Jon Spector, VP of the Overwatch League, provided some updates and thoughts about the rest of the 2020 season this morning. In the TwitLonger, Spector talked about what the rest of the season might look like, including the playoffs, and beyond as they begin to prepare for the 2021 season.
It seems like the higher ups have been pleased with how the tournaments have gone down so far, and for good reason. The Summer Showdown provided some of the best Overwatch moments all year with fan excitement through the roof. In talking about the tournament format, Spector hinted at 2021 going with a similar structure. Regular season matches would continue to be qualifiers for the larger tournaments and the hope that homestands can resume next season is still there.
He also talks about the hero pool system which has gone through a lot of iterations since being implemented for the 2020 season. It took a lot of tweaking to get to the point where hero pools are now, but they proved exciting for the Summer Showdown as the first two weeks featured a limited pool but the final two weeks (including the actual tournament) allowed all heroes to be played. Spector stated the possibility of hero pools returning in 2021 as they take a look at how they want to approach them.
Finally, Spector shared thoughts on the 2020 end of season playoffs. It’s been hard having the league broken up into two regions with no cross-region matches all season due to the ongoing pandemic. Because of this, it seemed like not every team would have a fair chance to make the playoffs due to the sometimes drastically different strength of the regions. Spector brought up the point that all 20 teams will have a fair shot at being in the end of the season playoffs which could hint at something like the play-ins for the lower seeded teams much like the 2019 season.
Overall, the Overwatch League took some time to find its footing after the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench in everything the league had been building towards since its inception. With the last two tournaments a rousing success, there is a lot to look forward to as the league makes its final push towards the end of the season and beyond.
