The Overwatch League will bring live esports to 20 cities around the world this year - here's everything you need to know about the upcoming season

Overwatch League matches will be held every Saturday and Sunday during the eight-month season, including a midseason all-star event bringing the league's top players together for a series of special competitions. Venues will vary based on the team hosting — some franchises have dedicated arenas and practice facilities, while others have chosen to rent an event hall for the weekend.

During the league's opening weekend, the New York Excelsior will play host in the historic Hammerstein Ballroom, while the Dallas Fuel will host at Esports Stadium Arlington, a $10 million arena that opened in November 2018.

You can find the full season schedule on the official Overwatch League website.

Last year's Overwatch League Grand Finals brought in 1.12 million average viewers on Twitch and ABC, an increase of 16% from the league's first season. Esports leagues use a metric called average minute audience (AMA) that measures how many people were watching at any given time, as opposed to the peak viewership. AMA also includes people who watched a rebroadcast within 24 hours.

Activision Blizzard recently signed a deal with Google that will bring the Overwatch League and the company's other esports broadcasts exclusively to YouTube. Though YouTube is the internet's most trafficked video platform, Twitch is much more popular for live broadcasts and gaming in particular. The Overwatch League's shift to YouTube could have an impact on viewership if the Twitch audience isn't willing to follow the league to a different platform.

The past two seasons of Overwatch League was occasionally simulcast on ESPN 2, and the Grand Finals were broadcast on ABC — it's unclear if future television broadcasts will be impacted by league's new partnership with Google.

Overwatch League viewership has steadily increased, but there's concern among fans that the new traveling schedule will create additional stress for players. While teams spent the past two seasons based in Los Angeles, the new schedule will require extended international trips, with some teams expecting to leave their home country for up to a month.

For example, after hosting matches in Boston on June 28, the Uprising plans to spend the entire month of July in China with five matches scheduled in Shanghai, Chengdu, and Guangzhou between July 4th and July 26.

With teams recruiting talents at an international scale, dozens of players were already spending the vast majority of the eight-month regular season away from their home country. Players earned $114,000 on average during 2019 and teams paid for player housing during the eight month season.

Last year, the average Overwatch League player was about 21 years old, based on data collected by South Korean commentator YongBongTang — players must be 18 to compete.

Our #OWL2020 schedule is HERE!

Two Boston homestands. Five weekends in Europe. A month in China. pic.twitter.com/lylNZaAdwa

The Overwatch League canceled events in China through the end of March as a result of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed at least 425 people in China and infected more than 20,000.

The league had scheduled more than a dozen matches in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou during the first two months of the season. A statement from the Shanghai Dragons said the canceled matches will be played at a later date, but the Overwatch League hasn't specified if the rescheduled matches will be played online or in-person.