CAUTION: The following thread may contain traces/discussion of OWCS and it’s now-defunct predecessor, OWL. It is therefore advised that those sensitive to such topics, or to constructive discussion about Overwatch as a whole, close this window (or otherwise leave this page) and go try French Opera instead.
Hello, forumgoers, I’m Arena25, resident Overwatch Esports fan and humble (and much-hated) servant of these forums. The 2024 OWCS Finals, and thus the 2024 OWCS season, has finally come to a close. A big congratulations to Team Falcons for becoming the inaugural OWCS champions.
With OWCS 2024 now in the books, and with teams now getting a bit of a break until OWCS 2025 kicks off in January, that means most of the hidden - or not-so-hidden - Overwatch Esports fanatics have retreated to Reddit for the time being. However, much like those in-laws you just hosted for Thanksgiving and now won’t leave, I’ll be occasionally popping up every once in a while until we get closer to the actual season. Before that, though, allow me to debrief you.
Give me the 10,000 foot overview of what happened this season.
In short: APAC domination.
At the OWCS Major - which might be known for its technical issues as much as the play on stage (Dreamhack Wifi dethroning World of Warcraft servers on Patch Day as the “Worst servers to host a Blizzard LAN competition on”, The Son of the Great Unkoe Pause, the Proper Pause, etc.), Crazy Raccoon fell in an Upper Finals barnburner to their archrival Team Falcons, 3-2 - but proceeded to get the last laugh in the Grand Finals as Crazy Raccoon beat Team Falcons 4-2 to win the OWCS Major.
At the OWCS Finals, Team Falcons and Crazy Raccoon dominated once more, and while the matches between the two teams wasn’t exactly barnburner quality (which some unkind folk claim is due to Mauga needing major reworks), Team Falcons this time got the last word as they beat Crazy Raccoon in the Grand Finals to the tune of 4-1.
The 2 APAC teams being so dominant has left many viewers wondering if we need to just leave some of the NA and EMEA teams at home and bring more APAC teams to these LAN competition.
What will the OWCS 2025 format look like?
OWCS 2025 will have three stages across the globe and will feature three global live events. Each stage will be similar - starting with a regular season featuring the top teams in each region battling in regional play, which will determine their seeding into either a regional tournament (which will qualify select teams for the global events) OR a relegation match. More on relegation in a minute.
If you are a football fan - or soccer, whatever floats your lily, I guess - the format is similar to several European football leagues.
How many broadcasts can we expect?
OWCS 2025 has committed to making things more streamlined and easier to follow by broadcasting every regular season match and by making the program more consistent across regions (NA, EMEA, and APAC).
So how will OWCS determine the first stage’s top teams?
Via an open qualifier, which will be conducted in January, that will qualify the top 8-12 teams - depending on region - to the Stage 1 regular season.
And then what about Stage 2 and Stage 3?
Most of the teams will auto-qualify to subsequent stages, but the last 2 spots in each region will be decided via promotion and relegation matches.
Wait, RELEGATION?
Good, got your attention. Yes, the lowest-performing OWCS teams - based on regular season performance - will have to defend their spots against the scene’s top up-and-coming talent. In NA/EMEA, FACEIT Leagues will serve as the official qualifer for promotion to OWCS. In APAC, open qualifers will be hosted on WARA.GG, providing a pathway for teams that do not auto-qualify into the subsequent OWCS stage. Translation: If you are that one person who replies “I could take on all these OWCS teams solo” in my threads, then now’s the time to back up that talk and either put up or shut up.
The lowest-performing teams will be determined by the previous stage’s regular season standings, and will feature the bottom 2 regular season teams and the top 2 FACEIT League Masters teams.
Ok. Anything else?
As of now, no - the rest of the information - i.e. info about drops, where to watch, live event info, etc., etc. - will be shared closer to the start of the season, so I think it’ll be best if we reconvene in 2025 and let Season 14 take center stage for now.
That is all for now. We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope y’all finish strong in Season 13. Season 14 of Overwatch 2 kicks off on December 10, but for now, 
We’ll take the horse and sleigh all, across the fields a-snow, listenin’ to the jingle bells, everywhere we go. 