The Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS), Overwatch 2’s tier-one esports ecosystem, has announced a new format for its 2025 season.

Going into its second year, the OWCS will now feature promotion and relegation through FACEIT Leagues for North America and EMEA as well as WARA.GG for Asia.

The OWCS 2025 Season will consist of a three-season competitive circuit across its leagues in North America, EMEA and Asia. Each stage will include a regular season, playoffs and a live event. With the new season, OWCS has integrated further into the FACEIT League Master Series to qualify teams based on a promotion and relegation format in North America and EMEA.

The Promotion & Relegation tournament will provide the top two FACEIT League teams with an opportunity to enter the OWCS Regular Season by competing against the bottom two underperforming OWCS teams.

Prior to the Stage 1 regular season, an Open Qualifier will kick off in January. The top 8 to 12 teams (depending on the region) will then compete in a regular season to enter the playoff stage. Meanwhile, the bottom two teams of the regular will enter the promotion and relegation tournament. Following the playoff stage, OWCS’ will host its first live event of the season.

Stage 2 will follow the same structure as Stage 1 — Regular Season, Playoffs, Promotion/Relegation and a live event — except there is no Open Qualifier. Stage 3 will also follow the same structure as previous stages but without a promotion or relegation tournament.

In addition, each match in the OWCS, starting with the Regular Season in Stage 1, will be broadcast live.

The OWCS was formed in collaboration with ESL FACEIT Group after publisher Blizzard Entertainment closed the Overwatch League in 2023. The Overwatch Champions Series 2024 Finals was the most-watched Overwatch 2 event last year, securing a peak viewership of 159,918 viewers.

In addition to announcing the format, Overwatch 2 has also introduced a Partner Program that will be available for nine teams across NA, EMEA and Asia in 2025. Partnered teams can receive a portion of the proceeds generated from crowdfunded in-game team packs. Teams can apply for the programme until December 2nd.

Overwatch 2 will also introduce a series of brand packs and digital in-game goodies for the partnered OWCS teams. Further information about the partner program will be revealed close to the start of the tournament in January 2025.

The Esports World Cup, a multi-title esports event organised by the Esports World Cup Foundation, has announced that battle royale title Call of Duty: Warzone will be featured at its 2025 event.

Call of Duty: Warzone becomes the third title to be confirmed for the 2025 Esports World Cup.

The confirmation of Call of Duty: Warzone at the 2025 Esports World Cup follows the inclusion of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 at the multi-title event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia throughout June and August 2025. Details on the tournament format and prize pool were not disclosed.

Call of Duty: Warzone’s 2024 tournament featured 21 teams competing for a share of a $1m (~£784,581) prize pool. The competition was won by Team Falcons which went on to win the EWC Club competition taking home an additional $7m (~£5.52m) in prize money.

2024’s Call of Duty: Warzone event at the Esports World Cup recorded peak viewing figures of 135,281 making it the battle royale’s second most-watched event of the year. The Esports World Cup caught the attention of many due to its $60m (~£47m) total prize pool across all competitions.

Call of Duty was the last franchise to be featured in the 2024 Esports World Cup, taking the total number of events to 22. Other titles at this year’s event included Counter-Strike, League of Legends, RENNSPORT and many others.

Alongside both Call of Duty games, Honor of Kings will also be involved in the 2025 Esports World Cup.

The Esports World Cup Foundation, the organisers of the Esports World Cup, is supported by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund which has generated controversy from sections of the esports industry. While the Kingdom looks to position itself as a hub for international esports events, discussions surrounding its human rights record remains.

The Call of Duty League (CDL) has unveiled its schedule for the 2025 season.

The season will feature four LAN Major events, online qualifiers, new Minor tournaments and will conclude with the Call of Duty League Championship.

The 2025 Call of Duty League season begins on December 6th with online qualifiers for the first Major.

For the first time since 2020, the CDL heads to Europe with Toronto Ultra hosting the first Major of the season in Madrid from January 30th to February 2nd, 2025. March 20th-23rd will see defending champions OpTic Texas host an event in Dallas, Texas.

In the middle of Qualifiers for Majors One and Two, Call of Duty has also introduced Minor tournaments. These 12-team single-elimination events feature a $20,000 (~£15,686) prize for the winner and provide opportunities for teams to earn CDL Points. CDL Points determine seeding for the Majors and which teams make it to the post-season phase.

It has also been announced that Miami Heretics will operate the third Major taking place from April 24th-27th. Details on the fourth Major were not disclosed.

Alongside omitting details on the fourth Major of the 2025 Call of Duty League season, the announcement did not contain information on where CDL Champs will take place. However, the league’s website notes the event will be taking place in Toronto, Canada with dates yet to be revealed.

In addition to sharing the season schedule, the CDL unveiled the 2025 collection of in-game skins that will be available for players to purchase. It was also announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will form part of the 2025 Esports World Cup, a multi-title event organised by the Esports World Cup Foundation.

Call of Duty esports has maintained stability over the last year. The 2024 CDL Champs event saw peak viewing figures of 283,184 while the 2023 event attracted a peak of 294,178.

Game developer Activision has unveiled new Call of Duty League team skins that will be available in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

There will be a number of Call of Duty League bundles available in-game. This includes home and away versions of the Competitor Operator, the main character skin used in the CDL.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the latest edition of the Call of Duty series of games, and Activision has announced a series of details about the first Battle Pass season for the game through its official website. Among the information is a short section about the CDL-themed skins which are to appear in the game at some point during Season 1.

Activision said in the announcement that there will be a “variety of CDL Bundles themed around favourite teams.” In addition, there will be weapon camos, decals, sprays, emblems and calling cards themed around the CDL. Activision did not mention what portion of the skin sales will go towards the teams. Moreover, the company did not go into much detail surrounding the skins.

The skins themselves are pretty straightforward. All the skins feature the team logo on the character’s chest, with Cloud9 New York and LA Guerrila skins adopting a different colour altogether, using blue and purple instead of black.

Call of Duty isn’t the only franchise that utilises in-game skins to support its esports teams. Other notable examples include Rocket League’s esports shop, Counter-Strike’s sticker project and VALORANT’s range of in-game VCT items.