Overwatch Contenders expanded live events for 2019 season

The Overwatch Contenders are a definite highlight when it comes to the Overwatch competitive circuit. At the moment though, there is preciously little for fans to do/watch there, as the last match of the most recent season ended a little over a week ago. It was an exciting season, certainly, with plenty of great plays and some surprising (and really not surprising) winners and champions all across the world.

Thankfully though, Blizzard doesn’t just leave fans high and dry – instead, they are introducing three new live events for the coming year in order to keep things interesting for fans and players alike. Said live events are going to take place all over the world and span May until October – plenty of new content!

The three new events are called showdowns – the eight regions are split up into two divisions of four regions each – the top teams of the regions will be invited to the showdown event. The first of them – the Pacific Showdown is going to take place from May 24-26th and will be played in China, with 1 team from Australia, 2 from China, 2 from Korea and 1 from Pacific participating in the double-elimination bracket.

In the same format, the Atlantic Showdown will take place between May 31st and June 2nd – where hasn’t been decided yet, but either in Europe or the Americas. Teams will be split up between the three continents – 2 teams from Europe, 1 from South America and 3 from north will be invited.

That’s two of three – the last one in the lot is the Gauntlet – pinnacle of the season, it will take place between October 10th and 13th. The location hasn’t been announced yet, but all regions will send their winning teams from Season 2 there. Additionally, performances in the Pacific and Atlantic Showdowns will determine additional, specific invites.

This particular event will focus on inter-regional competitions – in other words, it’ll be an opportunity for teams that don’t normally get to face off to compete against each other. The Gauntlet is going to run after the conclusion of the 2019 Overwatch League season – in other words, when teams are ready to sign new players for the following season – leaving enough time for the event to shake things up a bit for the following season.