Liquid mean business, and SSG end the drought
OWCS has returned for Stage 2 in North America. New faces, a new organisation, and even bigger ambitions. Competition is at an all-time high. With three spots up for grabs at the Midseason Championship in Paris, every team is ready to give it their all.
Game of the week: Dallas Fuel 0 - 3 Spacestation Gaming
“We’re definitely getting more confident with trusting our picks.” - Benjamin "UltraViolet" David
The first match of Stage 2 in North America kicked off with a barn burner between the two regional representatives at the Champions Clash. At the LAN, neither North American representative met expectations: Spacestation Gaming faced internal issues and failed to win a single map, while the Dallas Fuel fell short against Virtus.pro in the Lower Bracket. A win here would set the tone for the remainder of the stage and help each team plan their journey to Paris.
Immediately on Illios, Spacestation looked hungry to shake off their disappointing Champions Clash run. With his signature D.Va banned, Xander "Hawk" Domecq brought out a surprise Roadhog paired alongside the Jetpack Cat/Bastion composition. This allowed Spacestation to overwhelm Kim "Kellan" Min-jae and the Fuel, bringing the series up 1-0.
The win on Illios was an omen of things to come, as Spacestation Gaming thrived on the uncommon picks to completely take over the series from then on. Kamden "Sugarfree" Hijada also further exposed the gaps within the Fuel’s composition with Mei, and allowed for Spacestation to take over the lobby. Oliver "Admiral" Vahar also played well in the new meta, bringing out his signature Lifeweaver on Dorado to highlight different support styles, synergizing well with Benjamin "UltraViolet" David’s flexibility.
The Fuel, on the other hand, looked completely overwhelmed and struggled to find their footing on any composition. In Stage 1, Dallas had found great success playing to their individual strengths and capitalizing off of Kellan’s dive playstyle. However, given the current dominance of heroes like Sigma and Mizuki, these compositions did not flourish. This was further complicated by tactical bans imposed by SSG Head Coach Christopher "ChrisTFer" Graham, which prevented them from executing their preferred dive style.
Spacestation Gaming had entered into Stage 2 with an 0-3 record against their rival, with just five maps won compared to the Dallas Fuel’s 10. This time, thanks to the new meta and a fresh outlook, Spacestation won both Dorado and Suravasa with little trouble, finishing the series 3-0. This sweep secured their first career win over the Dallas Fuel, and was a much-needed boost after the team’s struggles at the Champions Clash.
While Spacestation would be able to use the remaining weekend to prepare for their Week 2 matches, the Fuel had to quickly reset and refocus on their later match against The Kafe.
Player of the week: Elliot "TR33" Chu from Team Liquid
Throughout this new era of Team Liquid, the whole team has been working through new changes and new additions. Suddenly changing crucial aspects of the team would throw even the most experienced players off their game, but the same cannot be said for TR33.
This past weekend, Team Liquid bounced back from their previous predicaments and found themselves up 2-0 to start. This resurgence was largely thanks to the DPS performance of TR33, who put up good performances on Sojourn and a variety of other heroes to get his team back on the right course.
As the meta progresses, the rest of the region will need to stay aware of Team Liquid's strength, with their dominant DPS player spearheading their compositions. OWTV is proud to recognize Elliot "TR33" Chu as this week’s North American player of the week.
META READ: Picking up from Tokyo
After the meta drastically shook up during the Champions Clash in Tokyo, North America caught up and officially brought out new heroes in the meta.
Despite the composition’s prevalence at the most recent LAN, Cat/Bastion was seldom used in the region. Instead, North American DPS players have begun to gravitate towards Mei, as evident by both Sugarfree and xomba finding great success with them in their matches. Bastion did see some play in a few matches, but was not as dominant of a pick compared to the icy hero.
Sigma has since become a highly picked tank, with nearly all 6 teams playing the hero at some point in each series. While some teams have remained committed to playing towards their individual tank players’ strengths, the difference in power levels between the Sigma players has proven to be a crucial deciding factor.
Support has largely strayed away from the ever-prevalent Lucio/Kiriko, instead seeing more Jetpack Cat and Mizuki. Although the original composition does see play time when Mizuki is banned, the recent balance patch has made Lucio a much weaker selection. Mizuki has also allowed for heroes like Sigma and Mei to see more play time, which many teams have begun to utilize to great success.
It’s important to note that this first weekend in Stage 2 was played in the final days of the 2026 Season 2 midseason patch. With Season 3: Into the Tiger’s Den launching on June 16, a new balance patch is expected to debut alongside the newest DPS hero Shion. While it has been confirmed that Jetpack Cat will see balance changes, Blizzard mentioned that they don’t see the feline hero’s utility changing in the highest tier of competitive play.
Week 1 in Review: Return to normalcy
Team Liquid 3 - 1 Disguised
“We just wanna win NA. We definitely have the roster now to be able to do that…and when these Koreans get off ping, we’re gonna be even better.” - Elliot "TR33" Chu
The second match in North America pitted Team Liquid against Disguised, two teams working to incorporate new pieces into their rosters. Both teams had underperformed in Stage 1 and hoped these new additions would help them reach Paris for the Midseason Championship.
While the newest addition, Willem "KiWii" Ryan, seemed to help round out their compositions, Disguised ultimately fell short, just behind Team Liquid. On nearly every map, Disguised managed to keep the series competitive and held their own, but they struggled to close out engagements and routinely lost fights even after using multiple ultimates. Once more, all the same issues from Stage 1 carried over to this new stage, as Disguised seemed several steps behind their opponents.
There were many questions as to whether or not Team Liquid's newest additions of Jeong "KIVIS" Yeon-woo and Kim "Attack" Jun-hwa would make a difference for the team, and this match showed the signings were worth it. Attack started over Boston "Infekted" Fine, and brought with him the same aggressive tank style that brought regional success for ONSIDE in Korea. Elliot "TR33" Chu completely took over the lobby with his superior DPS, which helped Team Liquid outgun the opposition.
While Disguised was not the toughest opponent, this match showed there may be some growing pains to work through with the newest additions, as not every engagement was the cleanest. Despite the language barrier and ping concerns, Team Liquid looked more rejuvenated than in their Stage 1 troubles and were prepared for their next match against LuneX Gaming.
LuneX Gaming 3 - 0 The Kafe
"It's easy, because we’re a very motivated team. All of our players have a strong idea of what we wanna do and what we wanna play…” - Z. "zzz" Harvey
The Kafe entered into Stage 2 fresh after signing the entirety of Extinction, as well as bringing along tank player Colin "Astro" Czulinski. Meanwhile, LuneX kept their starting roster from Stage 1 and added up-and-coming DPS player Aaron "Lich" Seoprasad, while at the same time bidding farewell to substitute DPS Thomas "TAP" Prins. With new signings and a fresh new organisation, LuneX and Kafe looked to find an early footing in Stage 2.
Despite having a new organisation backing them, and with both Carson "pdk" Terry and Stevie "sniper" Rivera continuing to surprise, The Kafe were unable to take down LuneX. This match was certainly a lot closer than the scoreline suggests, as the Kafe kept each point of every map close and even went the distance on Dorado and Suravasa. Regardless, The Kafe was unable to clutch up when it mattered, and would face a 3-0 loss to begin their stage.
LuneX continues to look like a solid mid-tier contender in North America, and have seemingly picked up right where they left off in Stage 1. Interestingly, LuneX was the only team in all of North America to stray away from Mizuki or Cat/Bastion, instead remaining committed to playing towards the strengths of Alexander "Zeb" Shepard and utilising an Orisa/Lucio/Kiriko style. This, combined with xomba pulling out much-improved Mei and Symmetra play, was the deciding factor against Kafe.
However, staying primarily on Orisa has continued the same problems from Stage 1, namely their difficulties on more dive-oriented maps, as evidenced by the 5-4 scoreline on Dorado. But as Z. "zzz" Harvey mentioned in the post-match interview, LuneX have been experimenting with new styles to find success on more unfavorable maps, hence the Symmetra and Mei picks from xomba. While it seemed to work against Kafe, LuneX will be tested more thoroughly in their next game against Team Liquid.
Dallas Fuel 3 - 0 The Kafe
Both The Kafe and Dallas had started Stage 2 with one-sided losses to their respective opponents and looked to find their footing in this match. With Dallas looking somewhat weak in the new meta, The Kafe hoped to capitalize off of their weakened state and officially get themselves on the board.
But while the individual talent on the Kafe had many highlights and kept certain parts of the series close, they ultimately remained one step behind Dallas. Ryan "ryan" Lawless and pdk did manage to keep the series close with their DPS play, but routinely found themselves falling behind Rocco "Kronik" Iacobacci and Park "SeonJun" Seon-jun. Although there may be individual talent on this roster, there is still a long way to go before they are ready to topple one of North America’s best.
The Fuel bounced back quickly in their 3-0 sweep, and remained committed to playing towards the strengths of Kellan and Luke "Lukemino" Fish. Each map focused on playing around Kellan’s hero pool, with Wrecking Ball being the crux of the strategy on Illios, Reinhardt on New Junk City, and Winston on Numbani. This was a much-needed return to form after a disappointing loss to Spacestation on Saturday, and seemed to reset the team’s trajectory.
Although it was a 3-0 win, Numbani did expose Dallas’ discomfort in the current meta, as the Mizuki composition from Kafe seemed to stall Kellan’s Winston at many points in the map. Christopher "Cjay" Smith commented on this in the post-match interview, noting that the Fuel does prefer to keep to dive styles and acknowledging some challenges with this more poke-brawl meta. While swaps were eventually made to keep the map under their control, the Fuel will need to practice the upcoming balance changes and find their footing again if they hope to make it back to international competition.
Team Liquid 3 - 1 LuneX Gaming
“Dallas and SSG are obviously very good, but I really think the gap has closed a little bit. I think LuneX, and even Kafe…as time goes on in NA these teams are gonna get stronger. ” - Diego "Vega" Moran
The final match of the weekend saw LuneX take on Team Liquid. As zzz mentioned in their previous post-match interview, both teams spent a significant portion of the off-season scrimming together, which meant they each knew the other’s strengths and weaknesses.
This match proved to be one of the most interesting of the whole weekend, as although LuneX lost 3-1 to Team Liquid, they kept every single map close throughout the series. Both xomba and xten have shown their strength as one of the most underrated DPS lines in the region, as they routinely found themselves giving the backline of Team Liquid lots of trouble. And even though Zeb’s Orisa did make them somewhat predictable, his mastery of the hero proved to be a big concern for the opposition.
But much like Stage 1, LuneX still remains firmly behind the other top teams in North America. Although they kept the series competitive, as every map went the distance, their lack of experience showed in the clutch. Even when they had the ultimate advantage, they made a few mistakes that ultimately prevented them from winning in these critical moments. Despite these challenges, LuneX remains a regional threat with significant firepower, and the rest of the region will need to be on its guard.
TR33 and Xavier "zeruhh" Zambrano commanded the tempo of this series and kept Team Liquid consistently ahead of LuneX. Even during their roster troubles, this flexible American damage duo has continued to perform well and easily cement themselves as one of the strongest DPS cores in the world. Throughout the entire series, both players performed well on a variety of different damage heroes, and easily overpowered LuneX to clutch out the wins.
Similar to their previous series, Team Liquid is currently working through a lot of growing pains. For one, the team is still working on balancing playtime between Infekted and Attack, as Infekted started off the series on Illios before being subbed out on Rialto for Attack. In the absence of their primary shot caller, their compositional execution has not been as clean as they would like, which is further complicated by the language barrier now present within the team.
Considering both Attack and KIVIS are playing on ping from South Korea, and because both players are working on incorporating into a mixed environment, a lot of these concerns are understandable. Even though it was much closer than they had hoped, the newest additions have proven beneficial in bringing Team Liquid ever closer to international competition.
Check out the full tournament details, standings, and individual match statistics over at OWTV.