Overwatch League Kickoff Clash begins

The Overwatch League continues its fifth season with the Kickoff Clash tournament. The top eight teams from the West Division and the top four teams from the East Division will battle it out for their respective divisional titles.

The Overwatch League is back. After weeks of qualifiers, fans will finally be treated to two double-elimination brackets. Three days of intense Overwatch 2 action awaits.

East Division

The Hangzhou Spark the four-team East Division Kickoff Clash tournament as the top seed. Qualifying as the top seed marks a significant improvement for a team that finished thirteenth in the overall standings last season. In the offseason, Spark brought in four new players. Most notably, they completely overhauled the support position, adding two academy prospects in Hyeong-woo “irony” Kim and Wu “Superich” Gengtuo. They will open the Kickoff Clash with a revenge match against the Philadelphia Fusion, the team that ended Spark’s 2021 season in the East Division Play-In bracket.

The other dangerous team in the East is the Shanghai Dragons, the defending OWL champions. The Dragons return all but one of their championship roster, while also adding support Hui-chang “BeBe” Yoon. Having lost the top seeding on map differential, the Dragons will be eager to overcome the Seoul Dynasty in their opening match to hopefully set up a clash with the Spark.

West Division

Eight teams contest the West Division Kickoff Clash and leading the way is the San Francisco Shock. The two-time OWL champions revamped their roster following a down season in 2021, rebuilding around Minki “Viol2t” Park, Oh “FiNN” Se-jin, and Matthew “super” DeLisi. However, super retired in March after spending the last five years in San Francisco. Despite the loss of such a pivotal player, the Shock enter the Kickoff Clash with a perfect record from qualifying. They will be eager to continue their strong bounce-back season.

Just behind the Shock are the Dallas Fuel, who went 5-1 in qualifying. The Fuel added four new players in the offseason but unlike the Shock, the Fuel are looking to carry momentum, rather than rediscover it. Dallas entered the 2021 playoffs as West Division champions and went on to finish third. They will be looking for a deep tournament run as they look to build on the strong foundation of 2021.

The field becomes a lot more crowded after Dallas. There are three teams who finished qualifying with a 4-2 record — the Los Angeles Gladiators, the Florida Mayhem, and the Houston Outlaws. The Gladiators follow in Dallas’ footsteps of building on 2021, while the Outlaws elevate themselves from the playoff bubble to a definite contender. However, it is the Mayhem who have taken the biggest step, after finishing sixteenth in 2021. This early success in 2022 comes as a result of replacing their entire roster with new talent, a move that appears to be paying off.

The West bracket is rounded out by three teams who finished 3-3 in qualifying — the Toronto Defiant, the Atlanta Reign, and the Washington Justice. All three teams will face tough roads deeper into the tournament but crucially for the Justice and Defiant, in a similar vein to the Outlaws, qualification is a positive sign in the right direction for two top-ten teams taking the next step towards contender status.

The Overwatch League Kickoff Clash tournament begins on June 2. The West Division tournament opens with the San Francisco Shock taking on the Washington Justice at 2000 BST/2100 CEST. All West Division matches are being played in Arlington, Texas. The East Division tournament begins on June 3, with the first match seeing the Hangzhou Spark face the Philadelphia Fusion at 1100 BST/1200 CEST. All East Division matches will be played online.

Header: Nicolas Henderson, Blizzard