With Stage 2 of the Overwatch League’s inaugural season set to begin next week, Blizzard have announced a few changes to their broadcast lineup stemming from viewer feedback across Stage 1. This means a few timeslots are going to change. What does that mean for you, ANZ viewer?
Well, the long and short of it is that you don’t have to get up super early for certain matches anymore. Here’s the changes, straight from the press release:
- Stage Finals move to Mondays at 8am AEDT / 10am NZDT
- Tuesday to Saturday matches now all start at 11am AEDT / 1pm NZDT
- Sunday matches now start at 8am AEDT / 10am NZDT
Everything starting at 11am each broadcast day allows for a more orderly viewing experience — if its on, you know when it starts so you don’t have to check the schedule. The big win for Aussies in particular is that they don’t have to be up at 6am for the Sunday broadcast if their team is playing.
The moving of the Stage Finals to their own day is, in our opinion, a wise move. Moving it to the Monday (ANZ time) means that both teams squaring off can come into the match fresh. It comes after fan concerns about player endurance following the Stage 1 Finals.
Last Sunday’s Stage 1 Finals broadcast was a 12 hour broadcast day and saw London Spitfire play a total of three 5-round matches, more than any other team in the league has been asked to do at this point. Further, their semi-finals match against Los Angeles Valiant and their subsequent Finals match against New York Excelsior were conducted back-to-back. The Spitfire were bone tired by the end and fans wondered, had the Stage 1 Finals been moved to a separate day and the Spitfire had had time to rest up, could they have taken Excel down?
We’ll see if the changes make a difference in Stage 2. Overwatch League is off this week (RIP our ready-made excuse to watch TV during work hours) but returns in full measure next Thursday, February 22 at 11am AEST/1pm NZDT.
You can find out more about Stage 2 at the official Overwatch League wesbite.
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