The final stretch of the Overwatch League 2021 season begins on Sept. 21, with the eight teams from around the world qualified for the playoffs going head to head for a spot in the grand finals.
After the remaining teams fought through the play-ins to make it this far, the first matches are decided. In a live stream on the Overwatch League channel, the highest seed Shanghai Dragons picked their opponent — and then the rest of the teams (in seeding order) got to choose theirs. Once those four big matchups are done, and the winners from them face off, only two teams will remain. They will go on to face off in the grand finals on Sept. 25 to determine the Overwatch League 2021 season champions.
Who is playing in the 2021 Overwatch League playoffs?
The eight teams involved in the season playoffs include:
- Shanghai Dragons (No. 1)
- Dallas Fuel (No. 2)
- Chengdu Hunters (No. 3)
- Los Angeles Gladiators (No. 4)
- Atlanta Reign (No. 5)
- San Francisco Shock (No. 6)
- Philadelphia Fusion (No. 7)
- Washington Justice (No. 8)
The first match kicks off between the Dallas Fuel and Washington Justice beginning at 7 p.m, followed by the remaining three initial matches. Then, since these playoffs will keep the double-elimination format that was common during the regular season tournaments, the losers will drop down to the lower bracket to see who gets another shot at the grand finals.
Those who win the first matches will start things off the next day, Sept. 22, at 7 p.m. ET and 8:30 p.m. ET. Then, the two losers bracket games will be played, resulting in the first two teams to get eliminated. The same repeats itself for the following days, and as the playoff games whittle down, the Overwatch League 2021 Grand Finals start on September 25, at 9 p.m. ET.
Nine new skins are available through watching playoffs live
The Overwatch League has also decided to throw in more new exclusive skins for live playoff viewers.
School is back in session, and so are Overwatch League Perks 📚
Link your account and watch the #OWL2021 playoffs to earn up to NINE Overwatch League skins!
🎓 https://t.co/WZRpWPePP6 pic.twitter.com/I6exAh887w
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) September 9, 2021
Watching three hours will give you the first three skins of Reinhardt, Soldier 76 and Torbjorn. Then, watching three more gets you the Junkrat, Roadhog and Sombra skins added on top. Finally, if you watch nine total hours of the playoffs, you get the final three skins of Doomfist, Hanzo and McCree. The announcement makes this year’s playoffs the biggest opportunity to get free skins for watching the league, ever.
