A major offline Overwatch 2 tournament, the Overwatch Champions Series 2026 Midseason Championship, will take place in Paris. The competition will be held at the stc Arena in the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles exhibition center from July 29 to August 2, 2026. The event is organized by Blizzard Entertainment, FACEIT, and the Esports Foundation as part of the OWCS and Esports World Cup series. This S-Tier tournament features a prize pool of $1,000,000 USD, with 16 teams competing for the title.
The tournament will proceed in two stages. The Group Stage will run from July 29 to July 31 and feature two 8-team Double Elimination brackets. All matches in this stage will be played to two map wins, with the top four teams from each group advancing to the next stage. The Playoffs will take place on August 1–2 in a Single Elimination format. Playoff matches will be played to three map wins, except for the Grand Finals, where teams must win four maps to claim the championship.
A key feature of the competition is the hero ban system. Each team will be able to ban one hero per map, with the ban affecting both teams and required to be from a different role than the opposing team's ban. Teams can only ban a specific hero once per series, but they are allowed to repeat a ban made by the opposing team. The right to choose the first or second ban is granted to the higher-seeded team or the team that lost the previous map.
The tournament winner will receive the grand prize of $400,000 USD and 1,000 EWC Club Points. The runner-up will take home $180,000 USD and 750 points, while third place awards $100,000 USD and 500 points.
The competition kicks off on July 29 with the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals (match start times are indicated in EEST):
Official English-language broadcasts will be available on the Esports World Cup and Overwatch Esports YouTube and Twitch channels.
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