Overwatch World Cup 2023 Timeline: All Stages

After a three-year hiatus, the Overwatch World Cup 2023 returns.

Overwatch 2 aims to make a splash this year with the return of this event, being held for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This allows professional and high-level players to compete against each other on a huge stage.

Sometime this month, Blizzard will announce the 36 countries and regions that will be participating in the event, which will also indicate that the competition committee’s applications are open. These committees are essential as they organize the tryouts for their countries and regions and are therefore responsible for the players who are sent to the Overwatch World Cup.

In February, Blizzard will conduct a review process for the contest committee’s applicants and select the top candidates. In addition, there will be a new way for players to try their hand at World Cup Trials. Also taking place in February, these will be an open tournament format, with the winning players earning a spot directly in the team tryouts.

Official Team Tryouts are held in March and players must achieve Diamond rank or higher to qualify. After the tryouts, the competition committees select the country and regional teams according to Blizzard’s policies.

World Cup qualifiers begin in June as 36 national and regional teams will compete in six online regional qualifiers. From these qualifiers, the top 16 teams advance to the next stage of the event.

During the group stage of the Overwatch World Cup, the top 16 teams compete in a LAN round-robin format. Half of the remaining teams are eliminated as only the top eight teams from that stage advance to the final stages.

During the Overwatch World Cup Finals, the remaining eight teams will battle it out in a single-elimination bracket to determine the event’s winner.