EnVyUs dominated in their North American Semi-Final match against Cloud9, only slipping up on Hollywood to win 3-1. The playoff bracket for the Overwatch Open saw teams ban down to a best-of-five, which left EnVyUs' normal ban of Route 66 still in the pool. They looked excellent on it though with great awareness to close out the series in the dusty wild west.

The EnVyUs vs. Cloud9 matchup used to be a classic rivalry in Overwatch but a fairly one-sidede one. nV almost always got the better end of it and it was difficult for C9 to match up to the star power. The map veto left Numbani, Route 66, Gibraltar, Hollywood, and King’s Row as the map pool, promising a bloodbath on some classic Escort and Hybrids.

Numbani

EnVyUs began on the attack with the expected PharMercy combo but were met by Surefour and reaver on McCree and Soldier76. Talespin realised he wouldn’t get anything done against that hitscan power and switched to Genji, but it needed a 3x2x1 lineup before nV could overwhelm the dps from C9 and cap with seconds left. They switched out Taimou onto his classic McCree with HULK on Zarya to crack the final band and found great success in their slow push, fighting conservatively with single ultimates to get the cart to the ends of the map. Cloud9 had delayed them fairly effectively but with 30 seconds left a final push came in with cocco as a Nanoboosted Reinhardt to wipe the whole of C9 and complete the map.

Cloud9 had the opposite approach to the first point, beginning with triple tank and reverting to Surefour’s Pharah when they met with little success. The switch was too hasty though and played straight into EnVyUs’ hands as they had put nV under no pressure and Taimou continued to land unreal hooks again and again. C9 missed out on a Nanoboost and Deadeye and had fed into nV’s tanks to build every ultimate on defense, letting EnVyUs easily deal with the final push with their ultimates and seal the map with a complete shutout on point A.

Hollywood

Talespin on attack this time chose the Hog as his team ran a triple tank and single dps strategy into Cloud9’s map. A crazy hook behind the wall picked up a kill onto Surefour and made it easy to grab the first cap. Taimou’s accuracy on McCree along with a high hook accuracy from Talespin stopped Cloud9 ever being able to fight with everyone alive and nV stormed into the studio with 5 minutes on the clock. A Nanoboosted Roadhog dropped from above to kill all of Cloud9 yet again but they managed to respawn in time to defend in the last area. As soon as EnVyUs had to crack a structured defense with ults they fell apart. There were only 20 seconds left on the clock as nV went for their last push and despite having three ultimates on the board they looked completely out of touch with each other and failed to complete the map.

Cloud9 in reply came out with a strong attack, staggering spawns in their attack on the first point to get them an easy entry into the streets. They set up a Nano-Blossom onto Surefour’s Reaper to get four kills and a bit more room, but just as it all starts looking good reaver falls into his old ways and picks up Widowmaker to throw the push. Without some key damage Cloud9 wasted ultimates and let nV back in, relying on another Nano-Blossom and an Earthshatter to take the second point. They had two and a half minutes to push the cart more than 72.58m.

reaver swapped to Hog and combined with Surefour’s Reaper for kills onto extending targets as they came to the end of the map and Cloud9 rushed forwards, securing Hollywood and tying up the series 1-1.

Watchpoint: Gibraltar

Cloud9 started on attack and were pressuring server room within five seconds of the timer beginning for the map. The instant pressure let them get the payload forward before nV could contest and after an initial prod they repushed and dominated the first checkpoint. In the hangar it was all EnVyUs though and Taimou’s McCree was able to do a huge amount of damage. HarryHook did a great job protecting his Ana and Rein, letting the rest of his team dance from height to floor and utterly smash Cloud9. They stopped the cart less than halfway through the hangar and only had to get through it on their attack to win.

EnVyUs on attack came out with a Rein, Hog, Zarya, and Mei. A mass of damage exploded from the team despite no hooks being hit and took out KyKy and DeBett as they pushed slope, and Cloud9 tried to commit again before the first point as the spawns came in. It was a disastrous decision though and they bled three more deaths. EnVyUs were able to get onto the hangar to take height and easily waltz through the zone, treating the map like a walk in the park.

Route 66

EnVyUs had seemed like a different team from Hollywood to Gibraltar, and now they were playing on their usual insta-ban map of Route 66. EnVyUs had to try and knock C9 off Big Earl’s but rather than putting Taimou on Roadhog they tried to pick targets off with a McCree and Tracer. A zip in from Talespin on Tracer with the Pulse Bomb caught two and as the others scattered they were picked off.

EnVyUs looked comfortable as they escorted the payload through the map, keeping track of opposing ultimates and mitigating them whenever possible to keep their team rolling. Even though it took them the whole time to do it, EnVyUs didn’t seem particularly fazed and completed the map to put the pressure on Cloud9.

If Cloud9 couldn’t complete the map they would be knocked out of the tournament. An offensive Bastion came out from Surefour, attempting to deliver damage from the back of the field and picking up two kills from range. In the streets Talespin’s Tracer couldn’t be dealt with and he ran rampant, supported by Harry and Taimou as they synced up for a Sound Barrier Nanoboost to clear the wave.

nV had all six ults to hold for two minutes - all they needed to progress to the NA final. They used three to repel the first attack, and Nanoboost was live again for the next push. INTERNETHULK on Reaper took the Boost and took all the attention to bring it down to one last attempt. Double Graviton Surges were placed but a far better follow-up from Talespin’s Pulse Bomb and the Reinhardt hammer gave the fight to nV as the knocked out their rivals Cloud9 3-1.

EnVyUs progressed to the North American Final to meet the winner of Fnatic vs. NRG.