Overwatch League
Esports league
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| 2023 | Disruption in the East Region due to a broken partnership with NetEase, resulting in Overwatch 2 being banned in China. |
| 2023 | Chengdu Hunters disbanded during the offseason. |
| 2023 | League maintained a split between East and West regions, featuring teams from the United States, China, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. |
| 2023 | Paris Eternal relocated to Las Vegas and rebranded as the Vegas Eternal, becoming the first team in the league to switch cities. |
| 2023 | OverActive Media (Toronto Defiant owner) reached an agreement with the Overwatch League, signing a sponsorship deal and having outstanding franchise fees waived. |
| 2023 | Philadelphia Fusion shifted base to Seoul and rebranded as the Seoul Infernal. |
| November 8 2023 | OWL spokesperson confirmed Blizzard's transition away from its current league model, with two-thirds of franchisees voting to depart. |
| July 19 2023 | Activision-Blizzard released second-quarter earnings report, revealing potential termination of Overwatch League with a $6 million franchise exit fee. |
| April 2023 | Activision Blizzard settled the Department of Justice lawsuit, agreeing to prohibit similar salary cap measures in the Overwatch League and other esports leagues in the future. |
| January 2023 | Overwatch League teams initiate a collective bargaining process, leading to the league waiving all outstanding franchise fees. |
| 2022 | Secured first new sponsorship since 2021 with Butterfinger during the playoffs. |
| 2022 | 2022 Grand Finals held live at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, marking the first live Grand Finals since 2019. |
| 2022 | 2022 Playoffs reached a live average minute audience of 250,000, breaking previous viewership records from 2018 and 2019. |
| December 2022 | Former ESPN writer Jacob Wolf reported that Activision Blizzard refused settlement terms related to the DOJ investigation, particularly concerning provisions that would extend beyond the proposed Microsoft acquisition. |
| November 2022 | Partnership with NetEase and Blizzard breaks down, resulting in Overwatch 2 being banned in China. The Chengdu Hunters become the first team to dissolve from the league. |
| May 2022 | Overwatch League began its fifth season playing on an early release of Overwatch 2, facing challenges including no known sponsors and significant leadership changes. |
| 2021 | Following a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, nearly all league sponsors withdrew their support. |
| 2021 | Bilibili secured a multi-year contract to obtain production and broadcast rights for the Overwatch League in China, expanding their esports media coverage. |
| 2021 | YouTube continued its broadcast contract with the Overwatch League, introducing new features like video clipping and 4K resolution streaming for OWL games. |
| 2021 | Activision Blizzard renewed its TV-exclusive rights contract with Sport1 for Overwatch League broadcasts in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, following the conclusion of their previous two-year agreement. |
| 2021 | Activision developed a 'minimum-latency tool' to equalize player latencies across different geographical regions during tournament play. |
| 2021 | The league implemented hero pools in two tournaments (June Joust and Countdown Cup), restricting certain heroes from being playable during those events. |
| 2021 | Western tournament qualifying teams traveled to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to minimize lag during interregional tournaments, connecting to a Tokyo server via an underwater sea cable to equalize player latencies. |
| 2021 | Live events were ultimately canceled and shifted to online play due to COVID-19 risks and visa difficulties. |
| October 2021 | Sports Business Journal reported that the Overwatch League would eliminate its competitive balance tax and maximum salary caps. |
| September 25 2021 | Grand Finals of the 2021 Overwatch League season take place, determining the season champion. |
| September 25 2021 | Shanghai Dragons win their first OWL championship by defeating the Atlanta Reign in the Grand Finals. |
| September 24 2021 | Season playoff matches conclude, with the final two teams advancing to the Grand Finals. |
| September 21 2021 | Playoffs begin, featuring eight teams (five from West region and three from East region) in a double-elimination tournament format. |
| September 21 2021 | Season playoffs commence, continuing the competitive path towards the championship. |
| September 21 2021 | The Overwatch League playoffs officially begin. |
| September 4 2021 | Two regional play-in tournaments commence, acting as qualifiers for the season playoffs. |
| August 2021 | Countdown Cup tournament held, with Los Angeles Gladiators winning first place and receiving $100,000 bonus, and Chengdu Hunters finishing second with $70,000. |
| August 2021 | Kellogg's confirmed they would not continue sponsoring the Overwatch League. |
| August 2021 | IBM branding was removed from all Overwatch League media, including the league's official partners' page and power rankings. |
| August 2021 | By mid-August, TeamSpeak was the only sponsor present during Overwatch League broadcasts. |
| August 2021 | Guangzhou Charge's planned homestand event was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. |
| August 25 2021 | Overwatch League announced that all playoff matches would not be played in a live format due to COVID-19 and Delta variant risks, with teams relocating to alternative venues to minimize latency. |
| August 21 2021 | The regular season concludes after featuring four midseason tournaments and a new point system for playoff seeding. |
| July 2021 | Kellogg's officially announced they would not continue their sponsorship of the Overwatch League. |
| July 2021 | Summer Showdown tournament organized, with Shanghai Dragons again winning first place and receiving $100,000 bonus, and Chengdu Hunters finishing second with $70,000. |
| July 2021 | Dot Esports reported that the US Department of Justice's Civil Conduct Task Force was investigating the Overwatch League's soft salary cap policy for potential antitrust violations under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. |
| July 2021 | Dallas Fuel hosted a homestand event at Esports Stadium Arlington. |
| July 2021 | Shanghai Dragons hosted a live Overwatch League event, featuring five China-based teams in attendance and three Korea-based teams participating remotely. |
| July 2021 | The league initially announced plans to host playoff events live at Esports Stadium Arlington and Grand Finals at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. |
| June 2021 | June Joust tournament conducted, with Shanghai Dragons winning first place and receiving $100,000 bonus, with Dallas Fuel finishing second and earning $70,000. |
| June 2021 | Hangzhou Spark hosted a live Overwatch League event, with five China-based teams participating and three Korea-based teams joining remotely via cloud server. |
| May 2021 | May Melee tournament held, with Dallas Fuel winning first place and receiving $100,000 bonus, followed by Shanghai Dragons in second place with $70,000. |
| May 6 2021 | Four Chinese Overwatch League teams (Shanghai Dragons, Chengdu Hunters, Hangzhou Spark, and Guangzhou Charge) end their boycott of Park 'Saebyeolbe' Jong-ryeol after the Overwatch League issues an official statement. |
| April 16 2021 | The Overwatch League regular season officially begins, played primarily online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Overwatch League & 2021 Overwatch League season, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.