The Overwatch League is heating up once again with the 2022 season now coming up fast. The League has gone through a lot of changes and turmoil lately. The upcoming switch to Overwatch 2 will mean even more changes. While some details aren’t around yet, we’ve got the full OWL 2022 schedule released this week alongside some more details on how the League is going to run.

This is what you need to know in advance of it launching.

OWL 2022 Schedule Announced

The OWL 2022 schedule has been announced this week. We now know what the opening matches of the League are going to be. The League will be kicking off on May 5th 2022. The very first game is going to see LA Gladiators go up against New York Excelsior. The full schedule for the opening week has been revealed too.

These are the first round of matches we’ll see:

Matches Schedule

May 5^th

• LA Gladiators v New York Excelsior
• Paris Eternal v San Francisco Shock
• Atlanta Reign v Florida Mayhem

May 6^th

• Shanghai Dragons v Philadelphia Fusion
• Chengdu Hunters v Guangzhou Charge
• Vancouver Titans v Boston Uprising
• San Francisco Shock v London Spitfire
• Houston Outlaws v Dallas Fuel

May 7^th

• Chengdhu Hunters v Shanghai Dragons
• Seoul Dynasty v Philadelphia Fusion
• Los Angeles Valiant v Hangzhou Spark
• Washington Justice v Toronto Defiant
• New York Excelsior v Atlanta Reign
• LA Gladiators v Boston Uprising

May 8^th

• Guangzhou Charge v LA Valiant
• Hangzhou Spark v Seoul Dynasty
• Vancouver Titans v London Spitfire
• Florida Mayhem v Paris Eternal
• Dallas Ful v Washington Justice
• Houston Outlaws v Toronto Defiant

The format for OWL 2022 schedule is based around regular tournaments rather than a lengthy standard season. Teams compete in regular-season matches for the opening weeks of each major. Their performance then determines how they move into the major. A knockout round is held between teams and the top teams move forward to each tournament.

The tournament section sees players compete in a double-elimination tournament. There are four of these over the course of the year but will start off with the Kickoff Clash in place of last year’s May Melee. This will be followed by Midseason Madness, Summer Showdown, and the Countdown Cup.

What to Expect at the OWL 2022

The OWL 2022 is following up on a big (if a weird) off-season for the game. The League lost a lot of sponsors last year after Activision Blizzard’s situation worsened. In the interim, Microsoft has begun to acquire the developer However, that deal won’t go through during the 2022 season. This has complicated things for the still upcoming Overwatch 2, which we still don’t know all that much about the release.

At various times, the OWL has had an uncertain future in terms of what game they’ll be using this year. Although at the moment it does look like the OWL 2022 schedule is going to utilize a beta build of the new game. This will give fans a sneak peek at how the online play is going to look for the upcoming title.

In terms of which teams to look at for Overwatch betting and who will win this season, it is a little early to judge. We’re still quite a few months out from the OWL 2022, so it is a bit soon to make predictions beyond a wild guess that Spitfire won’t win the league. We’ll keep you up to date as things develop and we get a better look at esports odds for the event.