Overwatch League Announces Summer Showdown Tournament Beginning June 13, and Hero Pool Updates

The Overwatch League today announced its Summer Showdown, a tournament that will run over the next four weeks of its season. The new tournament is very similar to last month’s successful May Melee, which was well-received by fans, teams, and players.

Beginning June 13 and running through the last three weeks of June, all 20 teams will play qualifier matches (three per team in North America and four in Asia). Team records, map scores, and standard tiebreakers in those qualifier matches will determine team seeding in two regional tournaments in North America (July 3-5) and Asia (July 4-5). The schedule for all qualifiers matches – which count toward the regular season standings – is available online at overwatchleague.com/schedule.

Both tournaments have a combined US $275,000 prize pool. For more information on the structure of the tournaments, including rules and brackets for each, visit overwatchleague.com.

After the Summer Showdown, there will be a final tournament in a similar format, with qualifier matches and bracket play in Asia and North America. This will be followed by balancing matches to get all teams to 21 matches played before playoffs begin. The 2020 playoffs, like the tournaments, will be played without a Hero Pool. More details on 2020 playoffs and Grand Finals will be announced later this summer.

In order to make it easier for teams to prepare for tournaments and the rest of the season, the Overwatch League is making some changes to the Hero Pools system. A single Hero Pool will be determined before the start of June matches and will remain in effect for Weeks 19 and 20 of the qualifier matches. D.Va, Echo, Sombra, and Brigitte will not be available for those weeks.

Week 21 will be the same as the tournaments, with no Hero Pool. The same format will be used for the final tournament. The final two weeks of the regular-season schedule will also operate under a single Hero Pool. Overwatch Contenders will utilize the same Hero Pool as the Overwatch League. For information on changes to Hero Pools in Competitive Play, visit playoverwatch.com.