Ready for the first Overwatch Champions Series event of 2025?

7 April 2025

Image Credit : OWCS

For some years now, Overwatch has occupied a place in more than a few lists of the most popular and most-played international esports. To give you an idea: according to the gaming and esports stats specialists at Active Player, Overwatch 2 attracted just under 21 million players over the month of February 2025. It’s therefore no surprise that the industry has been looking forward to the Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS) of 2025. The so-called Overwatch 2025 Champions Clash will be the first international OWCS of the 2025 season and is set to be held at Hangzhou (China) from Friday, April 18th, to Sunday, April 20th.

Overwatch Champions Series 2025 Champions Clash

As a regular Overwatch player and follower, you have probably been following the recent regional Stage 1 competitions in the global tier-one Overwatch ecosystem. The 2025 Champions Clash represents the next stage and will see the eight best Overwatch teams in the world compete against each other. It is organized by Blizzard Entertainment, the studio behind Overwatch (and other popular international esports titles like Call of Duty) and FACEIT, and it will be held at the Hangzhou Esports Center. This venue was especially designed for the 19th Asian Games back in 2022, when esports made their debut as an official medal event, and it can house up to 4.500 live spectators.
The Overwatch Champions Series 2025 Champions Clash will be played in a double-elimination bracket structure, as is common in the world of international esports. Overall, matches will be played according to a first-to-three format, apart from the Quarterfinals and the Grand Finals. These got a first-to-two and a first-to-four format, respectively. The eight competing teams are:

It’s also important to mention that Champions Clash 2025 will also make use of a system for banning heroes. Basically, each team will have the chance to ban one hero per map for both teams. The team that loses will have the pick in terms of banning on the next map.

Crowdfunded prize pool

Most eyes during the Overwatch Champions Series 2025 Champions Clash will be on Japanese organization Crazy Raccoon, who won both the OWCS Major and the Esports World Cup 2024, and Saudi Arabian organization Team Falcons. The latter managed to crown themselves World Champions last year. They are the favorites for the victory and a nice chunk of the prize pool, which will be crowdfunded. In total, 25% of all in-game cosmetic bundle revenue will be added to the prize pool.
The 2025 Champions Clash will be streamed live via Twitch, with broadcasts available in various languages. These will include Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean and Thai. To encourage viewership, viewers can earn free Overwatch loot boxes for every hour of watching the 2025 Champions Clash per day.