The Overwatch League began its inaugural season in 2018. Regular-season play started on January 10, 2018, making that year the league’s official competitive debut.
Blizzard announced the league in 2016 as a city-based professional esports competition modeled partly on traditional sports leagues. The inaugural season featured 12 teams representing cities and regions in North America, Europe, and Asia. Before the regular season began, the league held preseason matches in December 2017, but those exhibitions were not the inaugural season itself.
The 2018 season used four regular-season stages followed by playoffs. Its Grand Finals took place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where the London Spitfire defeated the Philadelphia Fusion to become the first Overwatch League champions. The season helped establish Overwatch as a major organized esports title and influenced Blizzard’s later approach to other franchised leagues.
The date is sometimes confused with 2017 because the league was announced and held preseason matches that year. Those events came before the official inaugural regular season, which began in January 2018.