📝 OWCS EMEA Stage 1 playoffs preview

Four teams are now halfway to Tokyo, and by the end of this weekend, two of them will punch their tickets to the OWCS Champions Clash.

After three weeks of non-stop clashes and a few close calls, EMEA’s four playoff teams have been decided. With only six teams in the regular season, every victory and every map was crucial. With only two to four matches remaining, every team will give it their all one more time to snatch the two coveted tickets to Tokyo, and the first major Overwatch tournament of the year.

Twisted Minds

Unstoppable.

Twisted Minds have been utterly dominating ever since their victory of Virtus.pro in the playoffs of OWCS 2025 Stage 3. Since then, they’ve marched over Crazy Raccoon, Team Falcons, Al Qadsiah, became world champions, and resumed their streak by winning the OWCS Pre-Season Bootcamp tournament, and finally, achieved the golden stage in the regular season last week.

They’ve had minimal squad changes since last year, with their only roster addition, Kim “JaeWoo” Jae-woo, consistently putting up career-defining performances week after week. The world champions are poised to comfortably walk over their competition this week, and anything other than top-seed qualification to Tokyo would be a major surprise.

Virtus.pro

Virtus.pro are having a remarkably strong season, having integrated Landon “Landon” McGee and Maximilian “Seicoe” Otter into the squad. The team’s otherwise impressive showings so far have only been dwarfed in impact due to Twisted Minds’ golden stage and the fact that they swept Virtus.pro while doing so. But that doesn’t mean that this squad isn’t to be feared.

The team has built a cohesive roster with great leadership from Cho “SMASH” Bee-won at the helm, and despite concerns about Kevin “kevster” Persson switching to hitscan, the OWL veteran has been lighting up the scoreboard for three weeks straight. In the regular season, the team have already beaten Al Qadsiah and Geekay Esports, the two obstacles on their way to Tokyo, and if Emre stays this strong and the team smooths out a couple of remaining rough edges, they’ll be looking for not only a qualification to Tokyo, but a potentially deep tournament run as well.

Geekay Esports

Despite the fact that the organisation have only just started competing in EMEA, their expectations are undoubtedly lofty.

They foster two reigning world runners-up from last year’s mighty Al Qadsiah in Abdulelah “LBBD7” Alfaifi and Ziyad “ZIYAD” Alkathiri, together with Korean talent and Go “Aid” Jae-yoon at the helm, they’re never out of contention.

Geekay’s only two losses in the regular season came at the hands of Virtus.pro and Twisted Minds. With the former dropping a map in the 3-1 fixture against the Saudi side. So if the team continues to steadily improve, they’ll be more than capable of stealing VP’s Champions Clash seed.

Al Qadsiah

The only organisation that managed to rival Twisted Minds’ prowess last year, and sometimes exceeded it. The two-time LAN runner-ups have entered the 2026 season with a completely new face, having lost their successful roster to several other teams.

Picking up on long-time, former Virtus.pro partners Ilari “Vestola” Vestola and Jesús “Galaa” Núñez López, and Korean firepower on DPS in Lee “Ade” Ji-hwan and Yoo “TaeJong” Tae-jong, the team has all the on-paper quality they need to succeed in the coming playoffs.

They’ve already given Virtus.pro a scare in the regular season and went all the way against Geekay Esports. Ade has been impressive since last year, and his form has continued in EMEA. The backline duo of Galaa and Majed “SirMajed” Alrashied have unmatched flexibility in the region. It’s just a matter of time until this team’s chemistry hits the sweet spot, but whether they’ll have that time available to them is questionable.

The EMEA playoffs will begin on Friday, April 10, and the four remaining OWCS teams will go toe-to-toe over three straight days in a double-elimination bracket to determine once and for all which teams will stay home and which will head straight to Japan. As we found out during the most recent EMEA playoffs, anything can happen, so stay tuned.