Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Rising from the ashes of the Overwatch League, the Overwatch Champions Series will kick off later this year.
Blizzard Entertainment has officially announced the first Overwatch 2 esports league to rise from the ashes of the now-defunct Overwatch League: the Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS). The new Overwatch esports program will follow a more traditional competitive format than the city-based Overwatch League, with participation open to players across North America, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia.
The 2024 season will feature multiple stages of competition, culminating in two live in-person international ‘events’ that bring all the regions together.
More details on the Overwatch Champions Series
After the Overwatch League shut down, Blizzard promised more news on the next era of Overwatch esports, and now we know what that looks like. Korean esports organiser WDG will organise OWCS competitions in Asia, with each region operating under its own set of open qualifiers and tournaments. In other regions, Blizzard is partnering with the ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) to help professional and amateur players locate and enter tournaments for the game, and generally streamline the esports program for everyone. EFG has done this sort of thing for many esports titles in the past, such as League of Legends and Counter-Strike 2.
The OWCS will culminate in two more in-person events this year, and they’re happening sooner than you might expect. The first is the Dreamhack Dallas Major running from May 31 to June 2, and the last is the World Finals at Dreamhack Stockholm from November 22 to 24. Instead of going with the Overwatch League’s city-based teams like New York Excelsior and Philadelphia Fusion (all of whom have disbanded by now), the program will go with a traditional open-circuit model. We’ll see tourneys of player-created squads competing in open qualifiers to claw their way into the main in-person events. North America and EMEA will have four competitive stages in 2024 and two international competitions.
Each of these stages will have an online open qualifier and main event, and players stand a chance to earn circuit points from them to get international event qualification. The OWCS kicks off first in NA and EMEA on March 1. Open qualifiers in Asia will start in February. After that, players will compete to make it into the two international in-person events this year. Here’s a calendar of all the OWCS happenings this year:
