The Overwatch League is revamping its schedule next month as the Vancouver Titans are now officially joining the NA region.

Esports is currently in a state of flux and restructuring, as the MSI for League of Legends has been cancelled and the Summer Split has been postponed until June. The Overwatch League is now bringing its own changes with a new tournament format being introduced for May.

That’s the word from Overwatch League officials:

We’re almost halfway through the 2020 Overwatch League – Season , and today we’re announcing a full schedule for May that will feature all 20 teams, as well as the introduction of new single-elimination regional tournaments.”

How does this all work?
According to a post from Blizzard Entertainment, all teams will have qualifying matches within the first three weeks of May to determine the rosters for the two regional tournaments for North America on May 22-24 and Asia on May 23-24.

Of course, there’s a prize pool for teams to work toward – you need motivation, after all…. Depending on the placement, teams will receive the following:

• Tournament winner: $40,000
• Second place teams: $20.000
• Third and fourth place teams: $5,000
• Each tournament winner per team: $5,000 (in addition to the placement prizes)

Who is competing.
In North America, 13 teams are currently competing: 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 and Washington Justice.

In Asia, seven teams will compete: Chengdu Hunters, Guangzhou Charge, Hangzhou Spark, London Spitfire, New York Excelsior, Shanghai Dragons and Seoul Dynasty.

What do the brackets look like?
Currently, the Overwatch League plans to separate brackets for each regiono:

Here is the Asia Tournament Round:

No Hero Pools
Incredibly, Hero Pools will be waived during the event as Blizzard Entertainment has established common rules for North America and Asia:

Common Tournament Rules:

• Hero Pools will be locked for all tournament play – all heroes will be available.
• Matches will be the first three map wins until the finals, which will consist of the first four map wins.
• Higher seeded teams will choose the first map.
• The losing team of each map will choose the next map in the series.
• In the event of a tie, the team that chose the previous map will choose the next map.
• This change from Blizzard is welcome. The weekly Hero rotations in Overwatch always create a lot of buzz in the pro scene and the general meta.

Since this is a brand new format change, it’s still unclear if this will be a regularly scheduled event, but fans of Overwatch can look forward to more content soon. To keep track of the time shifts in game dates and the tournament, be sure to check out Blizzard Entertainment’s official post. Also, here comes the latest info and updates on Overwatch:

Overwatch

Overwatch is a computer game by Blizzard Entertainment (Diablo 3, World of Warcraft) and a first-person shooter with individual fantasy elements. The game was released in May 2016.

In Overwatch, the player must choose between 21 unique characters, which can be freely selected in a loosely held classification system (offensive and defensive class, support unit and tanks).

A character’s three to four different abilities can be controlled and activated through the mouse and keyboard. The game modes already vary from scoring points to cargo hauling. Team play is required in both modes, as each character takes on a specific role in the battlefield (e.g. heal teammates, provide backup, or secure defensive lines).

The name Overwatch derives itself from a fictional elite military unit that came together when robots tried to subjugate humanity in a near future. Individual characters are associated with this unit in the game, while others oppose it. It is not yet known whether the storyline will continue in multiplayer.

Brawl

Brawl is a game mode in which time-limited rule variations of the well-known modes are drawn. Sometimes completely new game modes are used in Brawls.

Rule variations include, for example, the restriction to certain heroes or classes, changes to the cool-down times or certain cards. New game modes that have been playable so far include a soccer game and a PvE mode.

Usually, Brawls are restarted as Brawl of the Week every Tuesday at 22:00 UTC and are then playable for a week. On certain occasions, such as – Season al events, Brawls may also be playable for a longer or shorter period of time.

The game mode is comparable to the card chaos from Hearthstone and was activated for the first time in the beta phase on March 22, 2016 through a patch.

Actions

• Arcade: More health, shorter skill and ultimate cooldowns, and faster resurrection after death.
• Girl Power: Female heroes only.
• Head’s Up!: McCree, Genji, Hanzo, and Widowmaker. Only head hits count.
• High Noon: High Noon on Route 66, only head hits with McCree count.
• Highly Offensive: Only offensive heroes. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• Junkenstein’s Revenge: Soldier, Hanzo, Ana, Mc Cree only (1 each). The first co-op PVE mode in Overwatch. Part of the – Season al event Halloween Horror.
• Justice rains from Above: Only Mercy and Pharah playable.
• Moba Watch: Only unique heroes per team. No hero switching allowed.
• Mystery Heroes: Upon death, you will be resurrected as a randomly selected Hero.
• Overly Defensive: Only defensive heroes. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• Show Your Support: Support Heroes only. The limit is two of the same Hero per team.
• Super Shimada Bros: Welcome to Hanamura. Only Hanzo and Genji are playable. Shorter skill cooldowns, longer ultimate cooldowns.
• Tanks A Lot: Tank heroes only. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Only McCree, Reaper and Roadhog playable.
• We’re all Soldiers now: Only Soldier: 76 playable on control cards.
• Lucioball: Lucio only: Soccer mode, 3 vs 3.
• Yeti Hunt: Five meis against a yeti that has the characteristics of Winston.

OverwatchPlayers, OverwatchLeague, Heroes&WIKI, OverwatchLeagues, OverwatchPlayer, OverwatchTeam, OverwatchTeams,

OverwatchPlayers, OverwatchLeague, Heroes & WIKI, OverwatchLeagues, OverwatchPlayer, OverwatchTeam, OverwatchTeams,