Hangzhou Spark vs. New York Excelsior - NOW LIVE


Week 20 • Day 1


VS.

Hangzhou Spark
 
New York Excelsior
Season: 6-7 -4
 
Season: 11-3 +21

Pregame

 
 
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WATCH LIVE: OverwatchLeague.com (Tokens Enabled Here!)


Heroes banned from Week 20


Echo

Sombra

D.Va

Brigitte
Click here for details on the new Tournament system:

We’ve almost reached the midpoint of the 2020 Overwatch League season, and today we’re announcing a complete May schedule with all 20 teams in action, and the introduction of new single-elimination regional tournaments.

New Tournaments

During the first three weeks of May, all 20 teams will play qualifier matches (three per team in North America and four in Asia). Team records, map scores, and standard tiebreakers in those qualifier matches will determine team seeding in two regional tournaments in North America (May 22-24) and Asia (May 23-24).

Both tournaments have a combined US $225,000 prize pool with the following tiers:

  • Tournament champions—$40,000
  • Second place teams—$20,000
  • Third and fourth place teams—$5,000
  • Each tournament win per team—$5,000 (in addition to placement prizing)

The teams competing in each region for the May qualifying matches and tournaments:

  • North America (13): Atlanta Reign, Boston Uprising, Dallas Fuel, Florida Mayhem, Houston Outlaws, Los Angeles Gladiators, Los Angeles Valiant, Paris Eternal, Philadelphia Fusion, San Francisco Shock, Toronto Defiant, Vancouver Titans, and Washington Justice
  • Asia (7): Chengdu Hunters, Guangzhou Charge, Hangzhou Spark, London Spitfire, New York Excelsior, Shanghai Dragons, and Seoul Dynasty

Shared tournament rules:

  • Hero Pools suspended for all tournament matches—all heroes will be available.
  • Matches are first-to-three map wins until the finals, which will be first-to-four maps.
  • Higher-seeded teams pick the first map.
  • The losing team of each map picks the next map in the series.
  • In case of draws, the team that picked the previous map picks again.

Here’s the North America tournament brackets:

1422-bracket-NA-1.png

1422-bracket-NA-2.png

Specific rules for the North America tournament:

  • Qualification: The 12 vs. 13 seed match does not count for prizing
  • Knockouts: The 5-7 seeds get to pick their opponent, with the 5 seed selecting first.
  • Quarterfinals: The 1-4 seeds get an automatic bye to this round, and the 1-3 seeds get to pick their opponent from advancing teams, with the 1 seed selecting first.
  • Semifinals and Finals: Fixed matchups based on progression through the bracket.

And here’s the Asia tournament bracket:

1422-bracket-AP-1.png

Specific rules for the Asia tournament:

  • All seven teams qualify with no qualification match.
  • Quarterfinals: The 2 and 3 seeds get to pick their opponent, with the 2 seed selecting first.
  • Semifinals and Finals: Fixed matchups based on progression through the bracket with the 1 seed getting an automatic bye into the semis.

The May qualifier matches count in the overall season standings, but individual tournament matches do not count. However, the top-four finishers in each region’s tournament will earn a fixed number of bonus wins that do count in the standings toward playoffs qualification.

  • Tournament champions—3 wins
  • Second-place teams—2 wins
  • Third- and fourth-place teams—1 win

May Schedule

Matches leading up to the tournaments will feature a wider variety of matchups in North America, with all 13 teams now able to play each other on shared servers. Weekly Hero Pools will remain in effect, as will a predetermined map pool which is set to switch to new maps as we head into Week 14.

Click here for recent changes to Overwatch League schedule and online play

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 Outbreak, all remaining homestand matches for the months of March and April have been canceled. Because of this, the Overwatch League has reorganized the schedule and made key changes to allow teams who have yet to play to catch up and still play in their native regions via online matches (similar to that of Overwatch Contenders).

  • All matches are now played on the online Overwatch Tournament Client in one of three regions: China/South Korea, U.S. West Coast, U.S. East Coast
  • The Mid-season tournament has been canceled and the All-Stars event moved to after the Grand Finals.
Click here for overall 2020 Overwatch League Changes

Conferences and Divisions

With teams playing matches in their home cities, we’re breaking the 20 teams into two conferences, with two divisions in each conference.

PACIFIC EAST PACIFIC WEST ATLANTIC SOUTH ATLANTIC NORTH
Chengdu Hunters Dallas Fuel Atlanta Reign Boston Uprising
Guangzhou Charge Los Angeles Gladiators Florida Mayhem London Spitfire
Hangzhou Spark Los Angeles Valiant Houston Outlaws New York Excelsior
Seoul Dynasty San Francisco Shock Philadelphia Fusion Paris Eternal
Shanghai Dragons Vancouver Titans Washington Justice Toronto Defiant

Each team will play 28 total regular-season matches, which includes two matches against each in-conference opponent and one match against all out-of-conference teams. The regular season will consist of 26 weeks—with all matches played over weekends—and will include a break for All-Stars and a midseason tournament between Weeks 12 and 13.

Each team will host at least two home weekend events during the season, with an additional 12 events—three per division—collectively hosted by teams in their home territories. Tickets are now available for most of those events, and additional location and ticketing information will be released soon.

Match Structure

New in 2020, teams will play regular-season matches in a first-to-three format. Each match will open with control, and then teams will play hybrid, assault, and escort in an order that rotates across matches to ensure they are played evenly throughout the season. If a match reaches the fifth map, only control maps will be played until a team gets to three map wins. After every two maps played, teams will get a quick break to strategize.

In order to keep the map variety fresh, we’ll be changing out the map pool four times during the season. All control maps will be in play throughout the entire season and each map pool will feature three maps from each of the other game modes. A new map pool will be used for the postseason.

Throughout the season, we expect Overwatch to receive several game patches. Overwatch League matches will take place on the most updated patch, but the rollout of those patches will be somewhat delayed from the actual game to the Overwatch League to ensure we’re able to properly deploy them and provide teams a window to practice on the new patch before they are asked to compete on it.

All-Stars and Midseason Tournament

After Week 12 of the season we’ll take a break for All-Stars festivities—and a new midseason tournament. All-Stars will feature the league’s best players competing in a series of fun game modes. We’re also planning some 1v1 action and another Talent Takedown. Stay tuned for more details. These All-Stars events will have a total prize pool of US $250K, so there’s more than just bragging rights on the line in 2020.

The midseason tournament will feature the top four teams in the league: the top team from each conference and the next best two teams by record from either conference. In order to manage logistical requirements for teams around the world, the teams will qualify based on their record over their first nine matches in the 2020 season. Those teams will play in a single-elimination bracket, with the top seed picking their opening-round opponent.

Postseason

The 2019 postseason was epic, and we heard positive feedback on the format from our players and our fans. The 2020 postseason format is similar to 2019, with a play-in tournament followed by double-elimination bracket play culminating in the 2020 Grand Finals. The seventh- through 12th-seeded teams in the standings will qualify for the play-in tournament.

The double-elimination bracket will feature the following eight teams:

  • The two top teams per conference as the top seeds (as determined by record with map differential as the tiebreaker)
  • The next four teams across both conferences as the three to six seeds
  • The two teams that advance from the play-in tournament as the seven and eight seeds

We’ll share more details about the postseason as the season progresses.

Prize Pools

Midseason Tournament

  • First place—$500K
  • Second place—$250K
  • Third place—$150K
  • Fourth place—$150K

All-Stars

  • Total prize pool—$250K

Season Playoffs

  • First place—$1.5M
  • Second place—$800K
  • Third place—$500K
  • Fourth place—$300K
  • Fifth place—$200K
  • Sixth place —$200K
  • Seventh place—$100K
  • Eighth place—$100K
     
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Thank you for your cooperation and enjoy the match!



Tokens now enabled on OverwatchLeague.com! Click here for important information and troubleshooting!

1 Like

As I continue to investigate, I can confirm earning tokens is working by watching on the mobile app. I am still investigating if keeping the match detail page open (even if the match is not showing there) helps when trying to watch on the website.

Keep a tab open on both of these pages:

Have a dog in this fight (Excelsior), so let’s go NYXL! Bring home the bacon!

Updated Summer Showdown Standings:

1: Shanghai Dragons 1-0 (+3)
2: New York Excelsior 1-0 (+3)
3: Guangzhou Charge 1-0 (+1)
4: London Spitfire 1-1 (+0)
5: Hangzhou Spark 0-0 (+0)
6: Chengdu Hunters 0-1 (-3)
7: Seoul Dynasty 0-2 (-4)

The tokens discussion page is still being updated, one tab didn’t work, trying two tabs now but people are still reporting no drops.
In other news, I want this match to be close but I can see NYXL winning 3-1 or even 3-2 depending on how much impact the new Spark pickups will have for the team.

And Spark allegedly C9 on second point…


AFTER MAP 1:

Busan (Control) Score: New York Excelsior 2, Hangzhou Spark 0.

MATCH SCORE: New York Excelsior 1, Hangzhou Spark 0.

hmmmm,
I wonder why it is paused

This cat conversation is almost as good as the air conditioning one Wolf also stalled with on a long pause.

1 Like

Always like to hear people talk about their cats :slight_smile:

That was a strong defence.

And that’s the first Charlie Niner of the match…and that’s the first snowman’s head to go flying!


AFTER MAP 2:

Busan (Control) Score: New York Excelsior 2, Hangzhou Spark 0.

Watchpoint: Gibraltar (Escort) Score: Hangzhou Spark 1, New York Excelsior 0.

MATCH SCORE: New York Excelsior 1, Hangzhou Spark 1.

WHORU must be screaming his lungs out right about now…

Did NYXL just forget they were playing Overwatch?

I don’t know, but that pause definitely shifted their mindset…

Edit: also, I missed Points A and B on King’s Row…any Charlie Niners?

No, just a lot of brawls on A, B was pretty quick, didn’t even get to contest it.

1 Like

They didn’t really give us very good angles for spectating that last fight on King’s Row. I couldn’t tell if NYXL was pushing Spark off of the cart or if it was a C9, I just had to mostly go off of the killfeed and caster statements.

Spark bring out the Widow, but it isn’t enough and NYXL are now on match point.


AFTER MAP 3:

Busan (Control) Score: New York Excelsior 2, Hangzhou Spark 0.

Watchpoint: Gibraltar (Escort) Score: Hangzhou Spark 1, New York Excelsior 0.

King’s Row (Hybrid) Score: New York Excelsior 3, Hangzhou Spark 2.

I need 50 more OWL tokens to get the Sinatraa skin…

10 more hours to go…

Keep going, you can do it

Is that… Junkrat? :hushed:

And Genji…

Is this OWL season 1?