2019 Overwatch League season

Last updated
2019 Overwatch League season
League Overwatch League
Sport Overwatch
DurationFebruary 14 – August 25
September 5 – 29 (Playoffs)
Number of matches28
Number of teams20
TV partner(s)
United States
France
Germany
  • Esports1
Regular season
Top seed Vancouver Titans
Season MVP Jay "sinatraa" Won
Stage Champions
Stage 1 Vancouver Titans
Stage 2 San Francisco Shock
Stage 3 Shanghai Dragons
Grand Finals
Venue Wells Fargo Center,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Champions San Francisco Shock
  Runners-up Vancouver Titans
Finals MVP Choi "ChoiHyoBin" Hyo-Bin
Overwatch League seasons

The 2019 Overwatch League season was the second season of the Overwatch League (OWL), an esport based on the video game Overwatch . The league expanded from 12 teams from the inaugural season to 20 teams. Of the eight new teams, two were from the United States, two were from Canada, one was from France, and three were from China.

Contents

The season began on February 14, 2019, and ended on August 25. Postseason play began in late August. The San Francisco Shock won the Grand Finals over the Vancouver Titans to become the league champions.

League changes

Expansion

The Overwatch League initially launched with twelve teams in the 2018 season. During this season, Blizzard stated it planned to expand out the league to add six teams, ideally gaining more teams in European and Asian regions, and started meeting with potential owners in March 2018. [1] By September 2018, Blizzard confirmed it had signed eight additional teams based in Atlanta, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Toronto, Paris, Washington D.C., Vancouver, and Chengdu, bringing the total team count to twenty. [2] Whereas the franchising fee was estimated to be US$20 million in the inaugural season, the fee was estimated by observers to have gone as high as US$50 million for these new teams. [1] The eight teams were distributed evenly between the two Divisions, with the North American East Coast and European teams joining the Atlantic Division, and the Chinese and North American West Coast teams added to the Pacific Division.

Schedule

The 2019 season's revised schedule format was announced on December 12, 2018. The season kept the four-stage format that was used in the 2018 season, though only the first three stages had playoffs, while the fourth stage's playoffs were replaced by a six-team play-in tournament to determine the final two postseason teams. [3] The top six season playoff teams were determined by the same way they were in 2018; the top two teams from each division and the next four teams, regardless of division. The season playoffs were contested in a double-elimination tournament. Teams played 28 regular season games instead of 40, with the league citing players' mental health and additional chances to interact with their home cities as reasons for the change. Each stage still lasted five weeks, though the break between stages increased from one week to two weeks (except for the break between stages 2 and 3, which was four weeks due to the league's All-Star Weekend). Each week featured three to four games on Thursday and Friday and four games on Saturday and Sunday, totaling either fourteen or sixteen games per week, up from twelve in 2018. Teams played zero, one, or two matches per week. The stage playoffs doubled in size from 2018, expanding to eight teams, up from the four team system introduced in 2018's third stage. The top team from each division held the first and second seed, followed by the next six teams, regardless of division. [4]

The Grand Finals were held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 29, 2019. [5]

Prize pool

The prize pool was increased from US$ 3,500,000 to $5,000,000. All eight teams who qualified for each Stage Playoffs earned at least $25,000. Each stage champion earned $200,000 (up from $100,000 in 2018), while the amount earned by the runners-up quadrupled from 2018 to $100,000. Third and fourth place teams earned $50,000 while fifth through eighth place teams earned $25,000. For the postseason earnings, the Grand Champion team will earn $1.1 million (up from $1 million), second place will earn $600,000, third place will earn $450,000, fourth place will earn $350,000, fifth and sixth place will earn $300,000, and seventh and eighth place will earn $200,000. [6]

Player contracts

The season's free agency signing window opened to expansion teams on September 10, 2018, and closed on October 7, the day before the window for all teams opened. Each teams had to sign at least 12 players by December 1. [7]

The 2019 season was also the first in which two-way contracts were in effect. Players signed to these contracts primarily played for their OWL team's academy team that played in Overwatch Contenders. They were unable to play in more than two OWL matches in a stage, nor could they play in an OWL match and a Contenders match in the same week. These players counted towards the OWL team's 12-player limit. [8]

Venues

Though most matches were still played at the 350-seat Blizzard Arena, [9] the 2019 season introduced three "Homestand Weeks," which took place in three Overwatch League cities. These were held as practice runs for the planned expansion of the Overwatch League into true home-and-away formats for the 2020 season, seeing teams travel across the globe to compete. The fourth week of Stage 2 was held at the Allen Event Center in Allen, Texas and was hosted by the Dallas Fuel. The fifth week of Stage 3 was held at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Cumberland, Georgia and was hosted by the Atlanta Reign. The fifth week of Stage 4, dubbed "Kit Kat Rivalry Weekend," was held at The Novo by Microsoft in Los Angeles, California and was hosted by the Los Angeles Valiant. [3]

Broadcasting

All matches were broadcast on the Overwatch League's website and through Major League Gaming (owned by Blizzard), and by third-party broadcaster Twitch. On the first day of the 2018 season playoffs, Disney and Blizzard announced a multi-year partnership that would bring OWL and other organized Overwatch competitive events to ESPN, Disney XD, and ABC, starting with the playoffs and continuing through the 2019 season. [10] On January 28, 2019, Blizzard announced that new dedicated esports channel Esports1, owned by German sports channel Sport1, would be broadcasting Overwatch League events in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. [11]

Regular season

A team's standing was based on their overall match win–loss record, with ties broken by map differential, head-to-head map record, and head-to-head match record, in that order. If a tie that affects the qualification for Stage or Postseason playoffs still cannot be broken, the teams were to play a tiebreaker match. [12]

The season playoff teams consisted of the two division winners, four wild card teams with the best regular season records regardless of division, and the top two teams from the play-in tournament. [13]

Overall standings

PosDivTeamPldWLPCTMWMLMTMDQualification
1PAC Vancouver Titans 282530.8989280+61Advance to season playoffs (division leaders)
2ATL New York Excelsior 282260.7978383+40
3PAC San Francisco Shock 282350.8292260+66Advance to season playoffs
4PAC Hangzhou Spark 2818100.6464524+12
5PAC Los Angeles Gladiators 2817110.6167483+19
6ATL Atlanta Reign 2816120.5769501+19
7ATL London Spitfire 2816120.5758526+6Advance to play-ins
8PAC Seoul Dynasty 2815130.5464503+14
9PAC Guangzhou Charge 2815130.5461571+4
10ATL Philadelphia Fusion 2815130.54576033
11PAC Shanghai Dragons 2813150.465161310
12PAC Chengdu Hunters 2813150.465566111
13PAC Los Angeles Valiant 2812160.43566145
14ATL Paris Eternal 2811170.394667321
15PAC Dallas Fuel 2810180.364370327
16ATL Houston Outlaws 289190.324769322
17ATL Toronto Defiant 288200.293972433
18ATL Washington Justice 288200.293972633
19ATL Boston Uprising 288200.294178237
20ATL Florida Mayhem 286220.213675539
Source: The Overwatch League
Rules for classification: 1) winning percentage; 2) map differential; 3) head-to-head record; 4) head-to-head map differential

Stage 1

Stage 1 ran from February 14 to March 17, 2019, with stage playoffs taking place from March 21–24, 2019. The two division leaders, and the following top six teams, regardless of division, in the Stage 1 standings qualified for the Stage 1 Playoffs. The division winners were awarded the top two seeds, while the remaining teams received seeds three through eight based on their Stage 1 records. [13] All matches emanated from the Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California.

At the conclusion of the first stage, both the Fusion and Defiant were tied for third place after considering all tie-breaking resolutions; similarly, the San Francisco Shock and the Seoul Dynasty were tied for sixth place. By league rules, both ties were to broken by an off-stream match. While the sixth-place tie was decided in this manner, the Defiant and Fusion mutually agreed to settle the third-place tie by a coin flip. Due to issues on reporting the coin flip, league commissioner Nate Nanzer stated that the league would not allow teams to decides such ties by one in the future. [14]

Standings

PosDivTeamPldWLPCTMWMLMTMDQualification
1PAC Vancouver Titans 7701.002460+18Advance to stage playoffs (division leaders)
2ATL New York Excelsior 7701.002261+16
3ATL Toronto Defiant 7520.7116112+5Advance to stage playoffs
4ATL Philadelphia Fusion 7520.7117121+5
5ATL Atlanta Reign 7430.5718120+6
6PAC San Francisco Shock 7430.5717120+5
7PAC Seoul Dynasty 7430.5716111+5
8ATL Boston Uprising 7430.5716131+3
9PAC Dallas Fuel 7430.57151500
10PAC Los Angeles Gladiators 7340.4314132+1
11PAC Guangzhou Charge 7340.43151601
12ATL Houston Outlaws 7340.43131613
13PAC Hangzhou Spark 7340.43121614
14PAC Shanghai Dragons 7340.43131704
15ATL London Spitfire 7340.43121624
16PAC Chengdu Hunters 7340.43122008
17ATL Paris Eternal 7340.4391728
18ATL Washington Justice 7160.14920111
19ATL Florida Mayhem 7160.14921112
20PAC Los Angeles Valiant 7070.00101929
Source: The Overwatch League
Rules for classification: 1) winning percentage; 2) map differential; 3) head-to-head record; 4) head-to-head map differential

Playoffs

Stage Quarterfinals Stage Semifinals Stage Finals
         
1 Vancouver Titans 3
8 Boston Uprising 0
1Vancouver Titans4
7 Seoul Dynasty 0
4 Philadelphia Fusion 3
5 Atlanta Reign 1
1Vancouver Titans4
(Pairings are reseeded after the first round)
6 San Francisco Shock 3
3 Toronto Defiant 0
6 San Francisco Shock 3
4 Philadelphia Fusion 0
6San Francisco Shock4
2 New York Excelsior 1
7 Seoul Dynasty 3

Stage 2

Stage 2 ran from April 4 to May 5, 2019, with stage playoffs taking place from May 9–12. The playoff format did not change from Stage 1. [13] All matches emanated from the Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California, except for the fourth week of play, which took place at the Allen Event Center in Allen, Texas the first of three "Homestand Weeks" of the season. This stage's Homestand Week was hosted by Dallas Fuel. [3]

The second stage was the first in which assault map Paris was available for play. It was also the introduction of new support character Baptiste into professional play. Baptiste was designed by Blizzard as to disrupt a three-tank, three-support composition (frequently called GOATS in the game's player base in reference to the non-league team that popularized it) which had been dominating Overwatch's metagame for several months prior to the 2019 season and had been frequently used by teams during Stage 1. [15] [16]

Due to the tiebreaking issues in Stage 1, the League updated their tiebreaker rules to include head-to-head records across all stages, strength of schedule, and common opponents records. [17]

Standings

PosDivTeamPldWLPCTMWMLMTMDQualification
1PAC San Francisco Shock 7701.002800+28Advance to stage playoffs (division leaders)
2ATL London Spitfire 7610.862152+16
3PAC Vancouver Titans 7701.002530+22Advance to stage playoffs
4PAC Los Angeles Gladiators 7610.861991+10
5ATL New York Excelsior 7520.712171+14
6PAC Dallas Fuel 7520.7116111+5
7PAC Hangzhou Spark 7520.71151601
8PAC Shanghai Dragons 7430.57131320
9PAC Chengdu Hunters 7340.4315140+1
10PAC Seoul Dynasty 7340.43151500
11ATL Philadelphia Fusion 7340.43121513
12ATL Atlanta Reign 7340.43141703
13ATL Boston Uprising 7340.43131906
14PAC Los Angeles Valiant 7340.43121816
15ATL Toronto Defiant 7250.29111807
16ATL Paris Eternal 7250.29101818
17PAC Guangzhou Charge 7250.29822014
18ATL Washington Justice 7160.14821013
19ATL Florida Mayhem 7070.00621115
20ATL Houston Outlaws 7070.00424120
Source: The Overwatch League
Rules for classification: 1) winning percentage; 2) map differential; 3) head-to-head record; 4) head-to-head map differential

Playoffs

Stage Quarterfinals Stage Semifinals Stage Finals
         
1 San Francisco Shock 3
8 Shanghai Dragons 1
1San Francisco Shock4
7 Hangzhou Spark 0
4 Los Angeles Gladiators 0
5 New York Excelsior 3
1San Francisco Shock4
(Pairings are reseeded after the first round)
3 Vancouver Titans 2
3 Vancouver Titans 3
6 Dallas Fuel 0
3Vancouver Titans4
5 New York Excelsior 1
2 London Spitfire 1
7 Hangzhou Spark 3

Stage 3

Stage 3 ran from June 6 to July 7, with the stage playoffs taking place from July 11 to 14. The stage marked the first time that assault map Havana was played in the Overwatch League. All matches in the fifth week of Stage 3 were played at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, Georgia. The event was the second of three "Homestand Weeks" of the season and was hosted by Atlanta Reign. Additionally, the Overwatch League hosted LGBTQ community Pride Day on June 7 at Blizzard Arena. [18]

Standings

PosDivTeamPldWLPCTMWMLMTMDQualification
1ATL New York Excelsior 7701.002371+16Advance to stage playoffs (division leaders)
2PAC Vancouver Titans 7610.862170+14
3PAC Hangzhou Spark 7610.862172+14Advance to stage playoffs
4PAC San Francisco Shock 7520.712380+15
5PAC Seoul Dynasty 7520.712081+12
6PAC Los Angeles Valiant 7520.712090+11
7ATL Houston Outlaws 7520.7119101+9
8PAC Shanghai Dragons 7520.7117120+5
9PAC Los Angeles Gladiators 7430.5717110+6
10PAC Guangzhou Charge 7430.5716120+4
11ATL Philadelphia Fusion 7430.57131613
12ATL Paris Eternal 7340.43141501
13PAC Chengdu Hunters 7340.43121614
14ATL London Spitfire 7340.43111716
15ATL Atlanta Reign 7250.29141703
16ATL Boston Uprising 7160.14722115
17PAC Dallas Fuel 7160.14621215
18ATL Florida Mayhem 7160.14423119
19ATL Toronto Defiant 7070.00424020
20ATL Washington Justice 7070.00222420
Source: The Overwatch League
Rules for classification: 1) winning percentage; 2) map differential; 3) head-to-head record; 4) head-to-head map differential

Playoffs

Stage Quarterfinals Stage Semifinals Stage Finals
         
1 New York Excelsior 1
8 Shanghai Dragons 3
2 Vancouver Titans 1
8Shanghai Dragons4
4 San Francisco Shock 3
5 Seoul Dynasty 1
4 San Francisco Shock 3
(Pairings are reseeded after the first round)
8Shanghai Dragons4
3 Hangzhou Spark 2
6 Los Angeles Valiant 3
4San Francisco Shock4
6 Los Angeles Valiant 0
2 Vancouver Titans 3
7 Houston Outlaws 0

Stage 4

Stage 4 ran from July 25 through August 25, with matches in the fifth week taking place at The Novo by Microsoft in Los Angeles as the final "Homestand Week".

Stage 4 introduced a forced 2-2-2 team composition – 2 damage heroes, 2 support heroes, and 2 tank heroes, as a means of eliminating a metagame composition that became dominant in the league made of three tanks and three supports, otherwise known as "GOATS," named after the Overwatch Contenders team that popularized it. This GOATS composition was difficult to counter at this level of play and was deemed boring to watch. Blizzard had tried to introduce changes in the game to better counter GOATS, but these failed to materialize. In the forced 2-2-2 composition, players are role locked at a start of a map, though they are free to switch heroes within that role during the map. Between maps, along with normal player substitutions, players can then swap roles. This change also came to normal quickplay and competitive mode in Overwatch outside of the league at the end of September 2019. [19] [20]

Standings

PosDivTeamPldWLPCTMWMLMTMD
1ATL Atlanta Reign 7701.002341+19
2PAC San Francisco Shock 7701.002460+18
3PAC Guangzhou Charge 7610.862271+15
4ATL Washington Justice 7610.862091+11
5PAC Vancouver Titans 7520.7119120+7
6ATL Florida Mayhem 7430.5717102+7
7PAC Hangzhou Spark 7430.5716131+3
8PAC Los Angeles Gladiators 7430.5717150+2
9ATL London Spitfire 7430.57141410
10PAC Chengdu Hunters 7430.57161600
11PAC Los Angeles Valiant 7430.57141511
12ATL Philadelphia Fusion 7340.43151702
13PAC Seoul Dynasty 7340.43131613
14ATL Paris Eternal 7340.43131704
15ATL New York Excelsior 7340.43121806
16ATL Houston Outlaws 7160.14111908
17PAC Shanghai Dragons 7160.14819111
18ATL Toronto Defiant 7160.14819211
19PAC Dallas Fuel 7070.00623017
20ATL Boston Uprising 7070.00524019
Source: The Overwatch League
Rules for classification: 1) winning percentage; 2) map differential; 3) head-to-head record; 4) head-to-head map differential

Postseason

Play-in tournament

The play-in tournament is a single-elimination tournament that took place August 30–31. Each match were first-to-four maps, with the higher seed selecting the first map and the loser of each subsequent map selecting the next. The winners of each quarterfinal match advanced to the semifinals, where they faced either the seventh- or eighth-seeded team, depending on their own seed. The winners of the semifinals qualified for the season playoffs and were seeded according to their regular season records. [13] [21]

Bracket

Quarterfinals
August 30
Semifinals
August 31
9 Guangzhou Charge 47 London Spitfire 4
12 Chengdu Hunters 111Shanghai Dragons3
10 Philadelphia Fusion 28 Seoul Dynasty 4
11 Shanghai Dragons 49Guangzhou Charge1

Playoffs

Eight teams competed in the OWL Playoffs – a double-elimination tournament – from September 5 to 29. The winner of each round of the Playoffs was determined by a single-match, where each match winner was determined by which team wins four maps. The final two teams remaining in the tournament advanced to the Grand Finals, which took place at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 29. [13] [22]

Bracket

First Round
September 5–6
Winners Round 1
September 8
Winners Round 2
September 13
Grand Finals
September 29
1 Vancouver Titans 4
8 Seoul Dynasty 2
1Vancouver Titans4
5Los Angeles Gladiators2
4 Hangzhou Spark 3
5 Los Angeles Gladiators 4
1Vancouver Titans4
2New York Excelsior3
2 New York Excelsior 4
7 London Spitfire 1
2New York Excelsior4
6Atlanta Reign2
3 San Francisco Shock 3
6 Atlanta Reign 41Vancouver Titans0
3San Francisco Shock4
Losers Round 1
September 7
Losers Round 2
September 12
Losers Round 3
September 14
Losers Round 4
September 15
6Atlanta Reign0
4Hangzhou Spark44Hangzhou Spark42New York Excelsior0
8Seoul Dynasty14Hangzhou Spark03San Francisco Shock4
3San Francisco Shock4
5Los Angeles Gladiators0
3San Francisco Shock43San Francisco Shock4
7London Spitfire0

Notable events

Shanghai Dragons win first match

In the 2018 season, the Shanghai Dragons failed to win a match, going 0–40 throughout the regular season. The franchise released eight of their eleven players going into the 2019 season. [23] The Dragons lost their first two matches of the 2019 regular season, bringing their loss streak to 42 matches — the longest loss streak in professional sports history at the time. [24] On February 22, 2019, the Dragons defeated the Boston Uprising, giving the franchise their first win. [25]

Sale of the Houston Outlaws

On June 12, 2019, Immortals Gaming Club (IGC), the parent company of Immortals and Los Angeles Valiant, acquired Infinite Esports, the parent company of Houston Outlaws and OpTic Gaming, marking the first sale of any Overwatch League franchise. [26] Both Riot Games and Activision Blizzard approved the sale. By OWL rules, one company may not own more than one OWL franchise, so IGC had to operate the Valiant and Outlaws as entirely separate entities, with oversight by OWL representatives, until IGC sold the Outlaws. [27] In November 2019, IGC sold the Outlaws to the Beasley Media Group. [28]

Awards

Individual awards

AwardRecipient
Most Valuable Player (MVP) Jay "sinatraa" Won (San Francisco Shock)
Dennis Hawelka Award Scott "Custa" Kennedy (Los Angeles Valiant)
Rookie of the YearKim "Haksal" Hyo-jong (Vancouver Titans)
Grand Finals MVP Choi "ChoiHyoBin" Hyo-bin (San Francisco Shock)

Role Stars

DamageTankSupport
Corey "Corey" Nigra (Washington Justice)Choi "Choihyobin" Hyo-bin (San Francisco Shock)Park "iDK" Ho-jin (Hangzhou Spark)
Yang "DDing" Jin-hyeok (Shanghai Dragons)Qiulin "Guxue" Xu (Hangzhou Spark)Park "Kariv" Young-seo (Los Angeles Valiant)
Kim "Haksal" Hyo-jong (Vancouver Titans)Kim "mano" Dong-gyu (New York Excelsior)Grant "Moth" Espe (San Francisco Shock)
Jay "sinatraa" Won (San Francisco Shock) Matthew "super" DeLisi (San Francisco Shock)Lee "Twilight" Ju-seok (Vancouver Titans)

All-Star Game

The 2019 Overwatch League All-Star Game was the Overwatch League's second edition of an all-star game that involved the All-Star players of the league. The game was played on May 16, 2019, and was the culmination of the league's All-Star Weekend, a two-day event that consisted of the Talent Takedown, a Widowmaker 1v1 tournament, and the All-Star Arcade. All of the events were played at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California. The game was televised by ESPN2 and streamed live on Twitch. [29]

TeamMap 1Map 2Map 3Map 4Map 5Map Wins
Atlantic Division232124
Pacific Division021201

Winnings

Teams in the 2019 season competed for a total prize pool of US$5 million across regular season play, stage finals, and playoffs. By League rules, at least 50% of these winnings are split among the team's members, the remaining going to the team's owner.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas Fuel</span> American professional esports team

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The 2018 Houston Outlaws season was the first season of the Houston Outlaws's existence in the Overwatch League. Outlaws qualified for the Stage 1 playoffs but fell to the London Spitfire in the semifinals. The team did not qualify finished with a regular season record of 22–18, missing the season playoffs.

The 2019 Atlanta Reign season was the first season of the Atlanta Reign's existence in the Overwatch League as one of eight expansion franchises added for the 2019 season.

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The 2019 London Spitfire season was the second season of the London Spitfire's existence in the Overwatch League. The Spitfire entered the season as the defending Overwatch League champions after winning the 2018 Grand Finals.

The 2019 Paris Eternal season was the first season of Paris Eternal's existence in the Overwatch League. The team was one of eight expansion franchises added for the 2019 season. After the team posted a 3–4 record in Stage 1, head coach Julien Ducros left the team and was replaced by Félix Münch. Paris ended the season with a disappointing 11–17 record, did not manage to yield a winning record in any stage, and did not qualify for any of the stage playoffs nor the season playoffs.

The 2019 Philadelphia Fusion season was the second season of the Philadelphia Fusion's existence in the Overwatch League and their first under co-head coaches Go Se-hwi and Elliot Hayes. They entered the season looking to bounce back after their 2018 Grand Finals loss to the London Spitfire.

The 2019 Dallas Fuel season was the second season of the Dallas Fuel's existence in the Overwatch League and was their first full season under head coach Aaron "Aero" Atkins. The team looked to improve on their disappointing 12–28 record from 2018, where they did not qualify for the season playoffs.

The 2019 Guangzhou Charge season was the first season of Guangzhou Charge's existence in the Overwatch League as one of eight expansion franchises added for the 2019 season. The team had a subpar performance throughout the first three stages of the season, posting a 9–12 record through 21 matches with no stage playoff appearances. After the implementation of an enforced 2-2-2 role lock by the league, the Charge flourished, losing only one match in their final seven matches to give them a 15–13 record for the season. Finishing in 9th place in the overall standings, Guangzhou qualified for the Play-In Tournament, where they defeated the Chengdu Hunters in the first round, 4–1. However, they were unable to make it season playoffs, as they fell to the Seoul Dynasty by a score of 1–4 the following day.

The 2019 Seoul Dynasty season was the second season of the Seoul Dynasty's existence in the Overwatch League and is the team's first under head coach Kim "KDG" Dong-gun. The team looked to improve on their 2018 season, when they posted a 22–18 record and missed out on the season playoffs.

The 2019 Shanghai Dragons season was the second season of the Shanghai Dragons's existence in the Overwatch League and the team's first season under head coach We "BlueHaS" Seong-hwan. The Dragons looked to improve from their atrocious 0–40 season the prior year.

The 2020 Houston Outlaws season is the third season of the Houston Outlaws's existence in the Overwatch League (OWL). The Outlaws planned to host two homestand weekends at the Revention Music Center in Houston's downtown Theater District. While their first homestand took place, all other homestand matches were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020 Overwatch League season is the third season of the Overwatch League (OWL), a professional esports league for the video game Overwatch. The regular season began on February 8, 2020, and concluded on August 23. It was the first season that the league implemented a city-based, home-and-away format, with teams traveling between the global home venues to play regular season matches, making the OWL the first major esports league to feature such a format. However, this format was abandoned on March 31 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and all matches were thereafter played online, with the league introducing three midseason tournaments.

The 2021 Overwatch League season was the fourth season of the Overwatch League (OWL), a professional esports league for the video game Overwatch. The regular season began on April 16, 2021, and concluded on August 21. The season featured four midseason tournaments throughout the regular season along with a new point system for season playoff seeding. Similar to the 2020 season, teams are split into two geographical regions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most matches were played online, with the exception of several live events throughout the season. The season marks the second year of the Overwatch League's broadcast partnership with YouTube, their third with Sport1, and their first with Bilibili.

References

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