The 2023 Overwatch League season is the sixth season of the Overwatch League (OWL), a professional esports league for the video game Overwatch 2. The teams are split between two regions: the East and the West. The season commenced with a preseason pro-am tournament held in the West Region, where Overwatch Contenders teams competed against Overwatch League teams. In the East Region, Overwatch Contenders teams joined the regular season alongside the established Overwatch League teams. The regular season is divided into two stages: Spring and Summer. The Spring stage, which began on April 27, concluded with the Midseason Madness, an interregional midseason tournament hosted in Seoul, South Korea. The Summer stage concludes with play-ins, season playoffs, and the Grand Finals. The playoffs are scheduled to take place at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Canada.

Several teams changed branding and regions for the 2023 season. The Paris Eternal relocated to Las Vegas and rebranded as the Vegas Eternal, becoming the league's first team to switch cities. The Philadelphia Fusion shifted its base to Seoul and rebranded as the Seoul Infernal. The Los Angeles Valiant returned to the West Region after competing in China, while the Dallas Fuel moved from the West to the East Region. Furthermore, the Chengdu Hunters disbanded.

Overwatch League teams teams initiated a collective bargaining process, seeking financial assistance to address operating costs and viewership challenges. The teams enlisted the representation of British law firm Sheridans to negotiate with Activision Blizzard. This collective bargaining process led to the agreement between OverActive Media, the owner of the Toronto Defiant, and the Overwatch League. As part of the deal, Toronto Defiant signed a sponsorship agreement with the league, and the Overwatch League agreed to waive the outstanding franchise fees owed by all of the teams.

League format and changes

Format 
In contrast to the previous seasons, which were usually split into four stages, the 2023 season is into two stages: Spring and Summer. The Spring stage culminated in the Midseason Madness, an interregional midseason tournament. The Summer stage will be followed by the play-ins, season playoffs, and Grand Finals. In each stage, the Eastern region is divided into three sections: opens, qualifiers, and knockouts. Overwatch Contenders teams compete in the Opens, Overwatch League teams compete in the qualifiers, and both compete in the knockouts. In the Western region, no Contenders teams competed, and each stage starts with qualifiers, with only the Spring stage having knockouts. In the Spring Stage, the top teams from the knockouts advance to the Midseason Madness.

Rosters construction 
Prior to the start of the season, all teams are required to have minimum of six players, and a maximum of 12 players, signed to season-long contracts. Teams can players to a minimum of one season and could add an option to extend that contract for an additional year, if they so chose. Teams were also allowed to sign players to short-term 30-day contracts, which can only be used on a given player once per season, and two-way contracts. The league reduced the minimum age required to compete from 18 to 17. Additionally, the minimum salary was increased to . The free agency window was initially planned to open on November 19, 2022. However, after the announcement that Blizzard licensing agreement with NetEase in China would expire on January 23, 2023, the league delayed the beginning of free agency to December 2, 2022. A day before the new start of free agency, the league once again moved back its starting date to December 23.

Teams and regions 
Several teams have been relocated for the 2023 season. The Paris Eternal relocated to Las Vegas and rebranded to the Vegas Eternal. With their relocation, they became the first OWL team to relocate to a different city. The relocation also left the London Spitfire as the only European representative in the league. The Philadelphia Fusion also relocated to Seoul and rebranded to the Seoul Infernal, marking the first time that an OWL team has made a full rebrand. Since the 2020 season, the Fusion had been running their operations in South Korea; with the rebrand, the Infernal made Seoul their permanent base of operation. The Los Angeles Valiant, who had been competing out of China in the East Region for the past several seasons, returned to the West Region. The 2022 season champions Dallas Fuel also moved from the West region to the East.

Due to Blizzard's licensing agreement with NetEase in China ending, resulting in the four Chinese OWL teams not legally allowed to play Overwatch 2 in their country, the East Region will be expanding to allow Contenders teams to compete in the OWL. A total of 12 teams from several Contenders regions will play in Spring Stage Opens, and the top teams from the Open will play in the OWL Spring Stage. Moreover, the league announced on April 18, 2023, that the Chengdu Hunters would not play in the Spring Stage qualifiers, as the Hunters were "[contemplating] the future direction of their team."

Preseason pro-am 
The official start to the season was preceded with a pro-am tournament in the West Region that began on March 23, 2023, in which Overwatch Contenders (OWC) teams played against OWL teams. A total of 20 teams — seven OWC teams and the 13 OWL Western Region teams — were be split equally into four groups. The top eight teams from the group stage advanced to a single-elimination tournament, and the winner of the tournament will won $100,000.

Group stage 

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Bracket

Overall standings 
The overall standings determine which teams advance to the postseason. Qualification for the postseason is different for the East and West regions.

East region 
Qualification for the postseason is determined by average placements in the Spring and Summer knockouts. The top two teams from the East advance directly to the playoffs, and the top four OWL teams (that are not already in the top two) advance to the play-ins.

West region 
Qualification for the postseason is determined by winning percentage in the Spring and Summer qualifiers. The top three teams advance directly to the season playoffs, while the following seven teams advance to the play-ins. The remaining two teams alive from the play-ins will advance to the season playoffs finalizing the 5 teams advancing to the season playoffs.

Regular season

Spring stage 
The Spring Split began on April 27, 2023.

East region 
The Eastern region Spring stage was divided into three sections: opens, qualifiers, and knockouts. The Spring stage began with opens, where Overwatch Contenders teams competed to play in the OWL. The top four teams that make it past the opens joined Overwatch League teams in the Spring Eastern regional knockouts. Then, the Eastern Overwatch League teams competed in the qualifiers; every team advanced past the qualifiers, as they only acted as seeding for the knockouts. All Eastern OWL teams and qualified Contenders teams then competed in the Eastern knockouts. The top two teams from the knockouts advanced to the Midseason Madness.

Qualifiers

Knockouts 
Bracket A

Bracket B

West region 
The West region Spring stage was divided into two sections: qualifiers and knockouts. The top two teams from the qualifiers advanced directly to the Midseason Madness, while the following eight advanced to the knockouts. The top two teams from the knockouts also advanced to the Midseason Madness.

Qualifiers

Knockouts

Midseason Madness 
The Midseason Madness was a double elimination tournament that was the culmination of the Spring Stage and featured six teams — four from the West and two from the East. The event took place from June 15 to 17 in Seoul, South Korea, at the Korea International Exhibition Center. It marked the first time that the OWL has held a live event in the APAC region.

Bracket

Summer stage 
The Summer stage began on July 12, 2023.

East region 
Similar to the Spring stage, the Eastern region Summer stage is divided into three sections: opens, qualifiers, and knockouts. The Summer stage began with opens, where Overwatch Contenders teams competed, and the top teams there advance to the Summer Eastern regional knockouts. Unlike the Spring stage, both the Eastern Overwatch League teams and Overwatch Contenders teams that competed in the Spring stage knockout compete in the qualifiers. Every team advances past the qualifiers, as they only act as seeding for the knockouts.

Qualifiers

Knockouts 
Bracket A

Bracket B

West region 
For the Summer stage, the West region will only have qualifiers.

Qualifiers

Postseason

Play-in tournaments  
East

West

Playoffs 
Five teams from the West Region and three teams from the East Region will advance to the season playoffs, which will take place at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Canada. These teams will be divided into groups of four and compete in separate double-elimination brackets over three days. The top two teams from each bracket will then enter a four-team, single-elimination Grand Finals bracket. All matches in the Grand Finals bracket will be held on October 1, and the winner will be crowned the 2023 Overwatch League champion, receiving a trophy and a prize of . Second and third places will also earn substantial rewards, with $400,000 and $225,000, respectively. Monetary rewards extend to the sixth-place team.

Bracket 

Bracket A

Bracket B

Grand Finals bracket

Notable events

Collective bargaining and Defiant deal 
According to esports journalist Jacob Wolf, Overwatch League teams retained British law firm Sheridans to start a collective bargaining process against the league, in an attempt to receive financial assistance after several years of high operating costs and low viewership. OverActive Media, the owners of the Toronto Defiant, was leading this collective bargaining effort, as reported by Wolf.

On June 5, 2023, when OverActive Media announced  that Toronto Defiant had signed a sponsorship deal with the league, and the Overwatch League agreed to waive the outstanding franchise fees that OverActive Media had paid to enter the league. The agreement between OverActive Media and the Overwatch League consisted of three distinct components. Firstly, OverActive Media received an early payment of the league revenue share. Secondly, they secured a sponsorship agreement with the Toronto Ultra, their Call of Duty League franchise. Lastly, the Overwatch League eliminated the entry fees, which amounted to . Prior to the deal, it had been reported that the Overwatch League teams collectively owed Activision Blizzard a considerable sum, with each team owing approximately $6 to $7.5million, totaling $120 to $150million. Although OverActive Media's CEO and co-founder, Adam Adamou, stated that it is "fair to assume that an agreement like this covers all of the teams," he did not explicitly confirm whether other teams received the same deal. However, Adamou did acknowledge that the agreement was part of the collective bargaining process. It was later confirmed by Sports Business Journal that this waiver of outstanding entry fees applied to the entire Overwatch League, not just the Toronto Defiant.

Blizzard's contract with NetEase expires 
On January 24, 2023, Activision Blizzard and NetEase ended their 14-year licensing agreement. With the termination of the agreement, all Activision Blizzard titles that were operated by NetEase, which includes Overwatch 2, went offline in China. This resulted in the four Chinese Overwatch League teams — Chengdu Hunters, Guangzhou Charge, Shanghai Dragons (owned by NetEase), and Hangzhou Spark — no longer being able to play in their home country. Additionally, competitions related to unapproved games in China are not allowed to be broadcast on Chinese live-streaming platforms. While some unapproved games have been broadcast in China in the past, the Chinese government is expected to "strictly enforce" this policy as it pertains to Blizzard titles.

Chengdu Hunters disband 
On April 18, 2023, the Overwatch League announced that the Chengdu Hunters would not be participating in the 2023 Spring Stage qualifiers, which were scheduled to begin on April 29 in the East Region. This marked the first time in the history of the Overwatch League that a team had effectively dropped out of competition, even temporarily. According to a statement from the Chengdu Hunters posted on social media, the team was contemplating the future direction of their team, leaving open the possibility of their participation in the Summer Stage but providing little concrete information to fans.

The situation surrounding the Chengdu Hunters became even more uncertain when on May 4, 2023, The Esports Advocate reported that the team had disbanded. The Chengdu Hunters were owned by Huya, Inc., a Chinese gaming livestreaming platform. Doubts about the franchise's future first arose in January when the team tweeted about the shutdown of Overwatch 2 in mainland China due to a breakdown in the longstanding relationship between Activision Blizzard and NetEase, the game's Chinese distribution partner. Financial instability may have played a role in the Chengdu Hunters' absence this season. Huya, Inc., facing fluctuating stock prices and reported losses, replaced its board director, potentially leading the organization to reduce esports spending.

On June 20, 2023, it was confirmed that the Chengdu Hunters franchise would be officially leaving the Overwatch League. This decision made them the first team to fully exit the league.

Media 
In early 2020, Activision Blizzard signed a three-year broadcasting rights deal with YouTube, making the streaming platform the exclusive broadcasting partner for the OWL. On April 21, 2023, it was confirmed that the Overwatch League season would continue to be exclusively broadcast on YouTube, despite the expiration of the previous exclusive broadcast rights deal between Blizzard and YouTube. The choice of streaming platform for the 2023 season garnered mixed responses from fans, with some fans expressing disappointment over the exclusive availability on YouTube rather than Twitch.

Notes

References

External links 
 

 
Overwatch