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Overwatch is one of the most exciting, dynamic esports in the scene right now. The Overwatch League is one of the most interesting places for esports bettors to gamble, due to the franchise system, the length of the season, and the extreme amount of meta changes that occur over the course of a full season.
Now that Overwatch has introduced 2-2-2 role lock, which we will talk more about later, we figured this was a great time to give you all a primer on How to bet on Overwatch.
Tournaments
Overwatch League
The premier level of Overwatch play is the Overwatch League, which is the main league in the game, as well as the place that newer bettors will spend most of their time. There are 20 teams in the Overwatch League, split up into two divisions, Atlantic and Pacific. Those teams are :
Atlantic
- Atlanta Reign
- Boston Uprising
- Florida Mayhem
- Houston Outlaws
- London Spitfire
- New York Excelsior
- Paris Eternal
- Philadelphia Fusion
- Toronto Defiant
- Washington Justice
Pacific
- Chengdu Hunters
- Dallas Fuel
- Guangzhou Charge
- Hangzhou Spark
- Los Angeles Gladiators
- Los Angeles Valiant
- San Francisco Shock
- Seoul Dynasty
- Shanghai Dragons
- Vancouver Titans
Unfortunately in this guide, there isn’t room to talk much about the teams and their rosters, nor is there room for a power ranking. Neither of those things would be very helpful though, with how quickly thing can change in the Overwatch League. You’ll just have to check in with our ongoing coverage of the OWL to see how each team is doing at any given moment.
The Overwatch League’s format is the standard format in essentially all high level Overwatch play, so if you can bet here, you can bet anywhere.
Each OWL season is split up into four stages, each of which have their own playoffs, and then a final season playoffs at the end of stage four. For the Season playoffs, the top team in each division makes it in, along with the next four teams from any division. The six next best teams duke it out in a sudden death bracket, and the top two teams go on to join the top six in the playoffs.
As far as individual games go, the map pool in the OWL changes every stage. The games are played best of five, sort of. Every game will include a Control, Assault, Escort, and Hybrid map, with a fifth tiebreaker map played on a Control map that was not played already in the series. Each map is picked by the loser of the previous map.
This can all seem sort of confusing, especially if you’re familiar with the more elegant and streamlined competitive formats that CS:GO uses, but after watching for a couple days you start to figure it out.
Contenders
This is the next step down from the OWL in the Overwatch franchise system. Contenders is essentially the AAA of Overwatch, and it’s where you’ll need to look if you want a peek into the future of the OWL, and a better grasp of the OWL team’s farm systems. Betting on Contender’s games is a great way to increase your knowledge of the scene, and to see where the meta might be heading.
Contenders teams tend to ahead of the curve when it comes to the meta, as they have more wiggle room when running strange compositions.
There are eight Contenders regions, which range from 8 to 12 teams deep. These regions are:
- North America East
- North America West
- South America
- Australia
- China
- Europe
- Korea
- Pacific
Currently 13 of the 20 OWL teams have active corresponding Contenders teams, in various regions.
Overwatch World Cup
The OWWC is the last Major tournament in the Overwatch scene. As you might have inferred from the name, the Overwatch World Cup involves national rosters meeting head to head. All three World Cups so far have been won by Korea, which is not a huge surprise. As time has gone on though, the gap between the East and the West has closed, so this year it should be anyone’s game.
To make money on the OWWC, it’s important that bettors keep up with the scene as best they can. Keeping track of who’s on what roster, how the players have played in their respective levels of competition, who the coaches are, all of that is crucial if you want to make money.
2-2-2
The 2-2-2 role lock was implemented at the start of Stage 4 of Season 2 of the Overwatch League. Due to the dominance of GOATS, and balancing problems that had plagued the game since its release, Blizzard decided they would lock down team compositions into 2 Tanks, 2 Supports, and 2 DPS. This forces the game to look a certain way, which helps make it friendlier to spectators, at least in theory.
This is the biggest meta shift in the history of Overwatch, and watching teams try to come to terms with it thus far has been fascinating. The game is completely different now, which makes this an excellent time to be a smart Overwatch bettor.
What’s the most important piece in the meta right now? Excellent DPS players, high quality shot callers, smart tank mains, world class supports? The answer still isn’t clear.
Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for our future Overwatch content. We’ll be covering all the Major events from Contenders to the World Cup, so this is where you should be if you want to make some money.
