The Overwatch League went on a few week hiatus to prepare for the next tournament following the wild success of the May Melee that saw two regions battle it out for bragging rights and wins for overall standings. League play is officially back starting June 13th which means the beginning of OWL’s newest tournament, the Summer Showdown.
The Summer Showdown will work much like the May Melee did. Each North America team will play three matches over the course of the next three weeks and each Asia team will play four matches. These matches will determine the seeding for the single elimination bracket at the beginning of July. There is a combined $275,000 prize pool with the winners of each bracket (NA and Asia) getting $50,000. Along with the prize money, the winner of each tournament will receive an additional three bonus wins toward their season standings. Second place teams will receive two wins while third and fourth place receive one.
The league also announced one final tournament in August and additional matches after that tournament until each team in the league has played 21 matches in the regular season. Playoffs will begin after, but specific details about the August tournament and the season playoffs haven’t been announced yet.
Hero pools will also be back for the Summer Showdown, but will work differently than before. Now, hero pools will last two weeks and the two weeks after that will operate without any pool. This means the first two weekends of the Summer Showdown will have a hero pool while the third weekend and the tournament will be played without any hero pools. The August tournament will work the same way. Additionally, the final two weeks of regular season play will have a hero pool and the season playoffs will not. The hero pool for the first two weekends of the Summer Showdown will be Echo, Sombra, D.Va and Brigitte.
The rest of the 2020 Overwatch League season will operate on a tournament-style format. This makes sense given the success and overwhelming support shown for the May Melee tournament. Who knows how the league will approach their schedule in 2021, but if these next two tournaments prove to be just as successful, this might be the new normal going forward.
Source: Overwatch League
