The sixth season of the Overwatch League will likely be its greatest but, actually. With Overwatch 2 in its first full 12 months and eventually within the palms of gamers worldwide, the League is making sweeping adjustments to accompany this new state of issues.
To start out, the Philadelphia Fusion and the Paris Everlasting aren’t any extra. Paris has “relocated” to Vegas to turn out to be the Vegas Everlasting, and the Philadelphia Fusion have undergone an entire rebrand, relocating to Seoul to turn out to be the Seoul Infernal. The Paris to Vegas pipeline had been within the playing cards (heh) for some time, because the Everlasting’s Name of Responsibility League sister group, the Paris Legion, had rebranded to the Vegas Legion on the finish of the 2022 season.
For the Fusion, whereas the franchise is owned by Comcast Spectacor, many of the day-to-day operations are managed by notable South Korean esports group T1. All of Fusion’s gamers are Korean, and the group had been primarily based out of South Korea ever because the covid-19 pandemic compelled the League to separate into East and West areas. Whereas it’s unhappy that Philly and Paris now not have groups to name their very own, it is sensible that at the very least South Korea — being one among Overwatch’s greatest markets along with China and the US — has a couple of group to characterize it. Europe deserves a couple of group, too, and it undoubtedly shouldn’t have misplaced one among its two for the sake of one other American group.
Nevertheless, the brand new format the League is proposing may be capable of handle a few of this regional imbalance. Kicking off formally on March twenty third, the Overwatch League is opening as much as permit Contenders groups to compete in opposition to Overwatch League groups. (In case you forgot or, extra possible, by no means knew as a result of Blizzard’s been abysmal about its Tier 2 promotion, Contenders is just like the baseball farm system however for Overwatch esports.)
Beginning in February, Contenders groups will play in tournaments to find out who may have the privilege to get their asses kic… pardon — play — in opposition to Overwatch League groups. As soon as once more, the League will likely be divided into East and West areas, with each coming collectively for LAN tournaments in the summertime and on the finish of the season.
Within the West, the League will kick off with an expert / newbie event pitting Contenders groups in opposition to OWL groups. After that event, common play will resume with OWL groups solely. Within the East, the League will likely be expanded to allow Contenders groups to play in opposition to OWL groups all 12 months lengthy. This distinction is probably going as a result of the 4 Chinese language groups (Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Chengdu) can not legally play Overwatch 2, or most different Blizzard video games within the nation, following an finish to an settlement with NetEase to function.
In an e mail to The Verge, Overwatch League head Sean Miller stated of the scenario in China, “The League is working immediately with groups to make sure minimal disruption of their preparation for the season.”
What which means is anyone’s guess, but when my Dragons don’t play, I will likely be very upset.
I’m all the time excited by the Overwatch League, doubly so now that Contenders gamers will get the publicity they’ve wanted for some time now. Hopefully, these season 6 adjustments result in a extra equitable and sustainable League sooner or later.
Overwatch League play begins March twenty third.
