Overwatch League 2019 Season Off to a Good Start

The 2019 Season of the Overwatch League has officially started with twenty teams coming from all over the world battling for domination in Overwatch. At stake is the league championship and a large share of the $5 million prize pool.

In a press release, Overwatch League commissioner Nat Nazer said that the league has added eight new teams and almost 100 new players. Meanwhile, Activision Blizzard Esports Leagues CEO and President Pete Vlastelica shared that while the league raised the bar last year, it intends to do so again this year by focusing on fan affinity. "[We will be] making it even easier for the Overwatch League community to watch how they want and where they want,” Vlastelica said in the statement.

The 2019 Season will consist of three Stage Playoffs with eight teams qualifying. Each stage comes with a prize pool of $200,000 for the winner, $100,000 for the runner-up, and $50,000 each for the third and fourth place teams. There will also be Season Playoffs with the final eight vying for the league championship under a double-elimination format. The prize pool includes $1.1 million for the league champion, $600,000 for the runner-up, and $450,000 for third place.

The first series of matches were held last week with the first game seeing the Philadelphia Fusion going up against the London Spitfire. This is a rematch of the 2018 Grand Finals.

After four days of competition, the result was a three-way tie between Philadelphia Fusion, Hangzhou Spark, and New York Excelsior, with two wins and zero losses. The next set of competitions for Stage 1 is on February 22. You can view the schedule here and the results by stage here.

Fans can watch the matches of the Overwatch League on a number of broadcast platforms. Matches are available on overwatchleague.com and the Overwatch League app, among others. Fans can also watch through Twitch and get the All Access Pass.

Aside from the regular matches, there will be an All-Stars event which is scheduled to occur between the 2nd and the 3rd Stages. This is different from last year when the All-Star event was after the season.