[1][2] The season's free agency signing window opened on January 22, 2018, and closed on April 3, 2018 (the start of Stage 3).

All matches in the inaugural season (except for the Grand Finals) were played at the 350-seat Blizzard Arena, located on the former soundstage for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in Burbank, California.

The Grand Finals were played at Barclays Center in New York City, where all 11,000 seats available were sold out for both days of the event.

The Philadelphia Fusion had to pull out of pre-season play just before these events, citing "player logistics issues".

Introduced was a four-team Stage playoffs going forward, so that both teams in the final match will have played the same number of games on that day.

In the semifinal match, the Houston Outlaws took an early 1–0 lead over the London Spitfire, but were ultimately defeated 3–1.

The London Spitfire completed a reverse sweep, winning the series 3–2 and their first stage title.

The semifinal match featured the London Spitfire, looking to repeat on their Stage 1 championship, against the Philadelphia Fusion.

In the finals, the Fusion took 2–0 lead over the Excelsior, though New York came back and completed a reverse sweep to win the series and their first stage title.

Stage 3 also introduced the patch that buffed Sombra's abilities, making her a more frequent component in winning team combinations.

They chose the fourth seed Los Angeles Gladiators, achieving a 3–0 match win.

The Excelsior won the final match over the Uprising in a 3–0 victory, marking their second stage championship win.

[18] After the group stage, the Los Angeles Gladiators finished atop the league via a map differential tiebreaker.

After the regular season, the New York Excelsior and the Los Angeles Valiant finished atop their respective divisions, earning first-round byes.

The next four remaining teams, Boston Uprising, Los Angeles Gladiators, London Spitfire, and Philadelphia Fusion, were seeded according to regular season record, regardless of division.

The winners of the two semifinal matches advanced to the Grand Finals, which took place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York from July 27–28.

The game was played on August 26, 2018, and was the culmination of the league's All-Star Weekend, a two-day event that consisted of Lúcioball, Mystery Heroes, a Widowmaker 1v1 tournament, Talent Takedown, and Lockout Elimination.