Misfits Crowned Inaugural ‘Overwatch Open’ Champions

After a grueling five days of group stages and playoffs, a champion has been crowned for Overwatch‘s biggest tournament to date, the Overwatch Open. The tournament’s Cinderella story came to fruition when Misfits won the finals by taking down the tournament favorite Team EnVyUs. They became the Overwatch Open champions in spectacular fashion, winning a thrilling best-of-five that was almost too close to call. Misfits will take home a whopping $100,000 and well-earned bragging rights for their efforts.

Here is a full recap of each map played and how it all went down between the best two Overwatch teams in the world.

King’s Row

Misfits 1 — Team EnVyUs 0

The grand finals started with a bang! Misfits clearly showed they meant business and literally steamrolled Team EnVyUs to capture all three points on King’s Row with plenty of time to spare. The payload was constantly moving and Team EnVyUs never had enough time to coordinate their defenses or ultimates to stage any type of defense.

Team EnVyUs’ turn to attack went well, although they weren’t as dominant as Misfits. A clutch Mercy resurrection by Sebastian “chipshajen” Widlund allowed the team to secure the first capture point and barely get the cart to the third and final point during a tense overtime.

In order to go up 1-0 over EnVyUs, Misfits had a whopping 4+ minutes to take the first capture on King’s Row. Their initial siege on the map was so quick, the reserve time afforded to them meant they could have multiple attempts to secure the first CP.

However, EnVyUs showed everybody why they are considered one of the best teams in the world after they staved off Misfits until overtime, where Misfits finally pulled through and took a 1-0 lead.

Nepal

Misfits 1 — Team EnVyUs 1

Nepal was all about Team EnVyUs member Timo “Taimou” Kettunen, who shined using Roadhog. Primarily a Widowmaker and McCree Player, Taimou provided unreal hooks and clutch kills to help secure his team the capture point multiple times.

Nepal started rather well for Team EnVyUs, but Misfits somehow eeked out a win in the first round of the map after being down 95%. A lot of this was due to the disruptive Tracer played by Terence “SoOn” Tarlier, who went for all or nothing plays throughout the grand finals, often to the favor of his team.

Upset with his team throwing the first round of Nepal, Taimou took the game by the throat. His hero versatility of Roadhog, Tracer, and McCree turned the tide of the map and secured Team EnVyUs a win in the series, tying it up 1-1.

Watchpoint: Gibralter

Misfits 2 — Team EnVyUs 1

The quickest map of the series, Watchpoint: Gibralter had some momentum-killing plays that ultimately cost Team EnVyUs.

Attacking first, EnVyUs had a fairly pedestrian attempt with the first point, taking it easily. Taking the second point, however, proved to be their downfall. Misfits played the elevation changes and myriad of flanks to their defensive advantage and stopped EnVyUs in their tracks.

Riding a high, Misfits only needed to capture two points to secure themselves a 2-1 lead in the series. Their momentum and experience between the first and second capture proved to be the deciding factor, with excellent Nano-Boost usage on Terence “SoOn” Tarlier’s Reaper, it proved to be the final straw that broke the camel’s back. Misfits took the map and secured themselves a crucial 2-1 lead heading into a potential match point.

Lijiang Tower

Misfits 3 — Team EnVyUs 1

Taimou continued to show the world why he’s considered one of the biggest playmakers in competitive Overwatch on Lijiang Tower. His ultimate usage and pickoffs proved to set the pace for the match and nearly carried his team to victory. Unfortunately for Taimou, the team play from Misfits was just too much. Their relentless style and chaotic play proved too difficult to deal with, and EnVyUs ultimately lost the first cap in overtime.

Regrouping, EnVyUs put together an aggressive lineup for the second CP and made sure to capture early. They kept Misfits on their heels by taking fights outside of the traditional CP area, evening the map 1-1.

Misfits adopted the same strategy themselves and tried to see if EnVyUs could adjust to their rabid play. In short — they could not. SoOn’s kamikaze style on Tracer was reckless and effective, causing EnVyUs to adjust on the fly and abandon their traditional style of play.

For EnVyUs, the “nothing to lose” style of Misfits proved to be their downfall as they could not counter Misfit’s timely ultimates and disruptive playstyle. They ended up losing the grand finals 3-1. Once again, EnVyUs failed to live up to expectations of a first place finish.

As for Misfits, the Cinderella story lives on. After previous roster changes and then having to play with a stand-in, not many experts had pinned them as a potential winner. Ruben “ryb” Ljungdahl filled in admirably at the tank role and the support players, coupled with SoOn’s Reaper and Tracer, proved to be the key factors that led to the team winning the Overwatch Open.

Congratulations to both teams. We hope to see more of them in the future.