This article is part of our Overwatch Recap series.
One of the first major eSports events for Overwatch concluded on Monday, with the North American regional champion earning its crown while simultaneously locking in its spot at the grand finals this Friday. While there was plenty of drama to be had at the tournament, there was one team that stood head and shoulders above the rest of the competition.
Favorites Falter
Coming into this weekend, NRG eSports and Cloud9 were the two teams pegged by many to make its way through the regional battle. Both teams got off to largely poor starts, though. NRG opened up play in Group A with a 2-0 loss to Team Liquid that sent it right to the lower bracket. The two rounds against Liquid weren't even close, as Liquid took the games by a score of 3-2 and 3-1. It made up for this poor play in the lower bracket, though, with convincing 2-0 and 2-1 series wins against Splyce and Team Liquid, respectively.
Cloud9, the other NA favorite, had a similarly bad opening to the tournament. It started its run in Group B by losing a close 2-1 series to Method, which meant the group would also have to traverse the lower bracket. Cloud9 began its run by taking on Immortals, easily prevailing 2-0. Cloud9 would then be faced up against its opening round opponent, Method, with a trip to the playoffs on the line. In position to claim back-to-back sweeps over their opposition, Cloud9 saw Method stay alive thanks to a clutch play on Anubis in the waning seconds of the game. The spectacular team play became a moot point, however, as Cloud9 bounced back and got the win in the next game to take the series 2-1.
Having maneuvered through the lower bracket after early collapses, both Cloud9 and NRG seemed poised to continue their run through the playoffs. Unfortunately, neither team showed up in its first playoff game. Cloud9 managed to take a single game from Team EnVyUs, but largely failed to play up to its capabilities and fell 3-1. NRG eSports had an even rougher go of things in its opening series to the playoffs. In each game of the 3-0 sweep in favor of Fnatic, NRG would get a one or two round lead before faltering and losing the map. These two teams will certainly have a lot to discuss and look over going into future Overwatch major events.
Team EnVyUs' Domination
Team EnVyUs were the clearcut kings of this tournament, as the group blitzed its way through the competition on way to punching its ticket to the grand finals. It opened up play in Group A with two easy 2-0 wins over Splyce and Team Liquid. The games didn't even feel very close, as Team EnVyUs was playing with a level of confidence that granted it an immense amount of separation in each contest.
Team EnVyUs did not let off the gas one bit heading into the playoffs. The Boys in Blue faced one of the favorites going into the tournament, Cloud9, and prevailed fairly easily. While Team EnVyUs did drop the second game, 3-2, they were able to effectively handle their opposition, winning Games 1, 3 and 4 by large margins. Moving on to the finals, Team EnVyUs lost the opening game in a closely contested 1-0 tilt. From that point on, the team seemed to stabilize in a major way and easily pushed its way to victory, only dropping a single round in the next three games to take the series and punch its ticket to the Overwatch Open Grand Finals in Atlanta this Friday.
Congratulations to @TeamEnVyUs, who face the Europe Playoff champs this Friday on TBS at 10pm ET. Who do you think will win the #OWOpen ? pic.twitter.com/sOBaw1mqzC
— ELEAGUE (@EL) September 26, 2016
Looking Forward
With the North American representative locked down, all eyes will turn to the European Regional Playoffs to see which team will take on Team EnVyUs in the Global Championship Finals with the $100,000 grand prize on the line.
