On Wednesday, the Overwatch League announced that some live events will return soon, with all of the currently announced events taking place in China. Those live events will be the first regular-season homestands since the Overwatch League moved online during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. 

The Overwatch League announced the following events, so far at least:

• Hangzhou Spark June Joust - June 4-6
• Shanghai Dragons Summer Showdown - July 9-11
• Guangzhou Charge Countdown Cup - August 7-8

These will be the first OWL homestands to take place in Asia, since last year's live events that were scheduled in the APAC region were all canceled due to the coronavirus. In the lead-up to the Overwatch League's fourth season, it was unclear if we would get to see any homestand events at all this year, or if we would have to continue to wait for future seasons. It appears that we will get to see some live events this year after all.

According to the Overwatch League's official post, all the live events scheduled in China will take place under reduced venue capacity due to COVID-19. The teams based in China are expected to compete onstage at the events, while the three teams based in Korea will not attend in person. So the event won't exactly be a LAN, but at least there will be some live stage aspects to it.

There is still no word on whether any homestands are planned for the North American region. Homestands were a key aspect to the Overwatch League's value proposition, so we can expect them to return to live events in North America as soon as they are feasible again.