The 2026 Overwatch esports calendar has been revealed, detailing a comprehensive global circuit featuring the Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS), the returning Overwatch World Cup, and expanded collegiate competitions. This structured roadmap aims to build upon offering more avenues for competition and viewership throughout the year.
The 2026 season represents a significant scaling of operations, with multiple programs running concurrently across different regions and player levels. The core OWCS 2026 season will feature regional stages in China, North America, EMEA, and Asia, culminating in a global live event. The affiliated OWCS Partner Program is expanding from nine to eleven teams, and will for the first time include Chinese squads.
Furthermore, a new OWCS Pre-Season Bootcamp will be held in Seoul this February for invited partner teams.
The announcement contextualises the 2026 plans as an expansion of the foundation laid in 2025, which saw the OWCS streamline qualifications via a partnership with FACEIT—a pathway that continues—and expand into China.
In the announcement, game publisher Blizzard stated: “When we launched OWCS, our goal was to build an open ecosystem where any player or fan could step up, compete, and be crowned a champion… The growth we’ve seen across 2025 has been a major milestone, and it sets the stage for an even bigger and bolder 2026.”
The confirmed partner teams for the 2026 season are Spacestation Gaming, Team Liquid, Dallas Fuel, and Disguised from the Americas; Twisted Minds, Virtus.Pro, and Team Peps from the EMEA region; T1, Team Falcons, Crazy Raccoon, Zeta Division in Asia; and teams in China are still to be announced.
Alongside the professional circuit, the Overwatch World Cup returns in 2026 with a format including Pre-Qualifier Conference Cups, leading to a final top eight showdown at BlizzCon 2026. The Overwatch NA Collegiate scene will also see a full Spring 2026 Championship season, featuring both Open and Varsity Premier divisions with scholarship prizes, culminating in a live finals event between 23-26 April.
This consolidated approach for 2026 suggests a strategy to maintain consistent competitive engagement across amateur, collegiate, and professional tiers throughout the year, leveraging both open competition and structured partner teams. Full details on formats and schedules are expected to be released on regional OWCS channels in the near future.
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