Intro
Welcome to another year of Overwatch Champions Series! In 2024, we introduced OWCS as a new, open ecosystem designed to give everyone a chance to watch, compete, and enjoy Overwatch Esports their way.
During the OWCS 2024 World Finals at DreamHack Stockholm, we shared a first look at our 2025 Season and the changes taking place, all designed to make OWCS more rewarding, competitive, and easier to follow. With OWCS 2025 Stage 1 nearly upon us, we’re excited to share everything you need to know to follow the OWCS 2025 Season.
Let's get started - read on to learn more about:
- Format, FACEIT League, and Hero Bans
- OWCS Partner Teams
- Stage 1 Schedule - Open Qualifier, Regular Season, and Champions Clash
- Stage 1 Viewership Incentives
- Where to Follow OWCS
- Stage 1 Esports Collection - Cosmic Bundles [AVAILABLE NOW!]
- Featured Co-Streamer Program
OWCS 2025 Season Overviews
The OWCS 2025 Season introduces several changes to the OWCS experience that streamline the format and make the action even more exciting to follow.
In 2025, OWCS will have four competitive regions - North America, EMEA, Asia, and China. Each region will start the OWCS 2025 Season with an Open Qualifier to determine the teams participating in the Regular Season. For Stage 1, Partner Teams will be automatically seeded into their respective regional Regular Season, with remaining spots being filled via the (currently ongoing) Open Qualifier. The top Six (6) Teams in NA, the top Five (5) Teams in EMEA, and the top Four (4) Teams in the Korean Sub-Region of Asia will all advance to face their region’s Partner Teams (and each other) in the Stage 1 Regular Season.
Once all regions have filled their eight-team lineups for the Regular Season, each Team will face off against one another in a Regional Round Robin (each Team plays in turn against every other Team once). At the end of the Regional Round Robin, the top six Teams will continue to battle it out in a double-elimination bracket to earn one of the coveted spots at a Live Event, while the bottom two Teams of each region will compete in a promotion/relegation tournament against their region’s top two Master Series FACEIT League Teams to try and stay in the following Stage of OWCS.
Master Series teams will compete across their entire FACEIT League Season to attempt to reach this tournament, with victory meaning a spot in the following Stage’s OWCS competition. Head here to learn more about FACEIT League, and how you can compete!
The top two Teams from each Regional Playoff will advance to the OWCS 2025 Champions Clash in Hangzhou, China! More details on seeding and qualification for the Midseason Championship and the OWCS 2025 World Finals will be announced at a later date. For more details on the full OWCS 2025 Format, head here.
The OWCS 2025 Season will also introduce Hero Bans during the Stage 1 Regular Season. We are excited to see how Hero Bans shake up the action in OWCS, and you can get a first look at the action during the NA and EMEA Open Qualifier this weekend!
Hero Bans require each team to choose a single hero per map to be excluded from play. Heroes can be banned twice per series (once per team), and heroes from the same role can’t be banned on the same map (e.g, if Team A bans Winston on Map 1, Team B must ban a Damage or Support hero for their ban on that map.) If a hero has been banned by each team in a series, that hero can no longer be banned by either team for the rest of the series.
Hero Bans will be featured in all Stage 1 competitions, including the Champions Clash in Hangzhou. We know how important it is to iterate on new ways to make OWCS the best experience for players and viewers alike, and we’re excited to test and learn on hero bans and other new features as we go through the 2025 Season. For more details on Hero Bans and their implementation in OWCS, check out our Stage 1 Competition Memo.
OWCS Partner Teams
As announced in our 2025 Update, we’re excited to be welcoming nine Partner Teams across NA, EMEA, and Asia into OWCS. We’re thrilled to be working with these teams as we enter a new era of the OWCS ecosystem, and we hope you’ll find your favorite to cheer on in 2025!
Our nine Partners Teams will receive a portion of the proceeds from several in-game Team packs across the year, including branded in-game cosmetics for fans to show their support for their favorite org. Let’s introduce our Partner Teams!
EMEA
Gen.G
An organization with deep roots in Overwatch’s competitive history, Gen.G is entering OWCS with a BANG! Signing Dae-hee “Crusty” Park - former head coach of 2024 OWCS Champions, Team Falcons. You can expect big things from this team in 2025!
Twisted Minds
Twisted Minds were a force to be reckoned with in 2024, winning EMEA’s first Stage championship and fighting hard through each playoff bracket in the Stages that followed, utilizing the strengths a wide hero pool and years of experience gives you when up against EMEA’s best. TM will look to stay consistent and aim once again for their spots in this year’s three global Live Events!
Virtus.pro
Virtus.pro surprised us all with last year’s OWCS performance. The EMEA dark horse ultimately missed out on a trip to DreamHack Stockholm by a single map against Twisted Minds. Lucky for them, 2025 provides fresh opportunities for the team to rise up to the challenge.
North America
Spacestation
Starting us off in North America is a familiar face from 2024. Spacestation is coming home to the USA, ready to take on NA’s finest. With a proven eye for talent yielding them two Stage championships in EMEA last year, SSG is sure to hit the ground running on opening day!
Team Liquid
Returning to Overwatch Esports, Team Liquid last fielded a roster in 2017, competing in Contenders Season Zero with a roster that included community staples like Robert “shadder2k” Mocanu and Jun-ho “Fury” Kim. Things have changed quite a bit since then, so we’re excited to see what this org can do in OWCS.
Asia
Crazy Raccoon
Dallas Major champions and World Finals runners-up, Crazy Raccoon, has been fielding four of five 2024 Role MVPs (Tank: Jun-bin “Junbin Park, Hitscan DPS: Jae-won “LIP Lee, Main Support: Yoo-min “CH0R0NG” Sung, and Flex Support: Jin-seo “Shu” Kim). Competition is fierce in a region filled with talent, but steel is forged in fire. It is safe to say that you can expect big things from this team going into this 2025!
T1
Another team returning to Overwatch Esports, T1 joins the OWCS as its own fearsome entity in 2025 to face off against the greatest teams in the world. With an unwavering org at their back, any roster T1 fields will be one to follow in 2025.
Team Falcons
2024 World Finals champions, Team Falcons were the picture of dominance in 2024. They faced their share of challenges, including a runner-up placement at the 2024 Dallas Major. Through sheer determination and hard work, they almost always managed to clutch things out when it mattered most - like the day they played 17 maps to qualify for a spot at the World Finals, which is still one of the crazier sentences you could possibly string together.
Zeta Division
In 2024, Zeta Division regularly contended with Crazy Raccoon and Team Falcons for domination in the Asia region. Falling just short of a spot in Stockholm, this powerhouse team looks to make their mark in OWCS history. Keep an eye on this high-powered org all year long!
Stage 1 Schedule - Open Qualifier, Regular Season, and Champions Clash
With our new format in place and new Teams ready for action, we’re ready to kick off Stage 1 of the OWCS 2025 Season!
The Open Qualifier for OWCS NA and EMEA runs from Thursday, Jan 16 to Sunday, Jan 19. EMEA’s competition kicks off at 9am PT/6pm CEST each day, with NA starting at 5:30pm PT/1:30am CET. The Open Qualifier is split into Swiss play on Thursday and Friday, and a Top 16 team bracket on Saturday and Sunday. The top 6 teams in NA and top 5 teams in EMEA will join their regions’ Partner Teams in the Regular Season of Stage 1.
From there, each region will play in a Round Robin Regular Season from Jan 31 - Feb 23 before starting their Playoffs, a six-team double-elimination bracket from Mar 1 to Mar 9. By the end of that bracket, each Region will have the top two Teams representing them at the OWCS 2025 Champions Clash!
The OWCS 2025 Champions Clash will take place in front of a live audience at the Hangzhou Esports Center in Hangzhou, China. We’re thrilled to be bringing live action-packed Overwatch gameplay to China once again. We hope you’ll join us in following all of the action the region has to offer!
Viewership Incentives
!Drops - One thing that isn’t changing in 2025 is our goal of giving you some of the best possible drops! With more broadcast days this year, we plan to provide even more viewership incentives across OWCS Broadcasts throughout each Stage’s Regular Seasons, Playoffs, and Live Events. We’ll be offering a collection of OWCS skins, sprays, icons, name cards, and more - stay tuned to our social channels for our Opening Weekend drops!
Where to Follow OWCS
A major goal in 2025 is to make OWCS easier to watch than ever before. Drops will be available exclusively on Twitch and YouTube, with additional streaming options on X. You can also follow the action across our social media channels listed below!
Social
Streaming
OWCS 2025 Stage 1 Prize Pool
Each Stage of the OWCS 2025 Season will have its own Prize Pool. Stay tuned for the official Stage 1 crowdfunding bundle, with unique and exclusive Overwatch Esports cosmetics that directly support your favorite Teams and Players!! We’ll reveal the Stage 1 crowdfunding bundle at a later date, so keep an eye on our social platforms (X and Instagram) as well as the official OWCS Discord for more information.
Overwatch Esports Cosmetics
To celebrate the start of the OWCS 2025 Season, we’ve re-introduced some beloved Overwatch League skins, but with an otherworldly twist! Check out the Cosmic Collection, featuring skins, icons, and name cards for Mercy, D.Va, Zenyatta, and Echo, as well as a new emote for Echo that will blast Lucio out of this world with her new turntable skills!
Featured Co-Streamers
One of the greatest successes of the OWCS 2024 Season was the introduction of our Featured Co-Streamer program. At the end of every broadcast day, we raid an OWCS co-streamer with a host of viewers - that’s you! - alongside bundles of in-game cosmetic codes to pass out to the truly dedicated fans of our scene.
We’re thrilled to continue to support this program in 2025 - and with more broadcast days than ever, you’ll have even more chances to win some free in-game loot and spend time with fellow Overwatch Esports fans and your favorite streamers!
Building up the Overwatch Esports community is one of our most important (and gratifying) goals in any given year. It’s the community around us that makes this work so satisfying, and we hope you can get in on those good vibes with us across the year. We’ll announce our first slate of Featured Co-Streamers soon, so keep an eye out!
On top of our Featured Co-Streamers, our Partner Teams will each have a dedicated Co-Streamer covering all the action of their respective Team’s matches. We’ll be announcing future Co-Streamers soon, so stay tuned on where you’ll need to be to earn some free loot, earn viewership incentives, and enjoy yourself each match day!
Finally, if you’re interested in being a Featured Co-Streamer yourself… you can sign up to be an official Co-Streamer here! Assuming your account is in good standing, you’re automatically approved to start streaming on whatever platform you like, and there are zero restrictions on making content from your streams to post on other platforms.
Conclusion
The Overwatch Esports team is beyond excited to present the OWCS 2025 Season and all of its improvements to you. These changes have been a labor of love carried by MANY hands, and we’re committed to making this year the best it can be for all of you!
If you have questions, concerns, or feedback on how to improve OWCS even further, please let us know on social media, reddit, or Discord. Thank you for reading - now let’s dive into action!
