I think Rogue have this in the bag, they've looked poor, but I think that's complacency rather than anything else, and winz has been focusing on quake as well. With a solid week of scrims they should come back a lot stronger.

That being said, in hoping for a good showing from the corn doggos though

Effect goes back to Tracer, Taimou goes to Junkrat, problem solved

C9 with the super rare Welsh flag, they should have this in the bag

Most of Team UK will be playing/on a roster for contenders this week

ChrisTFer and Smex on this team
Kruise and Bombox on eUnited
MikeyA on C9 this week

only Realzx not on a roster

Good to see them trying him out, not sure how he will compare to having Sinatraa (who is now a sub apparently) but he proved himself at the World Cup, so hoping for big things. Good to see them at least trialling some UK players.

Team Roster: link

From recent results, this should be EnVision with ease, but this is Contenders, so anything could happen

London Lions and London Spitfires were my serious suggestions

Then London Lads just for fun

If eUnited turn up they can win this, but 123 have looked just as good if not better than last season.

If eUnited lose this they're gonna have a tough time qualifying though...

I agree, it would be useful for NV if Taimou wasn't playing mystery heroes for half of the games

Too bad it can't be the final really

EnVy 4 - 0 Faze
Immortals 3 - 1 EnVision

eUnited 3-1 C9
Misfits 3-2 Gigantti

6 flags meta vs the 123 flag meta

Alicus is getting his dream of managing all the available Overwatch players at least

I'd imagine C9 don't really care about the result of the tournament as much as they do getting a tested roster for OWL. They spent $20 million on buying in, so the $100,000 prize pool is barely worth bothering with on the large scale. With so many free agents out there, and only single-week roster locks, it makes sense to swap players in and out each week to see who has natural synergy.

I'd like to see them try some UK players though, seeing as they'll be representing London, but it's hard to make strong arguments for who they'd pick (MikeyA vs Sinatraa, ChrisTFer or Numlocked vs Mowzasa, etc. ) Kyb is still part of C9 I believe, but not on the roster this week, but that doesn't mean he won't be in the future, unless I missed an announcement.

Sharyk

This is NRG though, I'm prepared for a roster reveal, a lot of hype, then disappointing results and several more months of silence

so many BibleThumps in this short

Now here's some free agents NRG could look to pick up if they want a solid roster

It's possible by 'old roster' Taimou meant back when they played regularly, i.e. they haven't picked up FNRGFE for example, which has 'old roster' NRG players on it.

NRG could in theory sign (most of) Kungarna if they want a high-performing full roster, but I think they'll more likely pick from the huge pool of free agents currently out there

NRG getting through players faster than TwoEasy gets through teams

Edit: Old memes

Maybe. But so does McCree, Widow, Junkrat, etc. and we all know the Junkrat meta is coming.....

As a DVa player for a long time now, this sounds really good. It makes DVa interesting to play again, as well as making life better for dps. All around a necessary balance change for the game

GO picked up the baguette that envision gave to Rogue yeaterday, and used it well

UK actually has a chance this year. And they've brought a rare flag with them...

I would have expected eUnited (presumably with backing from someone) to take a London spot, but still happy that there's actually going to be a London team to support at least.

I'm ready for the UK to lose on penalties...

Damn, Canada's team is stacked. This team could do big things

I'm surprised they're allowed to stream mature content like that on Twitch...

The real question here is will TwoEasy get benched from the Netherlands squad?

But who can Reddit blame now...?

Finally a decider match that isn't a 3-0

Chips vs Greyy is a hype support matchup

I think Spain thought it was a Lucioball world cup...

I used to have a Corsair Strafe with reds and I loved that keyboard, but wasn't quiet. I now have a Razer Blackwidow which is alright but wouldn't have been worth paying full price for

I agree, the World Cup tab is nice, but I think it's a little confusing (and a little unfair to the mid-tier teams) to include the national teams in the main rankings.

#3 Maybe they thought it was a Lucioball World Cup

I don't know if it's something others would get use from, but live tweeting matches would be useful for me. Obviously not play by play, but important moments (checkpoint reached/point flipped/failed push with 6 ults/etc). I can't always watch a stream when I'm out and something more than just refreshing tje website to see when it gets updated would be super cool.

Also, if OWL becomes as big as Blizzard wants it to be, then someone's gonna start live tweeting it. May as well get in there first.

I'm probably now going to look like an idiot when someone directs me towards one that already exists

I'd imagine they would fly him out to join them if they wanted him, they relocated shadder and fury when they joined

I'm really looking forward to this, some big names on both sides, a lot of these guys have been playing together for a while as well so should have some good synergy

In the time-old traditional of all things eSports related, I can offer you this one piece of advice:

Git Gud

I'm not a football fan (soccer for you Americans) but I definitely get behind that. As eUnited is half Brits it's a possibility tbh

Entirely linking teams to cities is a big risk. It adds a local aspect to it, but with only 7 teams so far (I know there'll be more but realistically most people won't have a local team) they need to be able to encourage people to watch games even if they have no links with that place whatsoever.

I can see what they're trying to do: get traditional sports fans into eSports, and get eSports fans involved with traditional sports orgs. If it works out then that's huge, but if it fails, there'll be no viewers.

I guess only time will tell

#3, #4, I guess, but with games being played all in LA to start with, it's not sounding like they want to connect with the EU scene much. What they're trying is very brave, and if it works will be huge, but it's going to be tough to get going, especially when 5 of the 7 cities announced are in the same country.

I can't see myself supporting a city that is the other side of the world personally, so hopefully it expands quickly enough, and/or they put the same support in for other teams to grow.

NRG getting a spot when so many better teams are out there is kinda a joke tbh

Also, nothing for Europe (Misfits will move to NA I'd imagine). Guess it's official that the EU scene has died then.

I expect Alicus has already been in touch...

To copy what I wrote on the other article:

Because Blizzard are making it pretty clear that they're not looking at attracting endemic e-sports organisations, they're interested in the bigger money from traditional sports orgs. They've not said there'll be any incentives for existing orgs in the OWL, in fact they seem to be heading towards the opposite, where teams pick and choose from free agents. Therefore it's better for orgs to drop teams, see how it goes, then if it's looking up again pick up players from the ever-growing free agent pool.

The doomsayers will tell you overwatch e-sports is dying. I think (hope) in reality the scene is going to change dramatically, and the scene as we know it now might die, but to be replaced with something bigger.

FeelsBadMan