2021 Overwatch League season

Regions and live events After all matches were rescheduled to be played strictly online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 season saw the OWL divide teams into two regions, North America and Asia, in an effort to reduce lag due to online play. For the 2021 season, the twenty teams were divided into two regions, the East and West. Eight teams from China and South Korea competed in the East Region, while twelve teams from North America and Europe competed in the West Division. The majority of matches in the 2021 season were played online. Three live events were planned to be hosted by three teams in China: Hangzhou Spark in June, Shanghai Dragons in July, and Guangzhou Charge in August. All five China-based teams travelled to these events, while the three Korea-based teams played at the events remotely via the league's cloud server. The Charge's homestand in August was cancelled, however, due to COVID-19 concerns. Additionally, the Dallas Fuel hosted a homestand in July at Esports Stadium Arlington. Midseason tournaments The league expanded upon the tournament format that was introduced in the 2020 season. Four standalone tournaments, the May Melee, June Joust, Summer Showdown, and Countdown Cup, were spread throughout the regular season with teams from both regions competing against each other. Hero pools, a system in which some heroes are unplayable, were used in two of the four tournaments: the June Joust and Countdown Cup. For each tournament, teams played four weeks of regional qualifier matches. The top six teams from the West and the top four teams from the East advanced to regional knockout matches, and the top two teams from each region advanced from the knockouts to play in the interregional tournament. In an effort to minimize lag, the qualifying Western teams traveled to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for each interregional tournament. The internet service provider at the University of Hawaii was directly connected to a cloud-based server in Tokyo, Japan via an underwater sea cable, while the qualifying Eastern teams did not travel anywhere and connected to the Tokyo server from Asia. With this setup, the league was able to equal latencies for all participating players with a "minimum-latency tool" developed by Activision. Season playoffs Contrasted to previous seasons, where playoff seeding was determined by teams' win–loss record throughout the regular season, the league implemented a point system, called League Points, to determine regular season standings. Every win in the regular season earned a team one point. A first-, second-, or third-place finish in each midseason tournament earned the placing team an additional three, two, or one point, respectively. == Regular season ==

The 2021 schedule was released on February 20, 2021, and the regular season began on April 16. ;East region ;West region May Melee The May Melee was the first of four midseason tournaments of the season. Qualifiers began on April 16 and concluded on May 1. The regional knockouts began on May 2, and the May Melee tournament between the top two teams from each region began on May 7. Qualifiers began on May 21 and concluded on June 5. The regional knockouts began on June 6, and the May Melee tournament between the top two teams from each region began on June 11. Qualifiers began on July 30 and concluded on August 14. The regional knockouts take place on August 15, and the tournament began on August 19. Qualifiers ;East region ;West region Regional knockouts ;East region ;West region Tournament weekend == Postseason ==

Play-in tournaments The play-in tournaments were two regional single-elimination tournaments that took place September 4–5 and advanced two Western teams and one Eastern team to the season playoffs. In the Western region, seeds four through nine, based on regular season standings, advanced to the Western play-in tournament. The first round was contested by seeds six through nine, with the sixth seed selecting either the eighth or ninth seed as their opponent. The winners of the first round advanced to the finals, with the fourth seed choosing their opponent from the winners of the first round. In the Eastern region, seeds three through five, based on regular season standings, advanced to the Eastern play-in tournament. The fourth and fifth seed competed in the first round, and the winner of the first round faced the third seed in the final. In both regions, the winner of the finals advanced to the season playoffs. however, the OWL announced on August 25, 2021, that all playoff matches, including the Grand Finals, would not be played in a live format due to increasing risks of COVID-19 and the Delta variant. Instead, the West region playoff teams travelled to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, while the East region teams played in their home country, to minimize latency between competing teams. Bracket == Notable events ==

Chinese teams boycott Saebyeolbe On April 12, 2021, while streaming on Twitch, Seoul Dynasty player Park "Saebyeolbe" Jong-ryeol commented about frustration trying to appeal to a Chinese audience while streaming on the Chinese streaming platform DouYu. In an English translation, Park said during his Twitch stream, "I can't say Taiwan and [Hong Kong]. At all. They (China) don't recognize them as countries. I got into so much trouble for saying their names. Make it make sense. What are you talking about, 'One China?' So I objected to that and all the managers said, 'If you want to earn Chinese money, you have to become a Chinese dog.' So that's what I'm doing right now. I can even say, 'Thanks for subscribing' in Chinese. Aren't I good at Chinese?" Two days after the comments, Park apologized via a handwritten note on Instagram. Nearly three weeks after the apology, the four Chinese teams of the Overwatch League — the Shanghai Dragons, Chengdu Hunters, Hangzhou Spark, and Guangzhou Charge — announced that they would not participate in any Overwatch League event in which Park was present. As of August 18, 2021, Park has not appeared in a match since the incident. Soft salary cap investigation In July 2021, Dot Esports reported that the Civil Conduct Task Force of the United States Department of Justice antitrust division was investigating whether or not the league's soft salary cap policy violated the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, as the player's are not unionized. The league's soft salary cap per team in 2020 was , and if a team went over that amount, they would have to pay additional money to the league, which would be distributed to other teams. In October 2021, Sports Business Journal reported that the OWL would be eliminating their competitive balance tax and maximum salary caps. League sponsorship pulled In July 2021, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and discrimination taking place within the Blizzard workplace. Later, Kellogg's stated they "will not be moving forward" with their sponsorship of the Overwatch League. Additionally, Sports Business Journal observed that IBM branding was removed from all Overwatch League media, including the league's official partners' page and power rankings. In mid-August 2021, the only sponsor present during Overwatch League broadcasts was voice-over-Internet Protocol software company TeamSpeak. ==Awards==

Individual awards Role Stars Source: == Media ==

The season marked the second year of the Overwatch League's the three-year broadcast contract with YouTube, which did not include broadcast rights for China. For the 2021 season, YouTube introduced clipping functionality for their videos and allowed OWL games to be rendered in 4K resolution. Under a new, multi-year contract, Bilibili obtained production and broadcast rights in China. Bilibili has a similar deal with Riot Games' League of Legends international competitions and, prior to the deal with the Overwatch League, secured hosting rights for Overwatch Contenders and Overwatch Open Division in China. Activision Blizzard renewed a deal for TV-exclusive rights to the Overwatch League in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland with Sport1; the multi-year contract was signed after their two-year deal with Sport1 concluded. == Winnings ==

Teams in the 2021 season competed for a total prize pool of across midseason tournaments and playoffs, with the payout division detailed below. ;May Melee ;June Joust ;Summer Showdown ;Countdown Cup ;Season playoffs == References ==