Overwatch Contenders is a new Overwatch starting up this Summer. The league is sponsored by Blizzard itself and is a development league for aspiring Overwatch League professionals, which is another Overwatch league.
The event will kick off this summer in North America and Europe. The first season, dubbed Season Zero, will feature an open signup and will have a prize pool of $50,000 between the two regions. Season Zero will be online-only. The top teams from Season Zero will be invited to Overwatch Contenders Season One, which will be an offline tournament and the prize pool jumps up to $100,000 per region. Players will have a chance to be picked up by teams in the Overwatch League.
This isn’t much of a surprise but this tournament will be PC exclusive and not available for the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Overwatch.
From the sounds of things, it looks like Overwatch Contenders will act as a minor league system for the big dogs in the Overwatch League. It sounds like a good concept that will further cement Overwatch’s future as an esport. This will also give players to improve their skills in the hopes of one day getting called up to the big leagues. We’re pretty excited about the concept and ready to see where it goes.
The dates for the tournament are as follows:
Open Qualifier
- North America: June 3 and 4
- Europe: June 10 and 11
Group Stage
- North America: June 17 and 24
- Europe: June 18 and 25
Playoffs
- North America: July 1
- Europe: July 2
The open qualifier will give players the chance to become on of the top 16 teams that move into the group stage. From there, the 16 teams will battle it out with one another until the final eight teams move onto the playoffs. The playoffs will determine which of the eight teams will become the champion of Overwatch Contenders.
Of course, if you don’t want to participate in the tournament, you will still be able to watch live on Twitch and MLG.TV.