The 2023 Overwatch League season was the sixth season of the Overwatch League (OWL), a professional esports league for the video game Overwatch 2. The teams were split between two regions: the East and the West. The season commenced with a preseason pro-am tournament held in the West Region, where Overwatch Contenders teams competed against Overwatch League teams. In the East Region, Overwatch Contenders teams joined the regular season alongside the established Overwatch League teams. The regular season was divided into two stages: Spring and Summer. The Spring stage, which began on April 27, concluded with the Midseason Madness, an interregional midseason tournament hosted in Seoul, South Korea. The Summer stage concluded with play-ins, season playoffs, and the Grand Finals. The playoffs were scheduled to take place at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Canada.
Several teams changed branding and regions for the 2023 season. The Paris Eternal relocated to Las Vegas and rebranded as the Vegas Eternal, becoming the league's first team to switch cities. The Philadelphia Fusion shifted its base to Seoul and rebranded as the Seoul Infernal. The Los Angeles Valiant returned to the West Region after competing in China, while the Dallas Fuel moved from the West to the East Region. Furthermore, the Chengdu Hunters disbanded.
Overwatch League teams initiated a collective bargaining process, seeking financial assistance to address operating costs and viewership challenges. The teams enlisted the representation of British law firm Sheridans to negotiate with Activision Blizzard. This collective bargaining process led to the agreement between OverActive Media, the owner of the Toronto Defiant, and the Overwatch League. As part of the deal, Toronto Defiant signed a sponsorship agreement with the league, and the Overwatch League agreed to waive the outstanding franchise fees owed by all of the teams.
League format and changes Format In contrast to the previous seasons, which were usually split into four stages, the 2023 season was divided into two stages: Spring and Summer. The Spring stage culminated in the Midseason Madness, an interregional midseason tournament. The Summer stage was followed by the play-ins, season playoffs, and Grand Finals. In each stage, the Eastern region was divided into three sections: opens, qualifiers, and knockouts. Overwatch Contenders teams competed in the Opens, Overwatch League teams competed in the qualifiers, and both competed in the knockouts. In the Western region, no Contenders teams competed, and each stage started with qualifiers, with only the Spring stage having knockouts. In the Spring Stage, the top teams from the knockouts advanced to the Midseason Madness.
Rosters construction
Prior to the start of the season, all teams were required to have a minimum of six players and a maximum of 12 players signed to season-long contracts. Teams could sign players for a minimum of one season and could add an option to extend that contract for an additional year if they chose to do so. Teams were also allowed to sign players to short-term 30-day contracts, which could only be used on a given player once per season, and two-way contracts. The league reduced the minimum age required to compete from 18 to 17. Additionally, the minimum salary was increased to . The free agency window was initially planned to open on November 19, 2022. However, after the announcement that Blizzard's licensing agreement with NetEase in China would expire on January 23, 2023, the league delayed the beginning of free agency to December 2, 2022. A day before the new start of free agency, the league once again moved back its starting date to December 23.
Teams and regions Several teams relocated for the 2023 season. The Paris Eternal relocated to Las Vegas and rebranded to the Vegas Eternal. With their relocation, they became the first OWL team to relocate to a different city. The relocation also left the London Spitfire as the only European representative in the league. The Philadelphia Fusion also relocated to Seoul and rebranded to the Seoul Infernal, marking the first time that an OWL team has made a full rebrand. Since the 2020 season, the Fusion had been running their operations in South Korea; with the rebrand, the Infernal made Seoul their permanent base of operation. The Los Angeles Valiant, who had been competing out of China in the East Region for the past several seasons, returned to the West Region. The 2022 season champions Dallas Fuel also moved from the West region to the East.
Due to Blizzard's licensing agreement with NetEase in China ending, which resulted in the four Chinese OWL teams not being legally allowed to play Overwatch 2 in their country, the East Region expanded to allow Contenders teams to compete in the OWL. A total of 12 teams from several Contenders regions played in Spring Stage Opens, and the top teams from the Opens played in the OWL Spring Stage. Moreover, the league announced on April 18, 2023, that the Chengdu Hunters would not play in the Spring Stage qualifiers, as the Hunters were "[contemplating] the future direction of their team."
Preseason pro-am The official start to the season was preceded with a pro-am tournament in the West Region that began on March 23, 2023, in which Overwatch Contenders (OWC) teams played against OWL teams. A total of 20 teams — seven OWC teams and the 13 OWL Western Region teams — were split equally into four groups. The top eight teams from the group stage advanced to a single-elimination tournament, and the winner of the tournament will won $100,000.
Group stage
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Bracket
Overall standings The overall standings determined which teams advance to the postseason. Qualification for the postseason is different for the East and West regions.
East region Qualification for the postseason was determined by average placements in the Spring and Summer knockouts. The top two teams from the East advanced directly to the playoffs, and any OWL teams that were not already in the top two advanced to the play-ins.
West region Qualification for the postseason was determined by winning percentage in the Spring and Summer qualifiers. The top three teams advanced directly to the season playoffs, while the following seven teams advanced to the play-ins. The remaining two teams that emerged from the play-ins also advanced to the season playoffs, finalizing the 5 teams advancing to the season playoffs.
Regular season Spring stage The Spring Split began on April 27, 2023. East region The Eastern region Spring stage was divided into three sections: opens, qualifiers, and knockouts. The Spring stage began with opens, where Overwatch Contenders teams competed to play in the OWL. The top four teams that make it past the opens joined Overwatch League teams in the Spring Eastern regional knockouts. Then, the Eastern Overwatch League teams competed in the qualifiers; every team advanced past the qualifiers, as they only acted as seeding for the knockouts. All Eastern OWL teams and qualified Contenders teams then competed in the Eastern knockouts. The top two teams from the knockouts advanced to the Midseason Madness.
Qualifiers
Knockouts Bracket A
Bracket B
West region The West region Spring stage was divided into two sections: qualifiers and knockouts. The top two teams from the qualifiers advanced directly to the Midseason Madness, while the following eight advanced to the knockouts. The top two teams from the knockouts also advanced to the Midseason Madness.
Qualifiers
Knockouts
Midseason Madness The Midseason Madness was a double elimination tournament that was the culmination of the Spring Stage and featured six teams — four from the West and two from the East. The event took place from June 15 to 17 in Seoul, South Korea, at the Korea International Exhibition Center. It marked the first time that the OWL has held a live event in the APAC region.
Bracket
Summer stage The Summer stage began on July 12, 2023.
East region Similar to the Spring stage, the Eastern region Summer stage was divided into three sections: opens, qualifiers, and knockouts. The Summer stage began with opens, where Overwatch Contenders teams competed, and the top teams there advanced to the Summer Eastern regional knockouts. Unlike the Spring stage, both the Eastern Overwatch League teams and Overwatch Contenders teams that competed in the Spring stage knockout also competed in the qualifiers. Every team advanced past the qualifiers, as they only acted as seeding for the knockouts.
Qualifiers
Knockouts Bracket A
Bracket B
West region For the Summer stage, the West region only had qualifiers. Qualifiers
Postseason Play-in tournaments East
West
Playoffs
Five teams from the West Region and three teams from the East Region advanced to the season playoffs, which took place at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Canada. These teams were divided into groups of four and competed in separate double-elimination brackets over three days. The top two teams from each bracket then entered a four-team, single-elimination Grand Finals bracket. All matches in the Grand Finals bracket were held on October 1, and the winner was crowned the 2023 Overwatch League champion, receiving a trophy and a prize of . Second and third places also earned substantial rewards, with $400,000 and $225,000, respectively. Monetary rewards extended to the sixth-place team.
Bracket
Awards Individual awards Award Recipient Most Valuable Player Ham "Someone" Jeong-wan (Florida Mayhem) Dennis Hawelka Award Ham "Someone" Jeong-wan (Florida Mayhem) Alarm Rookie of the Year Kim "Donghak" Min-sung (Atlanta Reign) Coach of the Year Jordan "Gunba" Graham (Florida Mayhem) Grand Finals MVP Choi "Mer1t" Tae-min (Florida Mayhem)
Role Stars DamageTankSupport Kim "Zest" Hyun-woo (Seoul Infernal) Choi "Hanbin" Han-been (Dallas Fuel) Han "Chiyo" Hyeon-seok (Atlanta Reign) Jeong "Stalk3r" Hak-yong (Atlanta Reign) Lee "Fearless" Eui-seok (Houston Outlaws) Kim "Skewed" Min-seok (Seoul Infernal) Huang "Leave" Xin (Hangzhou Spark) Kim "Mag" Tae-sung (Seoul Infernal) Kwon "Fielder" Joon (Atlanta Reign) Lee "Lip" Jae-won (Atlanta Reign) Ham "Someone" Jeong-wan (Florida Mayhem) Kwon "Fixa" Yeong-hun (Seoul Infernal)
Source:
Notable events Collective bargaining and Defiant deal According to esports journalist Jacob Wolf, Overwatch League teams retained British law firm Sheridans to start a collective bargaining process against the league, in an attempt to receive financial assistance after several years of high operating costs and low viewership. OverActive Media, the owners of the Toronto Defiant, was leading this collective bargaining effort, as reported by Wolf.