After the untimely demise of the Overwatch League Esports scene, fans have eagerly anticipated the next installation of a competitive Overwatch circuit. And with great fanfare, Overwatch has now announced the ‘Future’ of the game’s Esports with the brand new Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS)!
Today, we’ll break down everything there is to know about the newly installed Overwatch Champions Series, how it’ll work, where players can participate, supported regions, and more!
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The Overwatch Champions Series
One of the major revamps to the competitive Overwatch circuit is being a more ‘open’ system. This encompasses the entire philosophy of the Champions series, where any eligible player can participate and grow with the system, whether amateur or pro player.
This also includes updates to the system which will now be ‘always-on’, meaning there will be consistent and frequent competitions throughout the year so fans and players will always have something to check out in the competitive scene.
Additionally, the OWCS is an international circuit and will be segmented across three major regions including North America (NA), Asia, and Europe/Middle East/North Africa (EMEA).
Each region will host their own Open Qualifier stages where teams will compete to earn a spot at the Main Event. For the 2024 season, there will be two live in-person international competitions to crown the best of the best Overwatch teams across all regions.
North America & EMEA Tournament Format
Both the NA and EMEA regions will follow the same tournament formats featuring four competitive stages in addition to the two international OWCS competitions. Each stage has an Open Qualifier and Main Event where players compete online.
Here, players can earn circuit points which tally and determine the teams that will qualify for the two international events.
Achieving the top spot in each stage will earn circuit points, and teams that earn more points will place higher in the leaderboards that determine the seeds for each event. Each OWCS stage comprises three phases: Swiss, Groups, and the Main Event.
The Swiss phase can host up to 512 teams who will battle it out to determine the top 16 teams placed into the Groups stage. The 16 teams will be divided into groups of four to compete in elimination rounds to determine the top 2 teams from each group that will advance to the Main Event, an 8-team Double Elimination tournament.
Overwatch has also partnered with FACEIT, where all stages of the OWCS competition will run through its platform for the NA and EMEA regions.
Asia Tournament Format
OWCS Asia will follow a slightly different format from the NA and EMEA regions and are divided by region. Each region will compete in region-specific qualifiers and tournaments to then qualify for OWCS.
The three subdivisions for the Asian leg of OWCS include South Korea, Japan, and the Pacific.
There are two competitive stages for the Asia region that run throughout the year. Teams that advance through the Open Qualifiers held online will then participate in a 9-team Round-Robin or 8-team Double-elimination stage.
There will also be an additional 3-team Round Robin for 4th place in the Korea Open, 3rd place in the Japan Open, and 3rd place in the Pacific Open.
In total, there will be 8 teams that advance through the Regional Championships and will compete at the OWCS Asia Championship at an in-person event hosted at WDG Esports Studio in South Korea.
The top 2 teams at the Asia Championship will then move on to compete at the OWCS International event against the other teams from the NA and EMEA regions.
The International Main Stage
Overwatch has also partnered with DreamHack who will manage and host the two live international tournaments after the regional qualifying stages. The first event, OWCS Major, will proceed in the middle of the season in the summer, with Season Finals happening in the fall.
OWCS Major is scheduled to happen at DreamHack Dallas on May 31st – June 2nd.
The Seasons Finals will take place in Europe, a first for major live Overwatch Esports events sometime in November at DreamHack Stockholm where the first-ever OWCS champs will write their name in history as the best in the world.
Overwatch Champions Series Schedule
For the NA and EMEA regions, the first OWCS Qualifiers will start in March and for the Asia region, Qualifiers will begin starting in February. Stay tuned to Overwatch Esports’ official channels for details and dates that should be up pretty soon.
And with that, the competitive Overwatch ESports scene is going to ramp up pretty soon, giving hardcore fans and players something to look forward to for 2024 and beyond.
It’s a welcome change, making the Esports side of the game more open even for skilled amateurs to take part. Only time will tell how the new competitive system will shake things up in the brutal world of competitive Overwatch!
