Overwatch League Shifts Full Season Online
Photo: Overwatch League Logo, Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment and the Overwatch League announced that the remainder of the regular season will shift to online play. The decision comes after the first successful weekend of online only matches and amid the continued Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. Earlier last month the League made the decision to suspend all live events through the months of March and April. With this announcement the remainder of the season, weeks 14 through 27 will also be played in an online format. Additional details about playoffs and Grand Finals will be released at a later time.
In this time the health and safety of players is paramount. The League is working with all teams to make sure the players have a safe and comfortable place to compete. Some may be competing from home while others may have access to dedicated group facilities. All teams and players will be adhering to current health and a safety guidelines and governmental mandates.
One of the biggest concerns with the potential of players playing from home is maintaining competitive integrity. Jon Spector, Vice President of the Overwatch League had this to say on the matter. “We have been primarily concerned with creating a level playing field for teams as they compete from around the world. Our players have told us that minimizing their connection latency and putting up appropriate safeguards to detect and address potential cheaters is most important to them. So we have structured competition based on team and player locations and tested different server locations extensively and are installing many other safeguards including software running on every PC.”
For more information about how online matches will play throughout the remainder of the season you can view a full Q and A with Jon Spector here.
Upcoming Schedule
In addition, the Overwatch League has also released the match schedule for the next two weeks.
Week 9
Saturday, April 4th
Shanghai Dragons v Hangzhou Spark 1AM PST4AM EST
Chengdu Hunters v Guangzhou Charge 3AM PST6AM EST
Toronto Defiant v Washington Justice 1PM PST4PM EST
Los Angeles Gladiators v Dallas Fuel 3PM PST6PM EST
Los Angeles Valiant v San Francisco Shock 5PM PST8PM EST
Sunday, April 5th
Chengdu Hunters v Shanghai Dragons 1AM PST4AM EST
Guangzhou Charge v Hangzhou Spark 3AM PST6AM EST
Houston Outlaws v Paris Eternal 1PM PST4PM EST
Philadelphia Fusion v Washington Justice 3PM PST6PM EST
Dallas Fuel v Los Angeles Valiant 5PM PST8PM EST
Week 10
Saturday, April 11th
Hangzhou Spark v Chengdu Hunters 1AM PST4AM EST
Vancouver Titans v Guangzhou Charge 3AM PST6AM EST
Philadelphia Fusion v Paris Eternal 1PM PST4PM EST
Houston Outlaws v Boston Uprising 3PM PST6PM EST
Washington Justice v Dallas Fuel 5PM PST8PM EST
Sunday, April 12th
Chengdu Hunters v Vancouver Titans 1AM PST4AM EST
Shanghai Dragons v Guangzhou Charge 3AM PST6AM EST
Houston Outlaws v Toronto Defiant 1PM PST4PM EST
Philadelphia Fusion v Atlanta Reign 3PM PST6PM EST
San Francisco Shock v Los Angeles Gladiators 5PM PST8PM EST
You can watch all the Overwatch League matches on YouTube at the Overwatch League Channel.
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