After months of waiting, the highly anticipated 5th season of the Overwatch League will begin on May 5th.
Today, the Overwatch League released a YouTube video officially announcing that the 5th season will begin on May 5th 2022, in a nice play on 5/5/5.
OWL desk host Soe Gschwind, caster and Overwatch League Product Team Member Matt "Mr. X" Morello, and new head of the Overwatch League Sean Miller provided the first beefy update on the upcoming season in months. Getting questions from "reputable esports journalists," fans, and the community, Soe led a panel hitting the major announcements for the Overwatch League 2022 season. You can find the full video on the Overwatch League YouTube channel.
5/5/5 -The Season Begins
The Overwatch League 2022 season will begin on May 5th, 2022 and will consist of a total of 24 matches, much less than the inaugural season's 40 and slightly more than the 21 matches of the previous season, which according to Sean Miller, would produce interesting round robins.
Mr. X admits that looking at the regional split will look "kind of ugly in terms of the numbers," but looking at the overall season, it works out as it allows all the teams in both regions to play each other at least once.
Interestingly, according to a new report by Sports Business Journal, the OWL may outsource its operations to a third party. However, a report over on Dexerto claims the OWL Teams are unaware of such a development.
The opening weekend will also see the return of the New York Excelsior to the Western region as they play against the Los Angeles Gladiators. This also marks the highly anticipated return of DPS player Patiphan "Patiphan" Chaiwong to Overwatch after retiring from VALORANT.
The Return of Live Events and Tournaments
But arguably, another big announcement made was the return of live events in OWL. Having been devastated in 2020 due to the currently ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Miller confirmed that they are planning more live events this year.
Details are upcoming, and pending safety conditions, this would mark the first time in two years that everyone would be under one roof.
Four tournaments have also been announced for the 2022 season, which includes the new regional Kickoff Clash and global Midseason Madness tournament and the return of the regional Summer Showdown and the Countdown Cup.
In these tournaments, the Western region will have eight teams that qualify and the Eastern regions will provide four qualifying teams. The Midseason Madness tournament, a twelve-team playoff global tournament, will boast an astounding six straight days of Overwatch professional gameplay.
League Points, Drops, and the Broadcast Team
League Points also make their return, teams will get one point for automatically qualifying for a tournament and having more League Points up for grabs during the global tournaments. Qualifying for them will be slightly different however; for Midseason Madness and the playoffs, all of the League Points up until that point will be considered for qualification with eight teams from the West and four from the East entering.
For Playoffs, there will be another play-in after the Countdown Cup has concluded. The top six from the West and top three from the East will automatically be in. The goal according to Mr. X, is to have the best teams to go into the playoffs without feeling left behind due to roster changes and other circumstances that could occur throughout the season.
Drops are also returning, along with tournament skins, which include the 2021 Shanghai Dragons Championship skin. Miller also confirmed the return of old and new faces to the broadcasting team, but no details on those have been released yet. Yet it can be inferred from the video that Soe, desk analysts Scott "Custa" Kennedy and Danny Lim, and Mitch "UberShouts" Leslie will return for Overwatch League 2022.