Grand Finals recap - OWCS Pre-Season Bootcamp
The OWCS Pre-Season Bootcamp tournament has reached its climax. Day 2 gave us statement wins from Twisted Minds and Team Liquid, a 5-map back-and-forth, and locked in an early-season Crazy Raccoon vs. Team Falcons for today.
The bootcamp has given us a glimpse of the new heroes in the pros' hands, an entire week of non-stop top-level Overwatch. After two days of tournament-play, it has all come down to this.
Crazy Raccoon 3 - 2 Team Falcons
A matchup steeped in OWCS legacy. The first of many clashes between these two teams this year. Crazy Raccoon looked shaky during the pre-season scrims, finishing the 4-day practice with a 2-6 series record. They bounced back against Team Peps in the quarterfinals to reach the semis. Their matchup, Team Falcons, went all the way to the wire against Weibo Gaming on Day 2, edging out a narrow 3-2 win to lock in their spot in the finals.
Busan
The semi-finals started with the new hero mirror-match, and the teams wasted no time lunging at each other’s throats. Team Falcons drew first blood, but Crazy Raccoon quickly stabilised, with Sung “CH0R0NG” Yoo-min using Catnap to hold Han “ChiYo” Hyeon-seok in place for Lee “LIP” Jae-won to finish the job. The team held the point till the end, taking the first round.
The second round went to Sanctuary. Following a similar script, despite ChiYo’s continued mastery of Jetpack Cat, CH0R0NG successfully equalised the matchup and Crazy Raccoon took the lead 1-0.
Blizzard World
Falcons picked Blizzard World for Map 2, Crazy Raccoon banned Baek “Checkmate” Seung-hun’s signature Symmetra, and Falcons banned Zarya to force Choi “MAX” Su-min on the D.Va. Falcons set up their defence with Domina/Vendetta/Cassidy, with ChiYo on Jetpack Cat, that’s been very successful for them so far. Crazy Raccoon pushed with the classic Tracer/Sojourn/Kiriko/Lucio.
While the Falcons kept repelling their adversaries with a Fly Noon and a key Panopticon from Choi “Hanbin” Han-been, CH0R0NG eventually managed to build up a Sound Barrier, and the Beat-push gave CR the first point with 20 seconds left on the clock. Crazy Raccoon’s momentum continued close to the second point’s finish, but Team Falcons managed to build enough of an ultimate economy to put a stop to their final crucial push.
The Falcons’ push is much more successful. ChiYo built up a considerable Sound Barrier advantage over CH0R0NG, and Team Falcons completely overwhelmed their rivals to grab the first point with over 1:40 minutes on the clock. Crazy Raccoon put up a strong defence at the start of the second point, which took the Falcons over two minutes to break through. Once the Falcons broke through, their zeal took over, and in the chaos, Hanbin and Checkmate chased LIP all the way to the third point spawn. LIP managed to de-mech Hanbin before dying, and once the rest of the Crazy Raccoon spawned on the second point, Team Falcons were split and picked apart. Crazy Raccoon extended their lead 2-0.
Esperança
With JunBin back in, Team Falcons banned Winston, and Crazy Raccoon opted to remove MER1T’s Cassidy. The Winston ban saw JunBin bring out Reinhardt, a rare sight in OWCS, but a repeat of their Korea Road to World Finals 2025 comp in Esperanca, where they beat the Falcons.
Team Falcons have come prepared. Hanbin's D.Va is crucial in making sure Park “JunBin” Jun-bin egregiously slow building up his Earthshatter. Checkmate’s Symmetra mastery is also on full display compared to Chae “HeeSang” Hee-sang’s. Despite the map lasting the entire 10 minutes, Team Falcons were always in control, and Crazy Raccoon never quite found their footing. 129.92 to 52.07, Team Falcons got their first map.
Gibraltar
Falcons opt to play Hanbin instead of SOMEONE. In response, Crazy Raccoon banned D.Va, and Team Falcons banned LIP’s Ashe.
While the Falcons have found success in the past in Gibraltar with Hanbin on Winston, they decided to put Hanbin on Domina instead. With ChiYo playing Lucio instead of Jetpack Cat, Domina’s lack of movement proves crucial, and Crazy Raccoon manage to grab the first point. Halfway through the second point, Hanbin switched to Winston to match JunBin, but the momentum was fully on Crazy Raccoon’s side. The newest signing, Kim “vigilante” Joon, showed his class, getting a crucial sleep on Checkmate’s Tracer, finishing him off, while Crazy Raccoon took the second point. The team continued their relentless push without a hitch, and a Nano Boost on JunBin sealed the deal. Crazy Raccoon pushed all the way to the finish line with almost two minutes on the clock.
On defence, CH0R0NG switched to Wuyang. With Hanbin on Winston, Team Falcons grab the first point, but not without effort. Crazy Raccoon rallied for the second point, and despite putting a stop to a Fly Noon, vigilante got Catnapped, LIP used Overlock to take out an overextended ChiYo, but Hanbin in Primal made quick work of that. Crazy Raccoon cost them a lot of time. Despite the Falcons' push to point 3, they lost significant time, and a final Primal from Hanbin sent the game to overtime.
In overtime, Crazy Raccoon came out with a unique Torbjorn/Cassidy/Illari/Baptiste, presumably to put a hard stop to ChiYo’s Jetpack Cat. The gambit proves extremely successful. Despite JunBin falling under Falcons’ pressure, the rest of the team put intense poke pressure and stopped the Falcons 75% of the way into the first point. 75% progress is all the Falcons needed. Crazy Raccoon had over two minutes to get the job done, but the Falcons are impenetrable. A stellar job from the entire Falcons team put a stop to CR’s push just shy of the finish line, sending the clash to a Map 5 decider.
Lijiang Tower
With the forced Domina-mirror in play, Falcons sub in SOMEONE, despite Hanbin putting in a good performance with the new tank. The teams mirror the Kiriko/Jetpack Cat backline, but Falcons went Cassidy/Vendetta while Crazy Raccoon picked Tracer/Sojourn.
Night Market is a full-on scrap as the two teams constantly go back and forth, but a crucial final stand from JunBin on Domina put Crazy Raccoon at match point. In Control Centre, Checkmate switched to Symmetra, but Falcons never quite found their footing. A late switch from MER1T/Checkmate to Sojourn/Tracer ultimately proved inconsequential as LIP and JunBin took full control over the game and sent Crazy Raccoon to the grand finals.
Crazy Raccoon eliminated Team Falcons and took the first official clash of these two titans. A convincing performance on the new hero mirror-match and the Domina mirror-match gave the Korean champions the edge. There’s plenty of work left to do if the team’s looking to consistently get the better of their rivals, especially as Team Falcons will most certainly continue to improve as they get used to Junkbuck and their new Symmetra specialist.
Twisted Minds 3 - 2 Team Liquid
The EMEA champions faced off against the NA champions. The first official clash of these two giants. The teams most recently faced off in the preseason scrims, where Twisted Minds edged Team Liquid 3-2. Twisted Minds are coming off a very convincing performance against T1, where they disposed of the Korean team in a clean 3-0 sweep. Team Liquid achieved a similar feat, putting on an almost flawless show against Virtus.pro to proceed to the semis.
Lijiang Tower
The series started on Garden with the new hero mirror-match. Twisted Minds captured the point early, and the teams locked in for a very lengthy brawl that ultimately ended in Twisted Minds’ favour. Team Liquid recaptured the point temporarily, but a Catnap on Boston “Infekted” Fine closed the round.
Control Center proceeded in a very similar manner to Garden, but Team Liquid’s hold on the point was more successful. A battle in the skies between Elliot “Tr33” Chu, Diego “Vega” Moran, Ibrahim “Quartz” Alali, and Daniel “FunnyAstro” Hathaway, both Emre’s took to the skies with Override Protocol, but the Americans came out the victor and stabilised the team. Twisted Minds’ final recontest was completely dominated by Xavier “Zeruhh” Zambrano on Anran. 1-1, Map point.
Night Market for the decider and Team Liquid came out of the gates swinging. Vega put on a show with Jetpack Cat, taking out four Twisted Minds players to put Team Liquid in the driver’s seat. Twisted Minds flipped the point on 99%, but the counterattack from Team Liquid was unstoppable. An early pick on Quartz by Tr33 and a flurry of attacks from Vega and Zeruhh, Twisted Minds found themselves grasping for survival to no avail, and the American side took the first map. 1-0.
Esperança
Zeruhh and Tr33 open Esperanca exactly as they left off Lijiant Tower, giving Team Liquid the early lead. Vega turns up once more in spectacular fashion, bagging multiple 3Ks, and Twisted Minds had no answers for the onslaught on display. Team Liquid’s macro play is impeccable for the rest of the map as they manage their map advantage to a tee. Twisted Minds are forced to use multiple ultimates to stabilise, and by the time they get to push again in overtime, Team Liquid overwhelm the EMEA side with a massive beat push from Vega, and it’s match point for Team Liquid.
Eichenwalde
A lengthy pause due to a ban dispute between Twisted Minds and Team Liquid saw the former stripped of their ban option. This led Team Liquid to ban Tracer without Twisted Minds issuing a counter-ban.
The reigning world champions started their push with intent, reminding viewers and Team Liquid alike of the weight of their title. It’s a relentless push from the EMEA side, Abdualziz “TVNT” Altmimi returning to form on his favoured D.Va. Team Liquid are floundering, unable to secure any significant trades despite multiple successful Graviton Surges from Infekted. Twisted Minds proceed to push all the way to the finish line with over three minutes on the clock.
On defence, Kim “JaeWoo” Jae-woo brings out Pharah and is a constant threat to Zeruhh’s Echo. It was a dominant one-sided affair for Twisted Minds despite not having a ban option. A full hold marked the first step of Twisted Minds’ reverse-sweep.
Havana
Team Liquid picked Havana to finish the job, banning Lucio, and Twisted Minds banned Zarya in return.
Twisted Minds’ push is a non-stop brawl that takes them across two points with speed. Pushing the cart throughout the entire brawl without ever trading away their advantage put Twisted Mind in a very aggressive position. Their push only comes to a halt meters away from the finish line, thanks to Zeruhh. The setback was brief, Twisted Mind rallied, and TVNT led the side to the finish line with almost two minutes in the bank.
Team Liquid stuck to their comp on their attack, but Infekted’s Sigma is powerless against TVNT’s D.Va. It took Team Liquid till the final push and three ultimates to clinch a tight first point. The NA team’s push, however, is put to a stop right there. Team Liquid show moments of individual excellence, but TVNT and JaeWoo stand firm to send the series to a final Map 5.
Colosseo
Team Liquid picked Colosseo for the Domina mirror-match, putting their hopes on a repeat of their success in Esperanca earlier.
The first fight goes Team Liquid’s way, Infekted gets the best of TVNT, the rest of TM follow suit, and they get their push going. Twisted Minds turn things around once their ultimates come online, and they trade four ults to three and equalise the map as a result.
Twisted Minds slowly continue their push towards the checkpoint. Team Liquid finally clutched a team fight, but JaeWoo snuck the payload to the checkpoint amidst the chaos. With the forward spawn, Twisted Minds applied constant pressure to Team Liquid until the team fully broke. The Saudi team achieved the full push and a successful reverse sweep.
The reverse-sweep sends the world champions to their second grand finals in a row to face off against the Korean champions, Crazy Raccoon.
Crazy Raccoon 1 - 4 Twisted Minds
The OWCS Pre-Season Bootcamp grand finals promised peak spectacle. A best-of-seven gauntlet between EMEA and world champions Twisted Minds, fresh from a 5-map reverse-sweep, against the Korean champions Crazy Raccoon.
The Korean side missed the first day of scrims and never quite found their footing. There were creeping doubts whether the team had blundered the off-season after the loss of their star team leader, Kim "shu" Jin-seo. After their victories against Team Peps and their eternal rivals, Team Falcons, Crazy Raccoon looked well on their way to another explosive season.
Twisted Minds have been unstoppable since OWCS 2025 Stage 3, dominating all throughout the pre-season scrims and the following tournament. Team Liquid pushed them to the edge, but the EMEA side still came out on top in regular fashion.
These two sides most recently met in the losers’ bracket finals of the 2025 World Finals in Stockholm, where Twisted Minds triumphed 3-1 over Crazy Raccoon.
Busan
Twisted Minds picked Busan for the new hero mirror-match and Crazy Raccoon rose up to the challenge. The first round was in Downtown and Crazy Raccoon made quick work of it. Twisted Minds returned the serve straight away and took MEKA Base in a one-sided 100% to 0%. Twisted Minds continued their momentum in Sanctuary and took the early series lead by constantly overwhelming JunBin to force the tank advantage. Crazy Raccoon briefly retook control, but with Twisted Minds already at 99%, a single recontest was enough to end Map 1.
Blizzard World
With Vendetta and Kiriko banned, both teams kicked off Blizzard World with a mirror Tracer/Sojourn/D.Va/Brigitte/Wuyang compositions.
Crazy Raccoon started their push and managed to topple Twisted Minds without spending a single ult. Twisted Minds set up right in front of spawn, but once they blew through their ultimates, Crazy Raccoon countered with their own, and the push to second was underway. A massive teamfight at the edge of the point saw Quartz and JaeWoo barely repel the attackers. A Tidal Blast on HeeSang quickly disposed of FunnyAstro, and LIP followed suit to capture the second point. A similar push saw Crazy Raccoon reach near the finish line, but JaeWoo put up a clutch hold, getting the better of LIP, then the rest of Crazy Raccoon.
MAX switched to Sigma for defence, but the static hero’s mobility issues immediately showed their ugly face, and Twisted Minds took the first point even more quickly. Twisted Minds continued cleaving through to point two with no resistance in sight. For all the ultimates Crazy Raccoon invested to defend the dead end of the second point, a Tidal Blast on Kim “Simple” Ji-sung was enough for the Korean to open up their defences and start their final push. Simple was once again on the scoreboard seconds later, landing a key Whip Shot that sent MAX to his and the rest of his team’s doom. Twisted Minds opened up a comfortable lead in the series, 2-0.
Colosseo
Crazy Raccoon banned TVNT’s monstrous D.Va to salvage the losing series, and Twisted Minds banned Sojourn to protect her for future maps. The teams took to the full-mirror in Colosseo with Tracer/Cassidy/Domina/Kiriko/Lucio.
Twisted Minds lose the first fight, but that would be the only loss throughout the rest of the map. They handwaved the D.Va ban and rolled over the Korean side with ease. A TVNT Sonic Repulsor saw HeeSang Ajax his beat, allowing TM to push just short of the finish line, with Quartz lighting up the entirety of CR in style. Crazy Raccoon spent everything to try and stabilise, but despite getting a few trades on TVNT and Quartz, Twisted Minds’ two Korean imports, JaeWoo and Simple, cleaned up the rest of the field and pushed the bot to the finish line. Match point.
Shambali Monastery
If Crazy Raccoon were to mount a successful 4-0 sweep, it would have to start here. The Korean side could not afford to take a single wrong step. Crazy Raccoon banned Wrecking Ball, and Twisted Minds banned Brigitte to purchase some extra relief for TVNT on D.Va.
Crazy Raccoon were low on answers, Twisted Minds seemed to dominate on an individual level on every turn. It cost the team everything to crawl their way to the first point, but the push to the second falters in the end. MAX’s last-ditch attempt at a Graviton Surge is easily dismissed with a counter-Beat by FunnyAstro, and the fired-up duo of JaeWoo/Quartz finish off the rest.
The side-switch sees Crazy Raccoon put their woes temporarily aside and rally. Twisted Minds push the payload within 0.1 meters of the first point. Crazy Raccoon put a hard stop to the push with two seconds left on the lock, and MAX started picking off TM stragglers. vigilante was the sole guard on the payload when FunnyAstro skated in with momentum out of the left-field, booping vigilante off the payload, who was a split-second late to hit the Suzu, and that was all the Brit needed to capture the first point and extend the game.
A similar brawl went down in the dying moments of the game, meters away from the finish line. Just as the scales seemed to be tipping in Twisted Minds’ favour, a last-second Sound Barrier from CH0R0NG and an extremely rare Ajax from his counterpart, FunnyAstro, suddenly flipped the entire script. Crazy Raccoon miraculously defended the finish line, refusing to go out quietly. 3-1.
Esperança
In an attempt not to extend the series further, Twisted Minds banned Zarya to fully enable TVNT’s D.Va. Crazy Raccoon responded with the Brigitte ban, and the teams were underway with a mirror-comp once again.
Twisted Minds immediately hit the ground running, not wasting a second to bring the fight to Crazy Raccoon’s side with a 106-meter push in a single attempt. Crazy Raccoon stabilised, but can never achieve a clean, trade-free teamfight to get proper momentum going. With TVNT in inspired form and with the Zarya-counter banned, the D.Va ran rampant through Crazy Raccoon’s ranks. Twisted Minds pushed the robot almost to the finish line. Crazy Raccoon retook the robot temporarily, but were never in any real control. Twisted Minds retook control, and that was the final nail in the coffin, as the Koreans C9-ed the final touch.
Twisted Minds cement themselves as the team to beat for 2026, continuing their flawless streak since OWCS 2025 Stage 3. Crazy Raccoon mounted a very impressive recovery from their abysmal record during the scrims, but failed to overcome the final stretch. Regardless of the result, we got but a glimpse of the most powerful sides in Overwatch today, and we will certainly get more matchups between these giants throughout the rest of the 2026 campaign.