The Overwatch Open has been underway since earlier this week. Today we found out who will be playing in the grand final match tomorrow. Team EnVyUs will represent North America and Misfits will represent Europe as they compete to be crowned champions at the inaugural Overwatch Open tournament. For those who have missed out on the tournament, here’s how these two teams got there.
North America
North American powerhouse Team EnVyUs dominated their group as they went undefeated, setting themselves up in the playoffs against Cloud 9. Using primarily a 1-3-2 format of 1 flanker, 3 tanks, and 2 healers, Team EnVyUs showed the world why everyone considers them to be one of the tournament favorites. They played concisely and proved that their team cohesion is the best in the world. Their matches against Cloud 9 were mostly lopsided, only dropping a single map on Hollywood. Team EnVyUs ultimately won the series 3-1 to secure themselves a spot in the tournament’s semifinals against Fnatic.
Looking dangerous themselves, Fnatic was poised to upset Team EnVyUs. On the first map of the semifinals, Team EnVyUs failed to make any headway on the payload map and couldn’t even get it to the first capture point. The formidable defense by Fnatic certainly had people wondering if Team EnVyUs were going to bounce back.
After going down 0-1 in the best-of-five series, Team EnVyUs woke up. They swept Lijiang Tower, dominated Dorado, and finally finished off Fnatic with another ace on Nepal.
With a spot in the grand finals secured, Team EnVyUs had a few days to enjoy the competition and scout out their potential grand final opponents.
Europe
Team Misfits may be the Cinderella story of the tournament. They upset tournament favorites and winners of Gamescom, Rogue. Now they must be full of confidence for the grand finals match against Team EnVyUs.
It was a rough start for the half-French, half-Swedish side. For starters, they had to play with a stand-in. Their normal tank player, Nicholas “Skipjack” Rosada, could not attend the tournament. Furthermore, they had only beaten one team twice in the group stages (Luminosity) and also lost to Rogue without taking a single map. However, they placed second in their group which secured them a spot in the playoffs and a chance to climb their way back into contention.
Their games earlier today against Ninjas in Pajamas had many folks impressed. Stand-in player Ruben “ryb” Ljungdahl looked solid and their teamwork was a vast improvement over their Gamescom showing. They managed to edge out a close victory on the first map, Watchpoint: Gibralter, by only 10 meters. They then went on to dominate Hollywood before dropping another close match on Eichenwalde and then rolling over NiP on King’s Row to close out the series 3-1.
If there has been one series to watch this entire tournament, it probably has to be the Rogue vs. Misfits best-of-five that just took place in the semifinals. The games were difficult to predict and very close to call. After falling down 1-2 maps to Rogue, Misfits squeaked out another clutch win by stopping Rogue from capping the second point on Eichenwalde and winning by only 8 meters.
They then proved their mastery of the Hollywood map was not a fluke. They held NiP to only one capture point and secured themselves a spot in the grand finals against Team EnVyUs.
The grand finals of the Overwatch Open take place Sept. 30 at 10 p.m. EDT. They will be shown on TBS and streamed via Twitch.