The first two days of play at the Overwatch Open's main event in Atlanta will feature eight North American teams battling it out for the right to represent the region in Friday's televised Grand Final. Even though the North American hosts have an extra three days to prepare, both NA and EU will have the luxury of watching the others tournament play out in full.

The coming days should definitely serve as an opportunity for coaches and analysts to earn their keep, because up until this point there has been a veritable drought of information on many teams. Obviously there is a world of elite level scrims and practise that goes on behind the velvet rope of professional esports, but for paupers such as ourselves who don't have access to the right lobbies, figuring out the current form is a tenuous prospect.

So eh… don't bet the house on this or anything.

Group A

Team EnVyUs

  • Ronnie "Talespin" DuPree Jr. (DPS)
  • Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka (Flex)
  • Timo "Taimou" Kettunen (DPS)
  • Christian "cocco" Jonsson (Tank)
  • Sebastian "chipshajen" Widlund (Support)
  • Jonathan "HarryHook" Tejedor Rua (Support)

It seems like most pundits are still convinced that EnVyUs are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Tipped by many as tournament favourites, but still yet to prove they are LAN capable. Last time we saw them play in any competition was online, one month ago, beating Selfless Gaming on Dorado and King's Row in their only qualification match (Huckleberry defaulted) for the Overwatch Open.

Sure they live in close proximity and play together on a daily basis. Sure they have an incredible record online, but their last game played offline was that 3-2 defeat against Rogue that brought them crashing out of the Atlantic Showdown.

Will they roll this first fixture against Splyce? Almost certainly, but remember that they also breezed past Team Dignitas in their opening match at gamescom and dispatched Fnatic 2-0 before coming up short against Rogue.

Recently INTERNETHULK has gone on record saying that scrims against NRG have been "more challenging than those against Fnatic". As a likely opponent in the winners match, we might actually see nV break a sweat in the groups this time.

Splyce

  • Bradford "PYYYOUR" Ross (Support)
  • Nicholas "ninjanick" Poulos (Support)
  • Ryan "sycknesS" Mitchell (Flex)
  • Matthew "clockwork" Dias (DPS)
  • Canaan "shrugger" Carman (DPS)
  • Shane "ShaneisGhost" Mesner (Tank)

The last time Splyce they actually played EnVy in competition was late July without ninjanick or ShaneisaGhost. Anyone who knows EnVy's record can guess that it was a 0-2 loss for Splyce. No big deal to be beaten by the best team in the world, but the problem for Brad's boys it that they haven't been beating any of the teams who made it to Atlanta.

This tournament is going to be an uphill struggle for Splyce right from the get-go, but perhaps now that their roster has been stable for a month gains can be made. It's worth noting that five of six players are TF2 LAN veterans, which is something that cannot be said for EnVyUs - that experience may prove invaluable when coupled with the fact that there is are no expectations being placed on Splyce to perform.

That being said, with the least impressive qualification record - losing to Selfless before redeeming themselves in the runback match in a three team Group A – and a recentish paddlesacking by the Koreans in the Gosu Weeklies it really is difficult to see Splyce make it out of groups.

NRG eSports

  • Brandon "Seagull" Larned (DPS)
  • Daniel "Gods" Graeser (DPS)
  • Carl "enigma" Yangsheng (Flex)
  • Yomar "milo" Toledo (Tank)
  • Mark "Pookz" Rendon (Support)
  • Tim "dummy" Olson (Support)

It's hard to believe this is the first LAN event for this roster whose core has been playing and competing in Overwatch for the last twelve months. Again this is another roster packed with TF2 LAN veterans (for whatever that is worth), but I'm all about those LAN results and currently NRG have none.

They 2-0'd their qualification group, dodging compLexity, but did drop a map (Lijiang Tower) to Method en route. Remember that this was the roster that had struggled to live up to their own legacy after being signed to Luminosity back in March – most notably missing out on qualification for the Atlantic Showdown. Qualification for Atlanta will have gone some way to exorcising their demons.

Yet even since picking up dummy they have lost both of their most recent officials against Team Liquid back in August. He's had plenty of time to integrate with the team since then, so it will be interesting to see how he fares against his former teammates. Despite what the results say, people still seem to expect NRG to edge out Liquid

Fans will be hoping their recent bootcamp will have ushered in a new era team cohesion (and maybe some Heimlich manoeuvre training) so that Seagull can finally claim to be more than just the number one streamer. The roster was flirting with tank heavy setups way before it was cool, so it will be interesting to see their approach to the popular current triple tank triple support meta.

Team Liquid

  • Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty (Support)
  • John "Minstrel" Fisher (Support)
  • Shane "rapha " Hendrixson (Flex)
  • Keven "AZK" Larivière (DPS)
  • Andrew "id_" Trulli (DPS)
  • Adam "MESR" De La Torre (Tank)

Part of the reason some people seem to be favouring NRG here may be that Team Liquid's own qualification campaign was a little precarious. A very close series against the now defunct Colorado Clutch almost had them traveling to Atlanta as spectators. They lived to tell the tale though, and they arrive here in Group A as genuine contenders with a solid record against both Splyce and NRG.

Again, as with most of our competitors, the team's recent form is an unknown variable in our speculative equations. Team Liquid had a notable upswing in their results after parting ways with dummy, but a number of those scalps were with whaz. How well has Quakecon 2016 champion, rapha, meshed and grown with the roster since his return to Overwatch?

Tune in to find out, because this second fixture of the day could be one of the best.