"Achieving Our Goal Is Truly Meaningful"… After the World Cup, OWCS Korea Stage 3: Schedule Set for 9 Teams

OWCS Korea Stage 3 kicked off on October 2, 18 days after the World Cup title. Zeta Division's bid for a third straight title and the World Cup members' counterattack are the key storylines of the 9-team regular season.

Translated from Korean with AI assistance. Read the original. Sources and original publication dates are retained.

The venue is WDG Studio in Hongdae, Seoul. The 2026 OWCS Korea Stage 3 regular season opened there on October 2. The second match on opening day is Team Falcons vs. Zeta Division. For Zeta Division damage dealer 'Proper' Kim Dong-hyeon (22), Team Falcons is the former team they played for until February.

The key question is who can stop Zeta Division from winning a third straight title. The Games Daily named Zeta Division the most likely title favorite. It saw Crazy Raccoon and T1, whose rosters include World Cup-winning members, as the challengers.

OWCS Korea Stage 3 Schedule: Opening Match Is Cheeseburger vs. Poker Face

According to the bracket posted on the owtics.gg tournament page, the opening match is Cheeseburger vs. Poker Face. Next come Team Falcons vs. Zeta Division, then Sage Esports vs. T1. The remaining participants are Crazy Raccoon, Rode Zanside Gaming and O2 Blast. Match times should be checked on the official channels.

Stage	Schedule	Participants
Regular season (9-team round robin)	Oct. 2–25	All 9 teams
Playoff seeding matches	Oct. 30–Nov. 1	Regular season 1st–4th
Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ)	Oct. 30–Nov. 1	Regular season 5th–8th (9th eliminated)
Playoffs (single elimination)	Nov. 6–8	6 teams
OWCS Asia Stage 3	Nov. 20–22	Top 4 Korean teams (per Liquipedia, not officially confirmed)
OWCS World Finals	Dec. 2–6	—

Of the 9 teams, the only one eliminated directly from the regular season is the 9th-place team. Liquipedia lists the total prize pool as $25,500 and owtics.gg lists it as $24,000, a $1,500 difference. With no official announcement, the prize for the champion has not been confirmed either.

Zeta Division Goes for a Three-Peat; Proper's Career Prize Money Tallied at $210,000

The case for Zeta Division is built on numbers. They won both Stage 1 and Stage 2 this year. In the August EWC 2026 Overwatch final, they beat Twisted Minds 4-2 and took home $400,000 in prize money, according to GameTalk. T1, which finished third at the same tournament, received $100,000, and MVP 'Shu' Kim Jin-seo received $25,000.

Place	Team	Notes
1	Zeta Division	Beat Crazy Raccoon 4-2 in the final
2	Crazy Raccoon	Beat Zanside 4-1 in the playoffs
3	T1	Lost 1-4 to Zeta Division

Proper is a Korean player born on December 1, 2003, who is 22 this year. After debuting with Blossom in 2018, Proper went through O2 Blast, the Overwatch League (OWL)'s San Francisco Shock and Team Falcons before joining Zeta Division on February 28. In 2022, Proper won both OWL Rookie of the Year and regular season MVP.

The prize money tracking site Esports Earnings estimates Proper's career prize money across 26 tournaments at $210,194. The figure excludes salary and is a tally of tournament prize money divided by the number of team members. Dividing the $119,286 in prize money from 2022 alone by this figure shows that about 57% of the career total came in that single year.

Crazy Raccoon, Home of World Cup-Winning Members, Looks to Strike Back

On September 14, Korea beat Saudi Arabia 4-1 in the Overwatch World Cup final. It was Korea's first title in 8 years, since 2018, and its fourth title overall. 'Max' Choi Su-min said in a report by Inven that "I'm really happy we won together as national team members." Max and 'Chorong' Seong Yu-min play for Crazy Raccoon.

However, according to Namuwiki's tally, Crazy Raccoon lost 2-4 to Zeta in the Stage 2 final. Twisted Minds, the team of World Cup MVP 'Simple' Kim Ji-seong (21), is not on the list of the 9 participating teams this time. Esports Earnings estimates Kim's career prize money at $18,253.

What is confirmed now is the 9 participating teams, the venue, the bracket, the schedule, and the regular season and playoff formats. Zeta Division's bid for a third straight title begins in the second match on opening day, against Team Falcons, Proper's former team.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is the schedule for OWCS Korea Stage 3?

The regular season runs from October 2 to 25 as a 9-team round robin. The seeding matches and the LCQ will be held from October 30 to November 1, and the 6-team playoffs on November 6–8. According to Liquipedia, the top 4 teams are reported to advance to Asia Stage 3 on November 20–22.

Q. What is the prize pool for OWCS Korea Stage 3?

No official announcement has been confirmed yet. Liquipedia lists the total prize pool as $25,500 and owtics.gg as $24,000, so the two sites' figures differ. The prize for the champion has not been confirmed by an official announcement either.

Q. How old is Proper?

Zeta Division damage dealer 'Proper' Kim Dong-hyeon was born on December 1, 2003, and is 22 as of October 2026. Namuwiki lists Proper as the MVP of the 2026 OWCS Korea Stage 2 final.

Related Official Sites

Overwatch Esports official website (OWCS) — Announcements of 2026 season tournament formats and schedules
Overwatch Esports Asia official X account — News and result updates on Asia and Korea matches
Overwatch official website news (Blizzard) — The official Overwatch news page run by Blizzard

Representative image · Archive photo · Not a photo of the current match covered in this article · Photo: Wikimedia Commons (WDGオーバーウォッチ), CC BY 3.0