The Overwatch League is almost upon us, as Stage 1 starts on Thursday January 11, seeing the first matches take place in what will be a long road to the playoffs. To prepare you for the upcoming season, and the opening we'll be covering in person at the Blizzard Arena Los Angeles, we've got all the information you need to know right here for you.
Schedule
The full schedule for the League can be found here, but the first matches start on January 11 at 12:00 AM GMT (01:00 AM CET the next morning). Pretty late for those of us in the UK, but there are plenty of matches being played, as the opening match will see San Francisco Shock take on Los Angeles Valiant.
Matches are played Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday each week, and as we've reported before, Stage 1 will end on February 10, with Stage 2 starting on February 21. From July 11 to 22 the Playoffs will take place after all four stages are concluded, with the grand finals happening from July 26 to 28.
Teams
The teams in the League are split into Divisions based on location - the Atlantic and Pacific Division, and here are the teams for the former:
Boston Uprising
Roster:
Nam-joo 'Striker' Kwon
Stanislav 'Mistakes' Danilov
Jonathan 'DreamKazper' Sanchez
Lucas 'NotE' Meissner
Woo-yeol 'Kalios' Shin
Yeong-jin 'Gamsu' Noh
Mikias 'Snow' Yohannes
Kristian 'Kellex' Keller
Se-hyeon 'Neko' Park
Connor 'Avast' Prince
The team is owned by Robert Kraft, the CEO and chairman of the Kraft Group, who also owns the New England Patriots. They won 3-2 against Shanghai Dragons in preseason, but lost 3-1 against New York Excelsior, and with all the players coming from relatively different teams and nations, who knows how well they'll do in the full season.
Florida Mayhem
Roster:
Kevyn 'TviQ' Lindström
Andreas 'Logix' Berghmans
Tim 'Manneten' Bylund
Johan 'CWoosH' Klingestedt
Sebastian 'Zebbosai' Olsson
Aleksi 'Zuppeh' Kuntsi
The team is owned by Misfits co-founder Ben Spoont, and although they lost 3-1 against San Francisco Shock and Dallas Fuel, the team has a successful history in Overwatch, whether that be with Misfits or their own World Cup teams.
Houston Outlaws
Roster:
Matt 'Clockwork' Dias
Jiri 'LiNkzr' Masalin
Jake 'JAKE' Lyon
Lucas 'Mendokusaii' Håkansson
Matt 'coolmatt69' Iorio
Alexandre 'SPREE' Vanhomwegen
Austin 'Muma' Wilmot
Daniel 'Boink' Pence
Christopher 'Bani' Benell
Shane 'Rawkus' Flaherty
Hector Rodriguez, CEO of OpTic Gaming, owns this team, who lost 3-2 against Dallas Fuel and 2-1 against Seoul Dynasty in preseason. Head coach Tae-yeong 'TaiRong' Kim did coach the first winning World Cup team, however, and there's plenty of World Cup experience from the USA team too.
London Spitfire
Roster:
Ji-hyuk 'birdring' Kim
Dong-jun 'Rascal' Kim
Joon-yeong 'Profit' Park
Dong-eun 'Hooreg' Lee
Jun-ho 'Fury' Kim
Seung-hyun 'WOOHYAL' Sung
Chan-hyung 'Fissure' Baek
Jae-hee 'Gesture' Hong
Hyeon-woo 'HaGoPeun' Jo
Won-sik 'Closer' Jung
Choi-tae 'Bdosin' Seung
Jong-seok 'NUS' Kim
Cloud9 owns this team, having received investments to help, and lost 3-2 against Los Angeles Gladiators, also winning 4-0 against San Francisco Shock in preseason. A lot of strong Korean players are in this team, from both GC Busan and Cloud9 Kongdoo.
New York Excelsior
Roster:
Jong-yeol 'Saebyeolbe' Park
Do-hyun 'Pine' Kim
Hye-sung 'Libero' Kim
Tae-hong 'Mek0' Kim
Jun-hwa 'Janus' Song
Dong-gyu 'Mano' Kim
Sung-hyeon 'JjoNak' Bang
Yeon-joon 'ArK' Hong
New York Mets COO Jeff Wilpon is this team's owner, and this is his first expansion into esports, one that went quite well in preseason, with a 3-1 win against Boston Uprising and a defeat against Seoul Dynasty by the same margin. This team is mostly comprised of LW Blue players.
Philadelphia Fusion
Roster:
Jae-hyeok 'Carpe' Lee
Josh 'Eqo' Corona
George 'ShaDowBurn' Gushcha
Hong-joon 'HOTBA' Choi
Gael 'Poko' Gouzerch
Joona 'Fragi' Laine
Su-min 'SADO' Kim
Isaac 'Boombox' Charles
Jeong-hwan 'Dayfly' Park
Joe 'Joemeister' Gramano
Alberto 'neptuNo' González
Comcast Spectacor owns this team, and they haven't had the easiest start in life as logistics issues meant they had to skip preseason entirely, and SADO can't play for 30 matches (the first three stages) due to violation of Overwatch League rules.
The other six teams make up the Pacific Division, and these are as follows:
Dallas Fuel
Roster:
Kim 'EFFECT' Hyeon
Timo 'Taimou' Kettunen
Brandon 'Seagull' Larned
Pongphop 'Mickie' Rattanasangchod
Sebastian 'chipshajen' Widlund
Christian 'cocco' Jonsson
Félix 'xQc' Lengyel
Jonathan 'HarryHook' Tejedor Rua
Scott 'Custa' Kennedy
The hugely successful EnVy roster makes up the bulk of this team, as well as Seagull, their high-profile signing. EnVy also owns this team, and KyKy returns as manager. They had a good preseason too, winning 3-1 against Florida Mayhem and 3-2 against Houston Outlaws.
Los Angeles Gladiators
Roster:
Lane 'Surefour' Roberts
Joon-seong 'Asher' Choi
João 'Hydration' Pedro Goes Telles
Aaron 'Bischu' Kim
Luis 'iReMiix' Galarza Figueroa
Jonas 'Shaz' Suovaara
Benjamin 'BigG00se' Isohanni
The owners are Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, who own the LA Rams NFL team. Their preseason was mixed, winning 3-2 against London Spitfire and losing 3-1 against Los Angeles Valiant, and their team features players from lots of different countries.
Los Angeles Valiant
Roster:
Christopher 'GrimReality' Schaefer
Brady 'Agilities' Girardi
Terrence 'SoOn' Tarlier
Ted 'silkthread' Wang
Benjamin 'uNKOE' Chevasson
Stefano 'Verbo' Disalvo
Young-seo 'KariV' Park
Kang-jae 'envy' Lee
Indy 'SPACE' Halpern
Pan-seung 'Fate' Koo
Seb 'numlocked' Barton
Immortals' Noah Whinston owns this team, who won 3-1 against Los Angeles Gladiators and 3-2 against San Francisco Shock. Mostly ex-Immortals players here, from a wide range of nationalities.
San Francisco Shock
Roster:
André 'IDDQD' Dahlström
Dante 'Danteh' Cruz
Andrej 'Babybay' Francisty
Nikola 'Sleepy' Andrews
Daniel 'dhaK' Martinez Paz
David 'Nomy' Ramirez
Andreas 'Nevix' Karlsson
This team is owned by NRG Esports, and they lost 3-2 against Los Angeles Valiant and 4-0 against London Spitfire, although they did win 3-1 against Florida Mayhem. Their roster reveal had celebrities like Jennifer Lopez featuring, and they'll be getting Jay 'Sinatraa' Won and Matthew 'Super' DeLisi once they turn 18.
Seoul Dynasty
Roster:
In-Jae 'EscA' Kim
Sang-Beom 'Munchkin' Byun
Byung-Sun 'Fleta' Lim
Gi-Do 'Gido' Moon
Joon-Hyuk 'Zunba' Kim
Jae-Mo 'xepheR' Koo
Je-Hong 'ryujehong' Ryu
Jin-Mo 'Tobi' Yang
Jin-Hyuk 'Miro' Gong
Seok-woo 'Wekeed' Choi
Joon-hyuk 'Bunny' Chae
Dae-kuk 'KuKi' Kim
KSV Esports owns the team, who won all three of their games in preseason - 4-0 against Shanghai Dragons; 2-1 against Houston Outlaws; and 3-1 against New York Excelsior. They're made up of the former Korean team Lunatic-Hai, along with other Korean players.
Shanghai Dragons
Roster:
Lu 'Diya' Weida
Fang 'Undead' Chao
Liu 'Xushu' Junjie
Jing 'Roshan' Wenhao
Wu 'MG' Dongjian
Cheng 'Altering' Yage
Chen 'Fiveking' Zhaoyu
Xu 'Freefeel' Peixuan
The team's owned by NetEase, and lost both of their preseason games, one 3-2 against Boston Uprising and the other 4-0 against Seoul Dynasty. These players come from various Chinese teams.
Are you excited for the League to start?