Despite the current Activision-Blizzard controversy and many reports indicating that the season would be delayed, Overwatch League has announced plans to continue with the season on schedule. This announcement comes after several reports indicating that the League would be taking a long hiatus following the end of Season 4 on September 25. Yesterday, Blizzard’s Overwatch League VP, Jon Spector, took to Twitter to announce the start date for Season 5.

I’ve seen a lot of speculation regarding a 2022 start date for OWL. We can confirm that our plan is to begin next season in April 2022. We will share more details about 2022 roster construction timelines soon and more info generally on our 2022 season as we get closer to April.

— Jon Spector (@Spex_J) September 3, 2021

But that wasn’t the only surprise in store for fans of the sport. Following the announcement, Overwatch League spokespeople were quick to add that the new season would be played on an early version of Overwatch 2. What makes this development interesting is the way that teams work in Overwatch 2. Unlike its predecessor, the game operates in a 5v5 format, rather than a 6v6. It will be interesting to see how OWL teams adjust to this change. For now, though, Blizzard is keeping all other information under wraps.

We’ll have more details to share about our 2022 season as we get closer to the planned start date in April of next year.

-OWL Spokesperson

This news follows several reports of delays in the development of Overwatch 2. It could be possible that the preparation of the game for next season could be one of the causes for said delays. Despite being originally scheduled to come out in 2022, Overwatch 2 now stands without a clear release date. This has disappointed many fans of the game, who were eager to have new material following a series of disappointing updates for Overwatch. The fall in popularity of the first game is largely attributed to the majority of resources being shifted towards building the sequel.

That isn’t to say that everyone is excited about the new development. Many former fans of the game took to Twitter to express their distaste for the excitement surrounding the news. They were quick to point out that exciting news did not merit the absolution of Activision Blizzard.

Kinda crazy how last month it was off with the heads of Activision Blizzard but now a crumb of Overwatch 2 news dropped and ppl giving them a free pass and forgetting.. Weird. pic.twitter.com/BLcxDripBJ

— K I A N A™ (@kianamarrie) September 3, 2021