Neon Junction makes OWCS debut | SSG pick LuneX, VP pick Al Qadsiah
The NA and EMEA Stage 2 playoffs start Friday, July 3. With three tickets to the Midseason Championship on the line (per region), Stage 2 will reach its explosive finish this weekend.
The #1 seed team in each region have already selected their starting opponents for the weekend. The map pool has also gone through a little shakeup from the Regular Season, so here are all the details you need to prepare for an exciting weekend of top-level Overwatch.
Leaving the rotation are Oasis, Rialto, Numbani, Runasapi and Suravasa. In their stead, Nepal, Junkertown, Colosseo, Aatlis, and the newest map, Neon Junction, will be introduced into the map pool.
The full map pool is as follows:
- Control: Ilios, Nepal, and Antarctic Peninsula
- Escort: Circuit Royal, Dorado, and Junkertown
- Hybrid: Hollywood, King’s Row, and Neon Junction
- Push: New Queen Street and Colosseo
- Flashpoint: New Junk City and Aatlis
The sudden shift in the map pool is quite irregular in OWCS, as map pools have largely remained consistent between past Regular Seasons and Regional Playoffs. Teams will need to prepare new strategies for the upcoming additions. This also means this upcoming weekend will be the first look at high-level play on the newest Hybrid map: Neon Junction.
Spacestation Gaming and Virtus.pro, the two #1 seeds from their respective regions, have officially selected their opponents.
Spacestation Gaming have selected LuneX Gaming, the No. 4 seed from North America. This means the Dallas Fuel will face off against Team Liquid. SSG defeated LuneX Gaming in Week 2 of the Regular Season in a 3-0 sweep. Dallas Fuel also won their series against Team Liquid the same week, but dropped a map in the process.
In EMEA, Virtus.pro selected Al Qadsiah, pitting Twisted Minds against Geekay Esports. Both Virtus.pro and Twisted Minds barely edged out wins in five maps against their opposition
in the Regular Season. The competition in EMEA is expected to be extremely fierce going into the weekend.