With less than a week until the start of the Overwatch Contenders 2020 season, it’s time to take a look at the news, changes and challenges for the upcoming season. While if you are interested in Overwatch betting we recommend checking out our guide to Overwatch Contenders Bets.
With the end of the 2019 regular season, each region had their champion as they all headed to The Gauntlet. Korea’s Element Mystic was crowned the penultimate Contenders champion after ATL Academy in the finals.
With the conclusion of the post-season, Blizzard announced their changes to the Overwatch Contenders 2020 competitive format in order to “foster up-and-coming talent and provide players with more opportunities to compete.”
Below we are going to take a look at the upcoming changes and discuss what they mean to the average Joe.
Overwatch Contenders 2020 Format
The upcoming Overwatch Contenders 2020 season will feature an interlinked format where all three non-premier competitive divisions are open to promotion/relegation. In theory, this means any aspiring team can easily advance from Open Division to Contenders in a single competitive cycle.
In order to accommodate the change, all previous Contenders teams had to play a seeding tournament that determined which four teams advance to the Overwatch Contenders 2020 season. All the remaining teams were sent back to Contenders Trials where they awaited opponents from the first Open Division Tournament of the year.
Once the Contenders Trials finish the Top 8 teams advance to Contenders 2020 Week 1 and the rest will try their luck in the next Trial period. The following picture illustrates the path to pro:
With four cycles of Contenders action and the possibility of teams relegating and promoting into the competition a more comprehensive system was needed to determine the overall Champion in each region and seeding towards international tournaments. To that end, Blizzard announced a point-based system that will determine the overall champion.
- 1st place—100 points
- 2nd place—50 points
- 3rd-4th place—35 points
- 5th-8th place—20 points
- 9th-12th place—10 points
This would mean that a team can potentially come out of Open Division in between Weeks 2 and 3 of Contenders and still make it to The Gauntlet if they are dominant enough.
We are yet to see how the new system and season will pan out and if any newcomers will challenge the established powerhouses in the scene.
Overwatch Contenders Teams – 2020 Season 1
12 European Teams:
- British Hurricane
- HSL Esports
- Samsung Morning Stars
- Young and Beautiful
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
12 North American Teams:
- Team Envy
- Second Wind
- Skyfoxes
- ATL Academy
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
12 South American Teams:
- Dignity
- TEAM NOT FOUND
- WarPigs
- Patitos
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
12 Australian Teams:
- Warriors Esports
- Ground Zero Gaming
- Sydney Drop Bears
- Mindfreak
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
12 Chinese Teams:
- Team CC
- Bilibili Gaming
- Flag Gaming
- Big Time Regal Gaming
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
12 Korean Teams:
- RunAway
- O2 Blast
- Gen.G
- Element Mystic
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
12 Pacific Teams:
- Talon Esports
- Far East Society
- Cyclone Coupling
- Green Leaves
- UND
- Zenith
- NNT-Kingdom
- BAYABA
- Global Esports
- IU
- MEGA Esports
- Xavier Esports
Overwatch Contenders 2020 Schedule
The new format meant a whole new Overwatch Contenders 2020 schedule with Open Division, Trials and Contenders matches being played back-to-back-back throughout the entire season. Blizzard prepared a Broadcasting Schedule for the month of March which illustrates the new condensed schedule.
The calendar shows more than 16 competitive days in a single month, with broadcasts varying between each league. Knowing that Blizzard signed an exclusive Youtube deal for the upcoming years, would mean a lot of VoD’s and Broadcasts up for review at any given time.
The following days were given as a guide for upcoming broadcasts:
- Feb. 23: Australia
- Feb. 24: Pacific
- Feb. 29: South America
- March 3: North America and Europe
- March 10: China
- March 11: South Korea
Keep in mind that the South Korean and Chinese broadcasts might be postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The first official Contenders Trials broadcast is coming from Australia on the 26th of February at 8 AM CET (11PM PT / 6PM AEDT Feb 26)
Check-in with the Overwatch League Betting and @owpathtopro on Twitter for specific broadcasting updates.
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