Eight teams paid more than $30 million each to join the Overwatch League - here's everything you need to know before the new season starts

To help develop new professional talent, the Overwatch League also has a regional minor league system called Overwatch Contenders. There will be eight Contenders regions in 2019, with eight teams in each region.

Players on a Contenders team can sign a two-way contract with an Overwatch League squad that allows them to compete in both leagues during the season, while earning the same basic benefits as a full-time League player. The only drawback is that a player cannot compete with both their Contenders team and their Overwatch League team in the same week.

The 2019 Overwatch League season will start on February 14 with a rematch between last year's grand finalists the Philadelphia Fusion, and defending champion London Spitfire.

Each team will play a 28-match schedule spread across four 5-week periods during the year. Regular season matches will conclude in August and the eight best teams will qualify for the playoffs. Activision Blizzard is offering a $5 million prize pool spread throughout the season, including a $1.1 million purse for the season 2 champions.

The majority of the regular season matches will be played in the league's main arena in Burbank, California, but three teams — the Dallas Fuel, Atlanta Reign, and Los Angeles Valiant — will host matches in their home cities during special weekend events.

Like any traditional sporting event, fans can buy tickets for single events or for the length of the season and cheer on their favorite teams from the crowd. The Overwatch League organizes a number of team signings and fan events over the course of the season too, helping the community stay connected to the players.

Every match will be available live and on-demand on the Overwatch League Twitch channel, as well as Overwatchleague.com, MLG.com, and their respective mobile apps. The opening week matchups will also be shown on Disney XD, and the league plans to broadcast more matches on TV in the future.

While Overwatch League players have been enjoying the off-season, "Overwatch" has been constantly evolving with new updates, balance changes, and a new playable character, Ashe. Teams will need to adjust to their new rosters and employ different strategies as the new season gets underway.

The New York Excelsior (NYXL) was the most dominant team in the league last year, playing their way to a 34-6 win-loss record and a first round bye in the playoffs. NYXL ultimately fell to the 6th-ranked Philadelphia Fusion in the semifinals, and the 5th-ranked London Spitfire ultimately won the championship. The league's first-season MVP was NYXL support player Seong-Hyun "Jjonak" Bang.

The inaugural Overwatch League season didn't go great for everyone: the Shanghai Dragons failed to earn a single win during the 2018, ending the year with a disappointing 0-40 record. The Dragons retained three players from their winless team and added six new faces to try and turn their fortunes around in 2019.

The Dragons will have to deal with nearly twice as many teams this year though, and with the league schedule shrinking from 40 to 28 matches per team, squads will have fewer chances to rematch with their opponents.

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Congratulations to @JJoNakLove on being named the #OverwatchLeague's Most Valuable Player#MVP #OWL2018 pic.twitter.com/MK0Rd1DJ3v

This year's standings will be tough to predict, with eight new teams and dozens of new players joining the fray. Every team will be working to help their players gain an edge in competition, and give their fans something to root for.

Overwatch League team owners range from professional sports teams and media companies, to institutional esports organizations. Beyond revenue sharing from ticket and merchandise sales, teams can generate revenue sales of their in-game uniforms and local sponsorship deals.

Below you can see every Overwatch League team, their parent organizations (in parenthesis), and their team colors.