How to Watch Overwatch League Playoffs and Get Free ‘Overwatch 2’ Skins, Tokens, Sprays and Icons

The Overwatch League season is coming to an end, which means it’s time for the playoffs! The end of the season started yesterday with the first round of matches. Matches will take place every day this week, culminating in the grand final on Friday.

Not only can you see some of the best Overwatch 2 players in the world rule it out (get ready to see a lot of Winston and Kiriko, if day one is anything to go by), but you can earn some in-game rewards thanks to YouTube Drops.

To do so, you need to link your Battle.net and YouTube accounts. Select the Battle.net option on the Connected Apps page of the YouTube settings and follow the instructions. You can link your accounts when an Overwatch League broadcast is in progress by clicking or tapping the reward icon below the OWL YouTube stream. You will see a “Connected” icon below your YouTube stream when everything is set up.

It’s worth noting that only personal YouTube accounts are eligible – not brand. You get rewards when you watch live broadcasts online on your computer, the YouTube mobile app, the YouTube mobile site, and through the YouTube picture-in-picture player on your phone or tablet. Any time you spend watching Overwatch League broadcasts on other websites where streams are embedded, or on the YouTube app on TVs, game consoles or other media devices, you will not make any progress towards any of the rewards.

There are a couple of other places where you can earn rewards: the Overwatch League website and mobile app. There are a couple of advantages to taking this route. First, you don’t need a YouTube or Google account. You just need to sign in with your Battle.net credentials to earn rewards. Second, the app and website homepage will feature the live broadcast front and center. You don’t have to go through the Overwatch League YouTube channel to find the right video.

It’s worth checking the official Overwatch League benefits rules to see if you’re actually eligible for the rewards. People who are legal residents of certain countries will not earn rewards for watching live Overwatch League matches on YouTube.

And what are these rewards, you may be wondering?

You will earn OWL tokens, which you can use to purchase Overwatch League team skins and legendary themes that become available from time to time. These skins are more expensive than they were in Overwatch 1, so this week is a good opportunity to earn a bunch of tokens and unlock the skins you want. You will earn five tokens for every hour of OWL Playoffs and Grand Finals matches you watch. If you reach 30 hours of total viewing time, you’ll get 100 extra tokens.

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You can also earn Overwatch League home and away skins for each hero, if you haven’t unlocked them during previous events. You’ll get a few skins for each of the heroes in the original game for every three hours of watch time you achieve by November 3rd (or the rerun on November 4th – more on that in a second). You will also receive additional rewards including sprays, player icons and the Lúcio Dance Party emote. Here’s a diagram showing how it all works:

If you spend enough time watching the Grand Finals on Friday, you’ll get skins for the final three heroes – Sojourn, Junker Queen and Kiriko – a chic name card and a spray, in addition to the usual five OWL tokens per hour.

For clarity, you can watch the matches and earn rewards on the Overwatch League YouTube channel, the Overwatch League app, and the Overwatch League website. Only official live broadcasts are eligible.

You don’t need to claim the rewards manually. They will appear in the game after you have reached the various viewing thresholds. It is worth noting that it may take up to 48 hours for OWL tokens to appear in your account. For the shells, sprays and other items, they will not appear until November 15th or later. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any way to check viewership on YouTube.

You can earn tokens and other goodies by watching official replays as well as each night’s live stream. Just make sure you’re on the Overwatch Channel and you see “Premiere” in the lower left corner of the video panel.

If you missed Sunday’s matches, it’s actually not too late to earn rewards for them. You can watch an official replay stream, starting at 9:30 a.m. ET on Monday. There will be replays for all the other broadcasts, including the Grand Finals.

Games start at 5:30 PM ET every day through Thursday, with four games per day. Reruns begin at 9:30 a.m. ET the next morning.

As for the Grand Finals, the event kicks off at 8:00 PM ET on Friday, with two games to go. The replay for that starts at 2:00 PM ET on Saturday.

If you’re not sure what these times are in your own time zone, check the schedule on the Overwatch League website. All times are displayed in your local time.

If any of this information is not completely clear to you, meet me on Twitter. I’m happy to help. And enjoy playoffs and grand finals! It’s going to be a great week.

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