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Overwatch
Last year was the end of one of the most ambitious esports, tournaments, the Overwatch League. However, Blizzard is not done with the overwatch competitive scene just yet and have announced The Overwatch Champions Series.
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The OWCS comes as a partnership between Blizzard and the ESL FACEIT Group, one of the largest gaming communities. It will feature three regions. These include North America, EMEA, and Asia.
More players will get to prove themselves
What’s more exciting about the OWSC is that the latest circuit will not be tied down by the franchised teams. This means that all teams are free to compete and prove themselves in front of a crowd.
As per Blizzard’s official statement, “The OWCS model focuses on providing more opportunities for players to become pros, and the introduction of new community platforms to facilitate Overwatch esports operations”.
The new circuit plans on having “always-on” events that will further help teams to grow. With this, new players and teams will receive more support from the community. The tournaments will be less exclusive, giving everyone a chance to climb the leaderboards.
New Format
The OWCS will start next month in February for the Asian region with open qualifiers. NA and EMEA will see their open qualifiers from March onwards. There will be two qualifiers for NA and the EMEA region.
Following each qualifier, players will also have to compete in man events to qualify for the first major. Asian region will only see one open qualifier along with one main event, however, there will be playoffs and wildcards.
With the first major concluded, NA and EMEA will move on to stage three open qualifiers in August. This will be followed by the main event in the same month. September will see stage four qualifiers and the following month's main event.
Asian region will follow the same format as earlier with one stage two qualifiers followed by playoffs and a second main event. Teams making their way from all main events will then compete in the grand finals in November.