Four stages and over twenty weeks of gaming later, the Overwatch League 2019 regular season has come to an end. For eight of the twenty teams, their year of competing has finished. But for the six teams above them in the standings, they have one more ride to pin their hopes on to make it into the season playoffs: the play-in tournament.
Coming into Stage 4, the final stage of the season, only two of the teams had been knocked out of the playoffs - Washington Justice and Florida Mayhem. Over the next five weeks, many teams battled it out: some for supremacy, others just clawing their way up to hope to get a spot in the play-ins. But it wasn't until the final match of the final day of the final week of the final stage that the brackets were locked in. With the LA Valiant failing to take a critical win, they were locked in as 13th in the League, with the Chengdu Hunters taking the final spot in the play-ins.
The 2019 playoffs have been completely overhauled from the Inaugural season in 2018. This year includes not only the play-in tournament, but the main playoffs are now a double elimination bracket. Teams in the top six will have a bye week while the play-ins happen, giving them a chance to rest, practice, and study their opponents.
The playoffs will use Patch 1.39 of Overwatch, the current live patch as of writing. This introduces new balances, particularly for the support heroes Brigitte--who received a complete rework to make her more of a support hero with more healing instead of being able to tank hard--and Moira--who gained a powerful buff to her fade ability, allowing her to move away from danger, even when stunned. A few other characters received nerfs and buffs, but the thing all watchers will be keeping their eyes on in how teams use the newest hero: Sigma, a tank. While this patch has been live in the game for several weeks now, the League is just now starting with it. Even with the 2-2-2 role lock still in place, the meta will change drastically with a new hero in the mix.
With the 2-2-2 lock came the sudden, surprising rise of several teams, most notably the Guangzhou Charge and the Atlanta Reign. Both had struggled for several weeks in the middle of the season, looking lost and not playing well. But the role lock - as well as some player and coaching staff shuffling - has worked wonders for these two teams. The Charge blasted their way up into the play-ins, and analysts believe they will be one of the two teams to make it into the playoffs. The Reign surprised even more, wrestling their way through tough teams to earn a spot in the top six. Both of these teams will be ones to keep an eye on as the matches play out.
The play-in tournament starts Friday, August 30, 6 pm PT; and the regular playoff matches begin the next week on September 5, 4 pm PT, all at Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, CA. The Grand Finals will be held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, on September 29 at 3 pm EDT. You can watch the matches live on Twitch, the ESPN app, ESPN News, and Disney XD. You can also catch the Grand Finals on ABC.