This week marks the beginning of the lead up to the Overwatch League Playoffs. There’s lots of coverage to come in the next few weeks and it all begins today!

1) Overwatch League All-Star Game Starting Rosters Announced

The starting lineup for the first-ever Overwatch League All-Star game has been released and much like the Overwatch League standings so far, it’s dominated by the NYXL. Players from the New York-based team make up four of the six Atlantic division All-Star starting slots, with Yeon-joon ‘Ark’ Hong, Sung-hyeon ‘JJoNaK’ Bang, Do-hyeon ‘Pine’ Kim, and Jong-yeol ‘Saebyeolbe’ Park all on the roster. The only non-New York players on the Atlantic All-Star’s side are the Philidelphia Fusion’s Jae-hyeok ‘Carpe’ Lee and the London Spitfire’s Jae-hee ‘Gesture’ Hong.

It is, however, interesting to note that every member of the Atlantic division All-Stars is on a team that qualified for the playoffs. On the Pacific side, only Scott ‘Custa’ Kennedy and Chan-hyung ‘Fissure’ Baek are on teams that qualified for the Overwatch League playoffs, as the rest of their roster is made up of Je-Hong ‘ryujehong’ Ryu, Byung-sun ‘Fleta’ Kim, Se-yeon ‘Geguri’ Kim, and Brandon ‘Seagull’ Larned.

The All-Star starting twelve were chosen by some 55,000 fans in an official Twitter fan vote, and each division will have an additional 12 players on its finalized Overwatch League All-Star roster. Those extra 12 will be voted on by players, coaches, casters and staff and will be finalized at some point in July. As for the actual All-Star celebration, it will begin on Saturday, August 25th with a series of custom matches, with the official Overwatch League All-Star Game taking place on the following day.

2) Stage 4 Top Plays: The Best All-Star Moments 

a) The Best Reinhardt in the Overwatch League.

???? RIDICULOUS! @Fissure #OWL2018

Live: https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/gn1FcxjX2k

— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) May 25, 2018

b) Support > DPS.

Nothin' quite like a few SLOMO Orbs from @JJoNakLove! #OWL2018

Live: https://t.co/U6dIioZfOU pic.twitter.com/FVFG4OqMZ9

— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) May 18, 2018

c) Mi Custa, su Custa.

"Hang on, I'll be RIGHT back boys" – @Custa maybe #OWL2018

Live: https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/FKpRjXCoVs

— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) June 8, 2018

d) The best play of the Overwatch League season.

Sometimes, it only takes ONE… and his name is @carpe_ow. #OWL2018

Live: https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/TnngZh8pNY

— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) May 18, 2018

3) Playoff Picture Overview

After an exciting inaugural regular season, the standings are set and the Overwatch League Playoffs are finally on the horizon. The Playoffs kick-off on June 11th with a matchup between the Philadelphia Fusion and Boston Uprising at 8:00 PM EST, followed by a match between the middle of the standings L.A. Gladiators and London Spitfire at 10:00 PM EST. Structure-wise, the first team to win two best of five games will win the matchup and proceed to the next round of play.

Because they won their respective divisions, the NYXL and L.A. Valiant have automatically qualified for the Overwatch League Semi-Finals, and they will face the winners of the previously mentioned quarterfinal matches. As a result, both teams will only have to win one series to qualify for the Grand Finals, which will be taking place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York from July 27th to 28th. As for what patch the playoffs will be played on, the league has confirmed that all games will be played on version 1.25. This patch includes the rework to Hanzo’s scattershot ability as well as the recent Lucio changes but does not include Symmetra’s overhaul. The full playoff schedule and team standings are available below.

Liked this article and want to read more like it? Check out a look at the Overwatch league Stage 4 Finals and an article Crowning the League’s Best Widowmaker Player.

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