in subsequent seasons. For now, the Atlantic Division is made up of East Coast teams and London Spitfire. The Pacific Division is made up of West Coast teams along with the two teams from Asia. This division is for the first season, and it might give us an indication to the division and expansion of teams in Season 2.

There will be four stages for the first season spread out as follows:

Stage 1: January 10th—February 10th

Stage 2: February 21st—March 24th

Stage 3: April 4th—May 5th

Stage 4: May 16th—June 16th

During the regular season, each team will play 20 games within their division and twenty cross-division games. These matches will be broadcast live from Wednesday to Saturday.

Every Saturday we will see the top three teams competing in a playoff with an additional prize pool of $125,000 for performance bonuses. These playoffs or ‘Title Matches’ as they are called will not have a bearing on the final position of a team in leaderboards. Even if a team does not make it to the Championship matches, they can still earn money by winning individual stages. The advantage of such as situation is that we can have a clear winner by the end of a week.

The second and third-ranked team in the stage will compete against each other. The winner of that match will then play against the top-ranked team to potentially win the purse of $125,000.

Post Season

After the Group stage, six teams will move onto the playoffs. The Playoffs contenders will be decided from the top six teams after the group stage. The top six teams are determined by the addition of all points accumulated over the course of the group stage. This does not include the Title matches held on Saturdays which have a prize pool of $125,000.

Playoffs will begin on July 11th and continue until July 22nd, when we will have our final two teams. The grand final will take place on July 26th–28th, awarding the trophy and a USD $1 million bonus to the champion team. The venue(s) for the inaugural-season playoffs and grand final will be announced in the months to come.

You will be able to book your tickets for Overwatch League starting Nov. 6th and merchandise will be available starting December 6th (Pre Season). All the four stages will take place at Los Angeles at the Blizzard Arena. The Final Playoffs (July 2018) will take place in an arena much bigger than Blizzard Arena.

Overwatch League Teams

Boston Uprising

Owner: Patriots

Roster:

Lucas “ NotE ” Meisner

Yeong-jin “ Gamsu ” Noh

Jonathan “ DreamKazper ” Sanchez

Stanislav “ Mistakes ” Danilov

Kristian “ Kellex ” Keller

Connor “ Avast ” Prince

Se-hyeon “ Neko ” Park

Mikias “ Snow ” Yohannes

Nam-Joo “ Striker ” Kwon

Woo-yeol “ Kalios ” Shin

New York Excelsior

Owner: New York Mets

Roster:

Joong-hwa “ Janus ” Song – #1

Dong-gyu “ Mano ” Kim – #7

Tae-hong “ Mek0 ” Kim – #11

Jong-yeol “ Saebyeolbe ” Park – #9

Do-hyun “ Pine ” Kim – #21

Yeon-joon “ ArK ” Hong – #2

Sung-hyeon “ JJoNak ” Bang – #44

Hye-sung “ Libero ” Kim – #10

Fl0w3r is too young to play in Season 1. He will be playing for New York Excelsior for Season 2.

London Spitfire

Owner: Cloud9

Roster :

Chan-hyung “ Fissure ” Baek

Jae-hee “ Gesture ” Hong

Ji-hyuk “ birdring ” Kim

Dong-jun “ Rascal ” Kim

Joon-yeong “ Profit ” Park

Dong-eun “ Hooreg ” Lee

Jong-seok “ NUS ” Kim

Choi-tae “ Bdosin ” Seung

Hyeon-woo “ HaGoPeun ” Jo

Won-sik “ Closer ” Jung

Seung-hyun “ WOOHYAL ” Sung

Jun-ho “ Fury ” Kim

Los Angeles Valiant

Owner: Immortals

Roster :

Pan-seung “ Fate ” Koo

Seb “ numlocked ” Barton

Christopher “ GrimReality ” Schaefer

Brady “ Agilities ” Girard

Ted “ silkthread ” Wang

Terence “ SoOn ” Tarlier

Stefano “ Verbo ” Disalvo

Young-seo “ KariV ” Park

Benjamin “ uNKOE ” Chevasson

Kang-jae “ envy ” Lee

Indy “ SPACE ” Halpern

Los Angeles Gladiators

Owner: Phoenix1

Roster:

Aaron “ Bischu ” Kim

Luis “ iReMiix ” Galarza Figueroa

Lane “ Surefour ” Roberts

João Pedro “ Hydration ” Goes Telles

Joon-seong “ Asher ” Choi

Benjamin “ BigGoose ” Isohanni

Jonas “ Shaz ” Suovaara

Florida Mayhem

Owner: Misfits

Roster:

Johan “ CWoosH ” Klingestedt

Kevyn “ TviQ ” Lindström

Andreas “ Logix ” Berghmans

Sebastian “ Zebbosai ” Olsson

Aleksi “ Zuppeh ” Kuntsi

Tim “ Manneten ” Bylund

San Francisco Shock

Owner: NRG

Roster:

David “ Nomy ” Ramirez

André “ iddqd ” Dahlström

Nikola “ sleepy ” Andrews

Daniel “ dhaK ” Martínez

Andrej “ babybay ” Francisty

Dante “ Danteh ” Cruz

Jay “ sinatraa ” Won

Matthew “ super ” DeLisi

Andreas “ Nevix ” Karlsson

Dallas Fuels

Owner: EnVyUs

Roster:

Christian “ cocco ” Jonsson

Félix “ xQc ” Lengyel

Pongphop “ Mickie ” Rattanasangchod

Hyeon “ EFFECT ” Hwang

Sebastian “ chipshajen ” Widlund

Scott “ Custa ” Kennedy

Brandon “ Seagull ” Larned

Jonathan “ HarryHook ” Tejedor Rua

Timo “ Taimou ” Kettunen

Houston Outlaws

Owner: Optic Gaming

Roster:

Austin “ Muma ” Wilmot

Matt “ Coolmatt ” Iorio – #69

Matt “ Clockwork ” Dias

Jake “ JAKE ” Lyon

Daniel “ Boink ” Pence

Christopher “ Bani ” Benell

Shane “ Rawkus ” Flaherty

Lucas “ Mendokusaii ” Håkansson

Jiri “ LiNkzr ” Masalin

Alexandre “ SPREE ” Vanhomwegen

Philadelphia Fusion

Owner: Comcast Spectator

Roster:

Joona “ fragi ” Laine

Jae-hyeok “ Carpe ” Lee

George “ ShaDowBurn ” Gushcha

Josh “ Eqo ” Corona

Simon “ snillo ” Ekström

Isaac “ Boombox ” Charles

Jeong-hwan “ Dayfly ” Park

Giuseppe “ Joemeister ” Gaetano Gramano

Hong-jun “ HOTBA ” Choi

Alberto “ neptuNo ” González Molinillo

Gael “ Poko ” Gouzerch

Shanghai Dragons

Owner: NetEase Franchise

Roster:

Wu “ MG ” Dongjian

Jing “ Roshan ” Wenhao

Fang “ Undead ” Chao

Lu “ Diya ” Weida

Chen “ Fiveking ” Zhaoyu

Xu “ Freefeel ” Peixuan

Cheng “ Altering ” Yage

Liu “ Xushu ” Junjie

Seoul Dynasty

Owner: KSV esports Franchise

Roster:

Jin-hyuk “ Miro ” Gong

Dae-kuk “ KuKi ” Kim

Joon-hyuk “ Bunny ” Chae

Sang-beom “ Munchkin ” Byeon

Byung-sun “ Fleta ” Kim

Seok-woo “ Wekeed ” Choi

Je-hong “ ryujehong ” Ryu

Jin-mo “ tobi ” Yang

Joon-hyuk “ zunba ” Kim

Gi-do “ Gido ” Moon

Jae-mo “ xepheR ” Koo

That’s all the information we have about Season 1 of Overwatch League. The Preseason to the Overwatch League starts on December 1st, 2017

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