➤Blizzard explains how home and away games will work in the Overwatch League 🕹

Blizzard is preparing a new game format for the Overwatch League (OWL), the home-and-away, as a traditional sports league. However, even if we knew what the league's ultimate goal was, Blizzard hasn't clarified how it would work. However, today the company decided to explain how its city-based sports league will work.

The OWL will turn into something like a roadshow. Blizzard will use the model called "homestand", in which each team will participate in several matches in their respective cities. Each team will spend at least two days at the homestands and some, like the Dallas Fuel, will have the opportunity to host up to 5 days. While the company will manage the broadcasts, the teams will choose and operate their own battle locations.

Matches will be played outside the home team environment (no more Blizzard Arena), with a total of 52 homestand events throughout the season. This new way of playing is a change that Blizzard was already planning and started testing this year. Even though the vast majority of Overwatch League games take place at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California, three weekends were organized this season to test the new format.

Blizzard explains how home and away games will work in the Overwatch League — Illustrative picture

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Despite the changes, several characteristics of the league will remain the same. There will be 28 regular season games available to teams and will continue with the number of 20 teams next year. However, these teams will be reorganized according to geographic location. The new divisions are as follows:

Pacific Conference

East Division: Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Seoul, Shanghai
West Division: Dallas, LA Gladiators, LA Valiant, San Francisco, Vancouver

Atlantic Conference

Southern Division: Atlanta, Florida, Houston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C.
Northern Division: Boston, London, New York, Paris, Toronto

Events will be split evenly between the four divisions, according to Spector. However, there is a disadvantage in this new format. An OWL season is divided into four stages, the first three of which meet in a series of mini playoffs that provide a little extra mid-season adrenaline before the grand finals later in the year. Utilizing the new format, the stage structure will be gone by 2020.

Source: The Verge