At the end of this week, Jon Spector, the Vice President of the Overwatch League announced a massive format change. The next three weeks of games will have their matches count towards two tournaments at the end of May. This will replace the mid-season tournament and could become something that happens at the end of every month. North America will have 13 teams and Asia will have seven teams. These will be based on where the teams physically are.
North American Teams:
- Atlanta Reign
- Boston Uprising
- Dallas Fuel
- Florida Mayhem
- Houston Outlaws
- Los Angeles Gladiators
- Los Angeles Valiant
- Paris Eternal
- Philadelphia Fusion
- San Francisco Shock
- Toronto Defiant
- Vancouver Titans
- Washington Justice
Asia Teams
- Chengdu Hunters
- Guangzhou Charge
- Hangzhou Spark
- London Spitfire
- New York Excelsior
- Seoul Dynasty
- Shanghai Dragons
At the end of the three weekends, the teams will be seeded based on their records not overall but from their games in May. The higher seeds will choose their opponents in both tournaments. For North America, the 12 and 13 seed will battle it out to see who makes it into the knockout bracket. The teams will knock each other out until one is left standing.
The most important part about this will not be the money that is earned, although there will be a prize pool for where each team finishes, as well as a $5,000 bounty for each win. Also, the teams that win the tournament will earn extra regular seasons wins towards their standings at the end of season playoffs.
The last part of the announcement is that teams will start playing each other across the two regions. All NA teams will finally be able to play each other and the same will happen for the teams based in Asia. This could add quite the dynamic for the Overwatch League as it deals with the Coronavirus that has shut down most of the world.
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