The Overwatch League (OWL) has scheduled 16 games for this coming weekend. This comes after multiple schedule complications due to the coronavirus. The games will be played online and streamed on the OWL YouTube channel.
This weekend’s matches
The weekend will kick off at 1 a.m. PST on Saturday with the Guangzhou Charge taking on the Shanghai Dragons. None of the Chinese teams have played any OWL matches yet due to the coronavirus, and they will all play twice over the weekend. The Seoul Dynasty will also be playing its first two games this weekend.
There will be three groups of teams playing against each other. All ten Atlantic Conference teams will be in a group, the four Chinese teams will be in a group, and the remaining six Pacific Conference teams will be in a group.
The Chinese teams will play at 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. PST. The rest of the games will begin at 11 a.m. PST with each game scheduled two hours apart. There will be eight games on Saturday and eight more on Sunday.
2 days. 16 games. Welcome back everybody 💪#OWL2020 returns in epic fashion this weekend 🙌
📺 https://t.co/tbTGBrUfiE pic.twitter.com/HrG8t3a8qB
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) March 23, 2020
What to expect moving forward
The rest of the 2020 OWL season will likely take place online in a similar format. The coronavirus is still spreading and there is no telling when things will go back to normal. The OWL has already canceled its mid-season event and moved its all-star event to the end of the season.
It is also likely that the OWL will continue to schedule games in a weekly manner while they monitor the situation. If there is a chance that Homestands could return later in the year, they will surely want to resume playing games with live audiences, as originally planned.
For now, it will be nice to have something for OWL fans to watch over the weekend while staying inside. It should be fun to see the Chinese and Pacific teams that haven’t played much yet. Enjoy the 16 games!
