Another week of action as more than 100 Overwatch teams across North America and Europe compete in the Overwatch Open, the biggest tournament for the game with a $300,000 prize pool. Teams compete in the qualifiers to secure a place in the playoffs, where the winner of each week from both regions gets a placement. The top 32 of each qualifiers gain points that will also help them qualify to the playoffs, though the winners get better seeding. With the third week now wrapping up with one more week to go, we saw two more teams gaining entry to the next stage of the tournament following EnVyUs and Misfits who first qualified followed by Cloud 9 and Rouge the week after.
This week, to the surprise of many Fnatic has gained the third spot in NA and REUNITED finally secured one in EU.
While the NA teams have a a huge gap of skill between EnVyUs, Cloud 9 and the rest of the pack, we now see teams that can now compete with at least Cloud 9 by way of Fnatic. Before this, Luminosity Gaming, now flying a different colour and name as team NRG, are the indisputable third best team in NA. But recent results have proven the more teams can now challenge them on, with TSM, Team Liquid and Fnatic gaining momentum and more consistent results.
Both Fnatic and NRG were blazing through the brackets, winning 2-0 to various teams including Sodipop and Sea Algae to make it to the semis. By then, we saw what was clearly a stomp by Fnatic to win 2-0 thus leading them to the finals. On the other side of the brackets, TSM is looking strong despite a slightly disappointing week 2 results after making it to the finals in week 1. They took down Selfless to reach the semi-finals to meet the rising Team Liquid, who defeated Splyce on the way to the semis. A tough match ensues with TSM emerged victorious, reaching the finals for the second time.
However, Fnatic proves to be too hot to handle in their current state as TSM lost a straight 3-0 in a best of five. Fnatic’s DPS player IDDQD is looking sharper than ever, which heavily contributed to their strong performance as of late.
Moving on to Europe, we saw another potential REUNITED-WEUNITED match avoided as Ninjas in Pajamas (NiP) took down WEUNITED on their way to the semis. REUNITED won against OWKings to reach the semis facing Nip, and what entails was a fast-paced match, including a record-breaking time of 2:55 on Watchpoint Gibraltar, one of the longest payload maps in the game currently. For context: sub 5 minute times are considered to be really fast, and this just takes the cake. NiP would have set an aggressive time as well, around 3:10 though they would have still lose by stopwatch rules as the fastest time on payload maps wins. REUNITED then takes another win to secure their seat to the finals.
The other side of the bracket saw the new European Luminosity Gaming making it to the semis facing the dark horse that is Creation e-Sports. Creation has always been consistent, though not as flashy and have yet to consistently reach the finals in more major tournaments (they tend to enter EU-based tourneys, where they are more dominant). The results however were in favour of the in-form LG as they reach the finals with a 2-0 victory. However, the result of the finals comes to no shock this time, as REUNITED put in a solid performance and getting a 3-0 win, securing them a slot in the playoffs.
With six teams already qualified, this upcoming weekend will see the rest of the teams scramble to score the best results. With only two slots available for a seeded placement in the playoffs, the rest of the pack will now focus on acquiring enough points to proceed to the playoffs. 12 teams of each region will accompany the 4 teams already qualified for the playoffs beginning in September.
Here are the leaderboards for points for each region:
You can catch the last week of the Overwatch Open Qualifiers live on Twitch or on Astro’s eGG channel 808. Reruns will also be available throughout the week. For VODs, visit FACEIt’s VOD channel on YouTube here.