Blizzard has released the schedule for the second season of the Overwatch League, starting February 14th.
The schedule includes – for the first time – home games that will venture outside of Los Angeles. Dallas Fuel, Atlanta Reign, and Los Angeles Valiant will all host matches in their home cities, starting from late April.
Dallas Fuel’s host matches will take place in the Allen Event Center on April 27-28th, and it’ll include the Chengdu Hunters, Hangzhou Spark, Houston Outlaws, London Spitfire, Paris Eternal, Los Angeles Valiant, and Seoul Dynasty.
Atlanta Reign’s host matches will be at an unspecified venue over July 6-7th, with the Florida Mayhem, Guangzhou Charge, New York Excelsior, Philadelpha Fusion, Shanghai Dragons, Toronto Defiant, and Washington Justice all taking part.
On August 24-25th, Los Angeles Valiant will host matches at The Nova by Microsoft for Atlanta Reign, Boston Uprising, Dallas Fuel, Hangzhou Spark, Los Angeles Gladiators, New York Excelsior, Vancouver Titans, San Francisco Shock, and Shanghai Dragons.
Eight new franchises have joined the Overwatch League for the second season in the form of expansion slots, which ranged in price anywhere between $30-60 million. The new teams to join in with the action are Atlanta Reign, Toronto Defiant, Paris Eternal, Guangzhou Charge, Chengdu Hunters, Hangzhou Spark, Vancouver Titans, and Washington Justice.
With the competition now including 20 teams, the total matches played in the regular season for each team have been reduced from 40 to 28. This change, besides accommodating the new competitors, is to allow the franchises to have more time to build their fan bases and to produce content outside of competition-focused pieces.
Esports Insider says: The home games will be an interesting trial for regular home and away matches, which are said to be implemented into the regular season of the Overwatch League in 2020. The less-intensive season is a good idea overall as some teams and players were undergoing very strenuous schedules.
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