by JR Cook - 6 years ago     show comments

2017 was a year to set up the base for Overwatch league.  They built on the idea that Overwatch League would be worldwide.

They introduced the open Division to give amateur players a feel of the organized Esports. Congrats to the first European champions LFT OWL.

We say the champions of multiple regional Overwatch events.

South Korea was announced as the 2017 Overwatch world cup champions.

All these tournaments, events and your passion has lead to the inaugural Overwatch League season. 12 ownership groups were made. With a city based system it was important we have branding to represent these cities.

These city teams were broken into 2 divisions Pacific and Atlantic. This allows them to schedule matches that suit the homes of these teams. There will be no region locks. This allows players around the world to play on teams any where. In total we have 113 players world wide for this first season.

During the season each team will play 2 per week. The matches will occur on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Each day there will be 3 matches. The start times will be mixed up each day to reach as many people worldwide as possible. This is how week 1 will look.

Thea teams will be playing for playoff spots through out the regular season. The spots will be determined by the team win/loss ratios. Seasonal play will be broken into 4 different stages. Each one will be 5 weeks long. They will end in a title match for that stage. They are doing that for the game, for the players and for the fans. Each stage will have a pool of 8 maps. We want to set up the schedule to allow for breaks and rest for international travel. Each stage will reset their win/losses. This gives them incentive to continue and work hard even if they had a bad stage.

Playoffs will begin in July 11th.

Overwatch league will use the improved spectator camera system. They showed this video which goes over the tools available to the casters.

They highlighted some of these features.

First up team uniforms. There is both Home and away versions. The color scheme will be throught out the game including team fx, and ui colors. They are working hard to provide a way in the future for you to show your support in game.

They also have the new 3rd person camera. It is designed to give an over the shoulder view of the action.

And they will also have a top down view made available.

Instant replay has been added. If you missed a big play. The action can be paused and the action can be viewed from multiple new angles.

These tools will make for exciting and dynamic viewing experiences for the fans.

Not everyone however will be able to travel to see their favorite teams play in person. This was a problem that we have addressed with the overwatchleague.com site. This will be the home of everything Overwatch League. You will be able to see rosters, schedules, stories, and videos. Once regular season starts you will be able to explore all statistics. If you log in with your battle id, you can see how you stack up to the pros.

There will also be a mobile app. It will be a full fleshed out companion app. It will include a team favoring feature.

You will be able to watch entire Overwatch League matches on both the website and mobile app. There will also be other platforms announced later to view the matches.

There will be an online shop where you can buy branded merchandise to show your support of your favorite team.

All these items will be available December 6th, with more items to be added as the season progresses.

All of this is just the beginning. We are only just starting the Overwatch League. We can’t wait to see you starting week.