Al-Qadsiah kick off Stage 3 with two statement wins | OWCS EMEA regular season week 1 summary
The regular season of the Overwatch Champions Series 2025 Stage 3 has just started, and the wheels are in motion. The Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region features eight teams competing for the six playoff spots that will ultimately determine the top three teams to advance to the OWCS World Finals in Stockholm.
Week 1 in EMEA officially started on September 6, 2025, and the action kicked off when the two EMEA giants, Al Qadsiah and Twisted Minds, clashed in the first matchup of the regular season.
Game of the week: Al Qadsiah vs. Twisted Minds
The matchup between the top two EMEA powerhouses was the highlight fixture of the week, and it proved to be nothing less. This high-stakes rivalry between the two Saudi heavyweights has been gaining momentum throughout the entire year. Fresh off their historic faceoff during the Semifinals of the Midseason Championship, where the two teams pushed each other to a brutal six-map back-and-forth. Both teams were equally ready for a roaring start to OWCS Stage 3.
With minimal changes to both teams’ rosters, they hit the ground running with a five-map, relentless dogfight. If you’ve seen these teams play during OWCS Stage 2, then you already have an idea of what to expect. Hyper-aggressive, in-your-face tanks and supports, clinical hitscan plays, the dreaded Symmetra teleports, and a couple of experimental picks sprinkled in between.
Despite Al Qadsiah dominantly taking two maps, Twisted Minds refused to buckle and put up an intense scrap to take the series to overtime on map five. Both teams were neck and neck across every map. With standout performances from every player across both teams, if you’ve missed the live show, then this is a must-watch matchup. Ziyad “ZIYAD” Alkathiri’s signature, oppressive, D.Va dives, Abdulelah “LBBD7” Alfaifi and Ibrahem “Quartz” Alali constantly trading back and forth, racking up kills, and Baek “Checkmate” Seung-Hun flipping entire teamfights on Symmetra. After five maps, every player left us wanting even more.
Ultimately, Al Qadsiah walked away with the 3-2 win over Twisted Minds. And as the taste of victory over their bitter national rival continues to elude Twisted Minds, they’ll be looking forward to their highly probable rematch during the Regional Playoffs later in the season.
Player of the week: ZIYAD soars above the competition, spearheads Al Qadsiah to the top
Despite his young age and his newcomer status to the big leagues, ZIYAD continues to helm his team to non-stop victories. Pulling off play after play on Hazard, D.Va, and Zarya, constantly catching out-of-position Twisted Minds and Team Vision players.
After everything is said and done after Week 1, it seems that the new D.Va perk has played directly into ZIYAD’s and Al Qadsiah’s hands, as the young frontman has become more lethal than ever, while also being one of the hardest tanks to kill in EMEA. The difference maker in the fierce matchup against rivals, Twisted Minds, his lightning-fast dives and ability to mitigate unending barrages of punishment coming his way tipped the scales for Al Qadsiah, and put ZIYAD a head above the rest of the competition as player of the week.
To put ZIYAD’s phenomenal weekend into perspective, despite his teammate LBBD7 putting on an all-star performance on his end, bagging multiple team kills across both matchups, ZIYAD is still the takeaway player of this weekend. The youngster has been on top of his game all year and doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.
Meta summary: Virtus.pro looks flexible, while EMEA sticks to its roots, despite strong influences from Korea
Week 1 of OWCS Stage 3 in Korea saw the emergence of a new meta, in the form of the double-flex DPS, backed up by Ana or Kiriko, alongside Wuyang or Lucio. It was unclear whether or not EMEA would follow suit going into the weekend.
The first week of competition painted an interesting picture. While some inspirations from the East have made their way to EMEA, except for Virtus.pro, teams like Gen.G, Quick Esports, and Goud Guys ANM have struggled to find success with the new double-flex comps.
Virtus.pro, however, put on a good showing of the double-flex composition, putting FiXa on Wuyang, kevster on Tracer and Genji, and JaeWoo on Reaper. Whether they found success thanks to kevster and JaeWoo’s individual skills, or the overall difference between Virtus.pro and Goud Guys ANM, it will surely be tested more thoroughly in future weeks.
The rest of the teams, especially Team Vision, and the two EMEA elites, Al Qadsiah and Twisted Minds, stuck firmly to their proven conventions and continued to play compositions that are more suited to their individual players. Having proven quite successful during OWCS Stage 2, these teams continued to put their superstar hitscan players on their favoured heroes, such as LBBD7 on Cassidy, Quartz and cookie on Sojourn, and Leo-Kristian “Zorrow” Sundin on Freja. It’s worth mentioning that outside of Al Qadsiah, Symmetra was featured considerably less compared to Stage 2, and the teams opted to mostly run Tracer, Genji, and a little bit of Echo, next to their hitscan players.
However, Ramattra getting toned down defensively has slightly switched things around for this composition and has opened up the way for other tanks to feature much more prominently now, such as D.Va, Hazard, and Zarya.
We’ll see how this setup matures over the coming weeks and whether or not Virtus.pro can find success with the double-flex DPS, amidst all the hitscan giants.
Results summary: Twisted Minds start on the back foot. Peps, Virtus.pro, and Vision grab their expected wins
Al Qadsiah 3 - 2 Twisted Minds
The clash of two Saudi behemoths and an explosive beginning to the OWCS Stage 3 in EMEA. This match saw the two teams battle it out over a five-map nailbiter. Despite the removal of the Advanced Teleportation perk, Al Qadsiah continued their signature Symmetra composition from Stage 2, while ZIYAD relied more on his favoured D.Va due to Ramattra having been dialled down this time around.
Despite a few experimental picks from both teams, such as Juno by Kristian “Kellex” Keller, Echo by Maximillian “Seicoe” Otter, and Brigitte by Daniel “FunnyAstro” Hathaway, both teams stuck close to their tried and true Lucio+Kiriko backlines and had their hitscan players deal death on Cassidy and Sojourn.
A really strong start to the season from both teams, and despite Twisted Mind losing the matchup, they made it clear that they’re still a shoo-in for the top two slots of the region.
Gen.G Esports 0 - 3 Team Vision
A match that, on paper, could have gone either way, but the final result was a one-sided story.
Although Team Vision has just been promoted to the OWCS, the level of investment and roster that they have brought to the stage, which includes one of the most decorated Overwatch players, Park “Viol2t” Min-ki, is a clear message that they’re aiming for the top. Their opponent, Gen.G Esports, finished 5th in Stage 2, but with the disbandment of fourth-place team, The Ultimates, and the arrival of multiple high-profile players, including Jamie “Backbone” O’Neill, the team has set their sights clearly on a top 4 finish.
The matchup, however, skewed heavily towards Team Vision’s favour on the first two maps, and despite an excellent showing on the third map, Gen.G failed to overcome their adversary. Gen.G had the right idea when they brought out Reaper and D.Va to counter Vision’s Winston and Freja. But, standout individual performances from Viol2t on Lucio, Luca “Tama” Gal on Winston, and Choi “ChoiSehwan” Se-hwan on Tracer, allowed Vision to finish fights too quickly for Gen.G to get the most out of their Reaper and D.Va. Tama continued to play Winston for the rest of the matchup, and Gen.G refusing to ban him, while also being unable to find an effective counter to him, brought this fixture into an early 3-0 end.
Team Peps 3 - 0 Quick Esports
Looking to revitalise their standing in the EMEA, the French organisation, Team Peps, is aiming to recapture the form that saw them finish as high as second place as recently as OWCS Stage 1.
The fixture heavily favoured the French team, despite their relegation at the end of Stage 2, the Norwegian organisation, Quick Esports, found themselves thrown back into the OWCS gauntlet weeks before the start of the competition due to the disbandment of The Ultimates.
Team Peps took full advantage of the mismatch to give themselves an early boost on their long journey to Stockholm. Quick Esports vied for their place in the competition as they put forward some very high-risk, with potential high-reward hero picks such as Reinhardt, Mauga, and Moira, hoping to catch their opponents by surprise. The gambit failed, however, and the French team stuck to their game and thwarted Quick Esports with ease. Team Peps won the matchup 3-0.
Goud Guys Anomaly 0 - 3 Virtus.pro
Virtus.pro has been one of the top contenders in EMEA ever since the team joined the competition last year. After reaching the Quarterfinals in the Midseason Championship, the Armenian organisation made a statement signing during the off-season by securing one of the most prolific European damage players, Kevin “kevster” Persson. Rounding up the team with two highly skilled flex DPS players in preparation for the new season.
The team’s end-goal and lethality were loud and clear as they took the newly promoted team Goud Guys ANM to a three-map one-sided affair.
kevster and Kim “JaeWoo” Jae-woo put Virtus.pro’s new double-flex capabilities on full display, with Ilari “Vestola” Vestola also putting on a show with Zarya on Map 1. Virtus.pro also took the chance to play kevster alongside their hitscan DPS player Niclas “SHockWave” Smidt Jensen on Rialto. Goud Guys ANM started the second map with a very impressive Hanzo display from the French DPS player, Corentin “Kio”. Unfortunately for the French side, kevster and Kwon “FiXa” Yeong-hun managed to put a stop to their push and ultimately held the French team to zero points on Map 2.
Before the start of the third map, a technical issue with Goud Guys support player, Johnovich’s PC, forced the team to swap the Dane with their flex substitute, Scraine. The forced substitution and Virtus.pro banning Roadhog, which their tank Loïc “KroxZ” Ricci had been relying on on the first two maps, spelt disaster for Goud Guys ANM. However, the promoted side showed a glimpse of their fighting spirit, and they managed to capture two points in a row on Aatlis. Forcing Virtus.pro to a harder fight than previously in the series. Eventually, Virtus.pro managed to capture three points in a row for the reverse sweep of the map and series win.
Al Qadsiah 3 - 0 Team Vision
Fresh off their victories the previous day, both teams were looking to make it a perfect Week 1 for themselves.
Throughout this matchup, Al Qadsiah played consistently up to their herculean standards, but we also got really impressive and hopeful glimpses of what Team Vision could achieve once they manage to iron out some kinks that showed themselves once the team was put to the test.
For example, in round two of Lijiang Tower, despite a very early advantage by Al Qadsiah, we got a highlight performance by Viol2t when, late into the round, he managed to charge up his Sound Barrier so incredibly fast that they got to use it for two teamfights in a row, winning Team Vision the round. However, in round three, Al Qadsiah provided what might just have been the play of the week. At the dead end of the round, Team Vision aggressively defended against Al-Qadsiah’s final push, and by using every ultimate at their disposal, they managed to take out the entire team, except for Checkmate on the Tracer. In a miraculous display, Checkmate succeeded in holding out the capture point against all five Vision players relentlessly hounding his every manoeuvre. Checkmate bought just enough time for Kellex and Landon “Landon” McGee to arrive and help out. An all-time great play that leads to Al Qadsiah flipping the point back to their control, and Team Vision, having spent all their ultimates to defend the point, failed to mount any form of an effective counterattack attack and Al Qadsiah won the first map.
The rest of the series proceeded similarly, with glimpses of genuinely high skill and deadly plays by Team Vision. But they are far in between, and littered with small lapses of concentration and mistakes that proved very costly in the end.
On the last map of the week, Team Vision took Al Qadsiah to Suravasa for a final stand. Despite managing to take the fight into a 5-point struggle, Team Vision were dismantled by an all-star performance from LBBD7. Especially at the start of the match, where he charged up Overcharge on Sojourn in blistering speed, and got the entirety of Team Vision before they could react to it.
Another Overcharge killing spree by LBBD7 got them the second point, and his switch to Cassidy to fend off Luca “Tama” Gal’s Winston, stopped Team Vision in their tracks and got them the win.
Al Qadsiah, with the deadly trio ZIYAD, LBBD7, and Checkmate, backed by the invaluable experience and tenacity of Kellex and Landon, were simply much more consistent in their high output throughout every stage. Al Qadsiah won the series 3-0.