The developers at Overwatch announced some changes for their esports program. They believe that Overwatch is a game for everyone and that should translate to their esports program. They also wanted to created regionally based tournaments

The first new circuit is the Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS). This is an international event that allows all players to compete in their regions for a spot at the main event. It includes North America (NA), Europe, Middle East, South Africa (EMEA), and Asia. It starts with an open qualifier allowing players to form their own teams.

In NA and EMEA, four competitive stages throughout the year and two international OWCS event will allow players to earn circuit points. Each stage involves an Open Qualifier and Main Event. Those who finish in the top during these stages earn circuit points. The higher the amount of circuit points, the higher the team ranks on the leader board is seeded in each event. Those three stages are called Swiss, Groups, and the Main Event. The Swiss phase will have 512 teams to qualify 16 teams into Groups. Groups and Swiss are considered the Open Qualifier. The top two teams from this Open Qualifier will move to the main event.

For the NA and EMEA tournament, Overwatch is partnering with FACEIT. They will be using their infrastructure to allow players to connect to a network with competitions, teams, brackets, and standings. This allows Overwatch to simply the experience for players. This will be out and streamlined March 1st, 2024.

With this tournament, Overwatch wants to create a regional experience which is why the Asia circuit is separate from the NA and EMEA circuit. There will be three regional subdivisions: Korea, Japan, and Pacific. The subdivisions will each have their own open qualifiers tailored specifically to each region. They will have championship rounds for these subdivisions. There will be an overall tournament for all of Asia and those winners will go to the international tournament.

Asia will be using WARA.GG for each of the subdivisions to compete in. This will be their exclusive registration platform. It will contain all match related information and allow players to engage with all of the excitement of the game.

With this new Esports program, the developers for Overwatch partnered with DreamHack to create a new event. They will be hosting two international tournaments; one in the summer and one in the fall. The first event is called DreamHack Dallas and will host the first international tournament. This event will take place on May 31st – June 2nd. The season finals will bring in-person Overwatch events to Europe. This fall, players will go to DreamHack Stockholm to compete in the final matches. This will be were they crown the first OWCS champion.