Overwatch League announces 2020 season schedule

After the sharing of some high-level details about what’s in store for the future of the Overwatch League, a full schedule for the upcoming 2020 season has been finally announced.

To kick off the third season of the Overwatch League and fully implement the highly anticipated home-and-away format, the league will begin with a weekend of competitive play hosted by the Dallas Fuel and the New York Excelsior.

The Overwatch League is the world’s first global Esports league with city-based teams where each team franchise will host at least two weekends of competition in the new home-and-away season schedule format throughout the course of the season with two to four games a day hosted in the area of the home team.

In Dallas, the “opening weekend” event will feature two matches on Saturday and Sunday featuring the Fuel taking on the Los Angeles Valiant on Feb. 8 and the San Francisco Shock on Feb. 9. Opening weekend in Dallas will take place at Esports Stadium Arlington, the largest dedicated Esports venue in North America. After the success of the Dallas Fuel’s homestand weekend in April, the team was awarded the maximum of five weekends of competition in its market.

As part of the shift to a new tournament model, the Overwatch League will divide its 20 partnered franchises up into two global divisions, either the Pacific or Atlantic Conference, each with an associated secondary subdivision.

The Fusion will play 28 regular-season matches and compete in the Atlantic Conference’s Southern Division, which also includes the Mayhem, Justice, Reign and Outlaws.

Because of travel and scheduling requirements, the 2020 season will no longer be split into stages. However, the league will still host its annual midseason All-Stars event. The schedule has been designed to allow teams to have enough time to practice and rest between games after taking into account the stress that comes with traveling for international competition.