Overwatch Contenders

Overwatch Contenders (OWC) is a Major series of professional Overwatch tournaments held around the world, organized by Blizzard Entertainment. Contenders acts as the development series below the Overwatch League for aspiring pro players.

Overview[edit]

History[edit]

Contenders began in 2017 with Contenders Season Zero and Contenders 2017 Season 1 in North America and Europe.

2018 Season[edit]

Beginning in 2018, Contenders expanded to seven regions. The seven current regions are:

North America
South America
Australia
China
Europe
Korea
Pacific

In addition to expanding to seven regions, the Trials system was introduced, and relegation between Contenders and Open Division was revealed. The top 4 teams from the previous Open Division season, and the bottom 4 teams from the previous Contenders season, would play in Trials to determine who would play in the next season of Contenders.

Beginning in 2018 Season 1 of Contenders, Overwatch League teams were given the opportunity to establish Academy teams to develop talent in Contenders. All Overwatch League teams except for the Los Angeles Valiant, Dallas Fuel and the Seoul Dynasty established Academy teams for the first season of 2018 Contenders, with the Dallas Fuel establishing their Academy team during the second season.

2019 Season[edit]

On October 30th, 2018, Blizzard announced changes to Contenders for the 2019 Season.^[1] The number of teams in all regions would be reduced from twelve to eight, and North America would be split into two regions, North America West and North America East, bringing the number of Contenders tournaments to eight. A number of other changes were also introduced.

Reducing the number of Seasons from 3 to 2.
Making each Contenders Season longer.
Adjusting the prizing to better reward top teams.

In addition to these changes, Blizzard announced that they would be introducing a "soft region lock" for Contenders 2019. Contenders teams will be restricted to a maximum of three non-resident players on their roster.

Relevant Overwatch Development League Series[edit]

Precursor leagues ran in 2016/2017, before Contenders was expanded to each respective region.

Location	Abbr.	League Name	Contenders Region
Shanghai	OWPS	Overwatch Premier Series	Contenders China
Seoul	APEX	OGN Overwatch APEX	Contenders Korea
Taipei	OPC	Overwatch Pacific Championship	Contenders Pacific

Academy Teams[edit]

Currently, 17 of the 20 Overwatch League teams have established Academy teams in various Contenders regions.

Region	Academy	OWL Team
	ATL Academy (Inactive)	Atlanta Reign
	Uprising Academy	Boston Uprising
	Team Envy	Dallas Fuel
	Mayhem Academy (Inactive)	Florida Mayhem
	GG Esports Academy (Inactive)	Houston Outlaws
	Gladiators Legion (Inactive)	Los Angeles Gladiators
	N/A	Los Angeles Valiant
	XL2 Academy (Inactive)	New York Excelsior
	NRG Esports (Inactive)	San Francisco Shock
	Montreal Rebellion	Toronto Defiant
	N/A	Vancouver Titans
	N/A	Washington Justice
	LGE.Huya (Inactive)	Chengdu Hunters
	T1W.GZA (Inactive)	Guangzhou Charge
	Bilibili Gaming	Hangzhou Spark
	Team CC	Shanghai Dragons
	British Hurricane	London Spitfire
	Eternal Academy	Paris Eternal
	T1	Philadelphia Fusion
	Gen.G esports	Seoul Dynasty

Two-way Players[edit]

For the 2019 Overwatch League season, teams and players may negotiate the right to designate the player as eligible to compete in Contenders on their affiliated Academy team. Any player on the roster may agree to be eligible for Contenders play, but a maximum of four players may be designated as “two-way” players during each Overwatch League stage, and those players must be identified and submitted to the League Office prior to each stage.

Two-way players are eligible to compete in Contenders, subject to the following rules:

Regardless of where they play, two-way players count toward the Overwatch League roster limit of 12 and must earn the same salary and benefits. Two-way players also will count towards the eight-player Contenders roster limit for weeks in which their Contenders team designates them as eligible to compete.
Two-way players lose their Contenders eligibility if they appear in more than two Overwatch League matches in a stage.
A maximum of two designated two-way players may compete in any single Contenders match.
No player will be eligible to appear in both Contenders and Overwatch League matches in the same week.