Missed the action of last week’s Overwatch Open? Or looking to watch it all over again? The biggest tournament for Blizzard’s latest game has come to a close with Misfits outperforming to take home the $100,000 grand prize. But if you are pressed for time and can only watch a few of the 27 matches that happened, here’s 6 noteworthy match to watch.
NRG VS Splyce, NA Group A Elimination Match 1
Seagull and his team NRG eSports were the favourites to pass through the group stage, but a loss to Team Liquid sent them to the lower brackets with Splyce. With their tournament lives at stake, this is NRG showing they can pull of high-risks strats like the surprise Bastion defence at Numbani.
This is also the first instance we get to see some new tricks with Mei these pro teams have been keeping up in their sleeves. The ice wall boost in Temple of Anubis was just a teaser of the many Mei plays we got to see.
Splyce seemed to be outmatched a lot through this tournament, getting rolled by both EnVyUs and then NRG. So this is the rare example of a lopsided, no-competition match. This is one of the quickest at the finals.
The win here also got started the whole handshake meme throughout the tournament.
Fnatic VS NRG, NA Semi-Finals
While NRG have creative and unpredictable strats, they just can’t win against a methodical team with good mechanical skills all round. Fnatic demonstrated what their methodical play can bring: the Reaper Copter plays from the Beyblade strat.
While it gets some hate for “just pressing Q”, it requires good team communication and practice to pull it off consistently. Buds being in position as Reaper with Death Blossom ready. Coolmatt69 in position to shield him, Custa with Ana’s Nanoboost ready and Vonethil calling the shot, sometimes with a speed boost to follow. It’s a team effort to make that Q press work.
But it’s not all about the 5+1 Ana, Reaper, Lucio, Zarya, Reinhardt comp that Fnatic uses. In the last map, Hanamura, the comp changed to build around IDDQD on McCree rather than Buds on Reaper. It indeed worked as he managed to shut down Seagull’s Genji a lot with the flashbang throws and the accurate left-clicks.
And this is the first match ZP got the seat to cast, and he continues on to be on rotation for casting duties.
Method VS Cloud9, NA Group B Match
The upset of the game. This game was predicted to be an onslaught from the side of Cloud9, taking down the gatekeeping team Method down swiftly. But were we not prepared for this upset. This is where Ultimawep shines as Reaper and Genji, carrying the team with Exi’s Zarya, Snow’s Tracer and McCree, Roolf’s Zenyatta, and Psyhcowaffle’s Lucio stepped up. Method had been partnering up with Misfits for scrims leading to the Overwatch Open, and with them grabbing the win here, no wonder Method has shown some brilliance.
But Cloud9 got the runback as they faced each other again after Method lost to Fnatic and Cloud9 won against Immortals.
Rouge VS FaZe, EU Semi-Finals
The reverse sweep. FaZe got a surprise lost to Dignitas, but bounced back after coming on top in the REUNITED VS FaZe match and getting the runback win Dignitas. FaZe played well on the way to the finals, getting a 2-0 lead against Rogue, a team they defeated on the way to secure a place to compete at the finals here.
But either FaZe entirely choked or Rouge managed to get together and played better afterwards, pulling a reverse sweep with a 3-2 win.
Misfits VS Rogue, EU Finals
The longest, closest match in the Overwatch Open. Hot off the heels of the reverse sweep, Rogue looks like the clear favourites to blast through the finals, but Misfits VS Rouge is a classic EU matchup during the early months of Overwatch, with Misfits mostly coming on top.
Though they faced each other earlier in the groups. Misfits had to play from the lower brackets and then face off Ninjas in Pyjamas, the team expected to make big gains due to the meta being in their favour, to reach the finals.
And Misfits have so far in the tournament proved they are still the powerhouses they used to be- even with stand-ins. So what ended up here is a close, intense match where both team played the best they can, with Misfits coming on top. That last map was really, really close for both sides.
Misfits VS EnVyUs, Grand Finals
(VODs for Map 2, Map 3 and Map 4)
The main event itself. Misfits had the advantage first by forcing EnVyUs playing to their more aggressive, faster style. But after a while, the beyblade/Reaper Copter move Misfits have been relying has not been working, with EnVyUs’ Taimou on Roadhog focusing Soon of Misfits with the hook frequently.
While that strat has been closed down by EnVy, Misfits made up to it by sheer strength and speed. Their faster plays had EnVy unable to keep up, and Soon going on Tracer was doing a lot of work as Talespin can’t keep up with him to engage in Tracer VS Tracer plays. Plus, stand-ns Hidan and Ryb playing exceptionally well as Ana/Zenyatta and Reinhardt/Winston.
And in the end, it was Soon that deliver the ultimate killing blow: $100,000 Pulse Bomb win at Lijiang Tower. EnVyUs will have this moment haunt them again: it’s the second time they lost to an EU team at Lijiang in a big LAN tournament.
All the Overwatch Open VODs can be found at the YouTube channel FACEITvods. To see a more organised links to those videos in case you needed to watch everything in order, check out this thread over at Reddit.