The 2025 Midseason Championship took place at the Esports World Cup, with Team Falcons securing another win with a dominant 4-0 in the finals against Al Qadsiah. The finals were followed by a Stadium showmatch, where we got our first look at the new things coming to Stadium in Season 18.
Both teams were using the three new heroes that will be introduced into the mode, Brigitte, Pharah, and Winston. However, one of the most important parts was our first look at a new map called Powder Keg Mine, which has been designed for the new mode Payload Race.
In this mode, each team will have its own payload with a mirror path. The team that reaches the end of their path first or gets the farthest once the time runs out will win the round.
As you may tell, the map takes place in another area of one of Overwatch's most well-known maps, Route 66. You can visit this link of the Twitch VOD from the EWC channel to watch the full round of Payload Race.
Thanks to the Stadium roadmap released at the start of Season 17, which you can see below, we know that a second Payload Race map based in Kings Row will also be added once Season 18 kicks off.
This is not the only Season 18 reveal we have received in the last few days, as Sojourn's upcoming mythic skin, Ultraviolet Sentinel, was also announced and exhibited during the latest developer livestream.
Whenever a new announcement comes, we will cover it properly in the lead-up to Season 18. In the meantime, a Nerf collaboration is set to arrive in the game, possibly bringing new skins and other themed additions.
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