Overwatch Esports Champions Series

Overwatch esports is back for another year but with some major changes. For the first time since Overwatch 1 was released, we’re not getting an Overwatch League Season. Instead, it’s the new Overwatch Champions Series that’ll be running this year.

With so much change in Overwatch esports though, things might be different this year. How exactly will this new tournament work?

Overwatch Esports Champions Series 2024 Format

As a more open system than the League, the Overwatch Champions Series does have a more complicated format. It all starts with Open Qualifiers. These are the first stage. Players can register with their group to take part in this stage we’ll see teams being backed by sponsors with former Overwatch Pro players on 789win. However, we’ll also see motley crews of competitors who just want to try their luck.

The Open Qualifier is broken into three stages. There’s a Swiss stage with 512 teams. Then the top 16 go into a Group Stage. Each group of four has 2 teams move forward to a double-elimination knockout bracket.

That’s a grueling format just for each opener. It’s divided between regions for these events, with an Asia, EMEA, and North America region. Each region will have four different stages played in this format.

At the end of these stages, we have the playoffs where we’ll see the top international players all come together. These are the Major and the Finals. These will likely be our closest to the OWL with only the very best players making it this far.

Overwatch Champions Series Prize Pool

The total prize pool for the Overwatch Champions Series in its debut season is $750,000! How does it compare to the old prize pools for the League? It’s quite a bit lower than previous seasons for the game’s esports. Although, it’s still at a decent number compared to quite a few other esports titles. Considering the size of the OW player count, this definitely makes sense for a competitive league.

When is the Overwatch Champions Series going to be running? When it was first announced, Blizzard heralded that the new format would mean much more high-level Overwatch broadcast, with more events on the schedule.

Considering the size of some of these stages, it definitely takes up a lot more time. These are the main events and when you can follow the Overwatch Champions Series this year.

• NA Stage 1 – Mar 8-24
• EMEA Stage 1 – Mar 8-24
• Pacific Stage 1 – Feb 29 – Mar 18
• Japan Stage 1 – Feb 26 – Apr 3
• Korea Stage 1 – Mar 1 – Apr 7
• Asia Stage 1 – Apr 8
• NA Stage 2 – Apr 12-21
• EMEA Stage 2 – Apr 12-21
• Asia/EMEA/America Main Event – April 25-28
• Overwatch Champions Series 2024 Major – May 31 – Jun 2
• NA Stage 3 – Aug 23 – Sep 8
• EMEA Stage 3 – Aug 23 – Sept 8
• NA Stage 4 – Sep 27 – Oct 10-13
• EMEA Stage 4 – September 10 – October 13
• OWS Finals – Nov 22-24

The Overwatch Champions Series is an exciting new stage for competitive OW. It’s a format of tournament that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before from the game. While we’re still in the midst of the event’s opening, it’s looking like this could be the most fun year of competitive OW to date.