Overwatch 2 will add its new ‘Perks’ gameplay gameplay mechanic immediately into the Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS).

The arrival of the mechanic is one of several changes that will affect Blizzard’s hero shooter’s competitive ecosystem for 2025.

The news was revealed by Bailey McCann, Blizzard’s lead for the OWCS following Overwatch 2’s Spotlight that took place on February 12th, 2025.

Perks are newly added bonuses that are specific to all Overwatch 2 heroes and aim to provide players with new ways to customise strategies during matches.

The Overwatch 2 Perks are split into Major and Minor categories. Minor Perks provide players with smaller passive abilities and a reduction to cooldown timers.

Major Perks are described as ‘gameplay-shifting changes’ to provide players with an opportunity to turn the momentum of a match in their team’s favour.

Perks will arrive in Overwatch 2 as part of the Season 15 update releasing on February 18th, 2025.

McCann noted on social media that Perks will enter the OWCS on that date. Matches featuring the new gameplay will be seen from February 21st during EMEA’s and North America’s OWCS Stage 1 Regular Season matches.

The North American and EMEA seasons of the 2025 OWCS season are underway having started in late January. The first stage for Asia is set to begin on March 6th, 2025 while a start date for the Chinese region has yet to be revealed.

2025 is set to be another year of growth for Overwatch 2 esports. This year marks the debut of a new format that will feature three stages and three live events.

In addition to its expansion into China, the hero shooter will feature at the Esports World Cup taking place in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia.

Outside of esports, Blizzard unveiled the Stadium game mode. The developer states that Stadium “is the biggest game mode” it has ever made and is described as “an entirely new way to experience Overwatch.”

Using a best-of-seven format, Overwatch 2’s Stadium mode allows players to play using first-person and third-person perspectives.

Similar to VALORANT and Counter-Strike, players earn coins at the start of each round to unlock and customise the abilities of each hero. Abilities range from damage increases to improving survivability during team fights.

Overwatch 2 has announced that a second collaboration with K-pop group LE SSERAFIM will be happening in March 2025.

The collaboration between Blizzard’s hero shooter and the group was unveiled during the Overwatch 2 Spotlight broadcast that took place on February 12th, 2025.

The collaboration between Overwatch 2 and LE SSERAFIM will include the release of brand-new skins and cosmetics next month.

LE SSERAFIM’s arrival in Overwatch 2 in 2025 marks the second time the group has collaborated with the hero shooter. In November 2023, the partnership was celebrated via the release of a song called ‘Perfect Nights’.

The first collaboration also included a range of limited-edition skins and challenges for players to complete.

Since its release, the song — which featured promotions of Overwatch 2’s skins — has generated over 110m views on YouTube. Moreover, the track has accumulated over 400m streams on audio streaming platform Spotify.

This isn’t the first time that esports and games have tapped into the K-pop industry to create unique collaborations. In 2022, popular group Blackpink released a collaborative track with PUBG Mobile. Moreover, the likes of New Jeans, KISS OF LIFE and THE BOYZ have been involved in esports-focused projects.

In addition to the partnership, Overwatch 2 Spotlight unveiled the debut of ‘Perks’ gameplay. Perks are hero-specific bonuses designed to add another layer of strategy to casual and competitive matches.

During the Spotlight, Blizzard Entertainment recapped that the Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS) will expand to three stages for all regions alongside three in-person events that will take place after each stage.

The OWCS has also integrated online tournament platform FACEIT into its competitive ecosystem to provide players with more opportunities to compete.

As a result of the integration, the 2025 OWCS season will feature promotion and relegation. The top two regular season teams and the top two FACEIT League Masters teams will compete for the two remaining spots in the OWCS regular season.

Another notable change comes in the form of the OWCS partner programme, an initiative designed to support teams competing in the league.

Teams competing in Overwatch 2 esports will benefit from the income generated through the sale of in-game cosmetics. Overwatch 2 is one of several esports to utilise a partner programme. The likes of VALORANT and Rainbow Six use similar initiatives to support organisations

Esports has a vast ecosystem that spans across a variety of games, each with its own unique structures and calendars. As such, fans of multiple esports are treated to major tournaments and events throughout the entirety of the year.

To help navigate esports’ hectic calendar, Esports Insider has created a month-by-month list of events that are taking place in 2025. These competitions range from annual World Championships to major leagues that cover entire regions. 

This list will be updated periodically as more major esports events and dates are announced. First published: 13/01/25.

League of Legends and VALORANT kick off esports’ competitive calendar with their international respective leagues all commencing. However, the first month of 2025 also concludes Apex Legends’ latest season as the 2024 ALGS Championship heads to Japan.

February sees some of the best teams across Rainbow Six Siege, VALORANT and Counter-Strike 2 collide with the Six Invitational 2025, VALORANT Masters Bangkok 2025 and PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 all taking place, respectively. Meanwhile, Fortnite’s esports ecosystem takes centre stage across the world with its online Major 1 Grand Finals.

League of Legends’ esports ecosystem will debut its new tournament, First Stand, in March. Meanwhile, Capcom Cup 11, Street Fighter 6’s biggest event of the year, and Rocket League’s RLCS 2025 Birmingham Major stand out within a very busy month in esports.

Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 largely dominate April 2025, with the likes of PGL Bucharest, BLAST Rivals Spring 2025, IEM Spring, ESL One Raleigh and PGL Wallachia Season 4 all starting in the month. Call of Duty League’s Stage 3 Major and ESL Snapdragon Pro Series: Mobile Masters 2025 are other stand-out events in April.

Counter-Strike 2 continues to dominate the 2025 esports calendar with four significant events happening in May alone. Notably, this includes ESL Impact League Season 7, Counter-Strike 2’s women’s-only esports competition.

June is jam-packed with international events. VALORANT, Counter-Strike, Rocket League and League of Legends will host notable global competitions to find the best teams in their respective games at 2025’s mid-way point.

July marks the start of the 2025 Esports World Cup, a multi-title esports tournament in Saudi Arabia. As such, a range of major esports events will be scheduled throughout the month. As of right now, the biggest events announced are the PUBG Mobile World Cup 2025 and its new Chess competition.

Alongside the continuation of the Esports World Cup, August will see titles such as Pokemon UNITE and GeoGuessr conclude their respective esports ecosystems.

September sees various Counter-Strike 2 competitions commence, including the ESL Pro League and the StarLadder StarSeries. However, headlining this month is the RLCS 2025 World Championship, which has yet to reveal its location.

So far, very little has been announced for October. However, the 2025 League of Legends World Championship, one of esports’ biggest events of the year, is set to be held in China with PGL hosting another significant Counter-Strike 2 tournament in Serbia.

November sees the conclusion of PUBG Mobile’s esports ecosystem, whilst Rainbow Six, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2 all host notable competitions.

Written by: Tom Daniels & Olivia Richman

OpTic Texas has announced that Australian Call of Duty esports player Amer ‘Pred’ Zulbeari has returned to the team’s starting line-up.

Pred replaces Cuyler ‘Huke’ Garland who competed for the Call of Duty League (CDL) franchise during the opening Major of the season in Madrid, Spain.

Pred first joined OpTic Texas in July 2023, becoming the first Call of Duty player from the APAC region to win a CDL Major. In December 2024, he left the franchise to take a break to deal with an undisclosed personal situation.

The return marks the reformation of the OpTic Texas roster which achieved victory at the 2024 CDL Championship, defeating New York Subliners in the Grand Final.

OpTic Texas is the first CDL franchise to make a roster change following the conclusion of Major 1. After securing the top seed for the opening event of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 season, the franchise only scored a top-eight placement after losing to Miami Heretics and Carolina Royal Ravens.

Before the second Major of the 2025 CDL season takes place, the newly-formed OpTic Texas and 11 other franchises return to action for four weeks of qualifying matches.

Beginning on February 14th and concluding on March 16th, franchises compete for CDL Points to determine the seeding for the next LAN event taking place in Allen, Texas. Notably, OpTic Texas will operate the event.

Allen, Texas is no stranger to hosting Call of Duty esports events. In 2024, the season-ending CDL Championship took place at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center with OpTic Texas taking the win in front of a capacity crowd.

In addition to qualifying matches, the second stage of the season will host a Minor tournament. The Minor involves all 12 teams competing in a single-elimination bracket for $20,000 (~£16,064) and additional CDL Points.

Atlanta FaZe, an esports franchise owned by FaZe Clan, has won the 2025 Call of Duty League (CDL) Major 1 in Madrid, Spain.

Hosted by fellow CDL franchise Toronto Ultra at the Caja Mágica, Atlanta FaZe narrowly defeated Los Angeles Thieves in a final that came down to the final round of the final map.

Taking place over the last five days, all 12 CDL teams have competed across a double-elimination bracket to earn valuable CDL Points and a share of the event’s $375,000 (~£304,783) prize pool. By winning the tournament, Atlanta FaZe has received 100 CDL Points and $150,000 (~£121,888).

On its way to the Grand Final, Atlanta FaZe defeated Boston Breach and host franchise Toronto Ultra in the opening two rounds of the upper bracket. The team then went on to defeat LA Thieves in the upper bracket final to secure its place in the Grand Final.

Meanwhile, LA Thieves defeated the Carolina Royal Ravens and the Miami Heretics to set up a rematch in the Grand Final which used a best-of-seven format to determine the eventual winner.

The final came down to the eleventh and final round of game seven where Atlanta FaZe secured victory in one of the closest matches seen in the Call of Duty League’s five-year history.

Overall, this is Atlanta FaZe’s sixth Call of Duty League Major trophy. Moreover, the franchise has won the Call of Duty League 2021: Playoffs and Esports World Cup 2024.

Following the conclusion of Major 1, Atlanta FaZe and the 11 other teams return to action with online qualifiers for the second Major of the CDL season.

Three weeks of online qualifiers to determine seeding for Major 2 begins on February 14th, 2025 and concludes on March 16th, 2025.

Before Major 2 — which is hosted by OpTic Texas — takes place, the second CDL Minor will commence on February 27th to March 2nd. The single-elimination tournament involves all 12 teams with the winner taking home a $20,000 (~£16,256) prize.

Seeding for the Minor is determined by the first two weeks of Major 2 qualification.