Video Credit: Everything OWL
The regular season’s over, and all eyes lie on the upcoming Overwatch League playoffs, with a total of six teams battling it out on Overwatch’s biggest stage yet. The six qualifying teams are: New York Excelsior, Los Angeles Valiant, Boston Uprising, Los Angeles Gladiators, London Spitfire, and Philadelphia Fusion.
Qualification was based on the OWL’s regular season rankings. Two of the six teams — New York Excelsior and Los Angeles Valiant — qualified because each were division leaders in their regions. The other four made the playoffs purely through rankings.
Prize Pool
There’s always the glory of winning the title of OWL’s season one champion, but there’s also hundreds of thousands of prize money on the line. First place finishers will take home a whopping $1 million, but other placings yield decent money as well. Here’s the full list:
1st: $1,000,000 4th: $100,000
2nd: $400,000 5th: $50,000
3rd: $100,000 6th: $50,000
Format
Similar to other professional leagues, each of the six teams has been seeded based on regular season rankings. The top two teams, NYXL and LA Valiant, get a bye in the quarterfinals and advance directly to the semifinals. As for the other four teams, third seed Boston Uprising will play sixth seed Philadelphia Fusion, and fourth seed LA Gladiators will play fifth seed London Spitfire.
The lowest seeded quarterfinals winner will play NYXl in the semifinals, while the highest seeded quarterfinals winner will of course play LA Valiant. The two winning teams in the semifinals will move on to the grand finals in Brooklyn, New York. As for the format of each individual series, it will be a best of three match, in which each match is a best of five maps.
Schedule
Quarterfinals: July 11th-14th
- Philadelphia Fusion vs. Boston Uprising
- London Spitfire vs. Los Angeles Gladiators
Semifinals: July 18th-21st
- Quarterfinal winners (highest seeded) vs. LA Valiant
- Quarterfinal winners (lowest seeded) vs. NYXL
Grand finals: July 27th-28th
- Semifinal winner vs. semifinal winner
How to Watch
The playoff games will be streamed on Twitch and Major League Gaming’s broadcast service. For international viewers, streams in multiple languages will most likely be available.
