Overwatch League Devs Delay 2022 Season in the East By 2 Weeks
The beginning of the 2022 season of the Overwatch League has been delayed in the East. According to devs, they had to make the decision to delay its launch in that region due to the “COVID situation happening in China right now.”
“We will be delaying the East’s schedule two weeks until May 20th,” Overwatch League Head Sean Miller announced. “So, all 21 matches will still be played but across two weeks, and with both region’s Kickoff Clash tournaments taking place in June.”
This delay will affect known Chinese teams, such as Shanghai Dragons, Hangzhou Spark, Chengdu Hunters, and Guangzhou Charge. It will also impact US teams Philadelphia Fusion, New York Excelsior, Los Angeles Valiant, as well as the South Korean team Seoul Dynasty.
Fortunately for Overwatch League players in the West, the change will not affect them at all. Their season will still begin on May 5th as originally scheduled.
Much to the dismay of the participants, it would seem that the fate of live Overwatch League events are relatively less than certain at this point in time. Blizzard started to cancel the events in early 2020 because of the pandemic. They then transitioned the event to an online-only play for the remainder of the season.
Devs tried to ease back into live events last year. Sadly, however, their plans for in-person events for the last year’s playoffs ultimately fell through. They will try once again to bring things back to normal. They have three live events that they have scheduled for the West.
“Given the rapidly changing COVID conditions, we are exploring the best avenues for global competitions this year with the goal of returning to the LAN events,” Miller continued. “Depending on what is possible, safety and fair competition are always going to remain our top priorities as we look to build the most exciting thing we can do.”
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