📝 Repeating the Impossible: Team Peps 2025 World Finals Preview

If there is one team entering the World Finals in Stockholm that simply refuses to bow out quietly, it’s Team Peps. A French organisation, founded in 2022 by Félix "Féfé" Munch to promote European and local French Overwatch talent, which has been slowly rising through the OWCS ecosystem, step by step, and rebuild after rebuild.

While still a relative newcomer compared to some of the juggernauts in this tournament, the passion that fuels the French Overwatch scene burns fiercely within Peps as well. The team has had flashes of brilliance before. In OWCS 2024 Stage 2, they had their best overall finish in 3rd place. Now in OWCS Stage 3 2025, not only do they equal their all-time best finish, but this one also comes with a direct ticket to Stockholm as EMEA’s third and final seed.

Team Peps, one of the least favoured teams to reach the World Finals, stumbled through the regular season, finishing it with a 2-5 record and made it to the playoffs through a tiebreaker.

But for Peps, adversity is nothing new. The organisation has had to rebuild relentlessly, stage after stage, as their best talent gets plucked away by larger organisations. But this time, their new signings didn’t just fill the gaps, they became the spearhead that pushed the team forward. At the start of Stage 3, Peps brought in three young players: William “WillyS” Ersson, Leo-Kristian “Zorrow” Sundin, and Florian “Dip” Lefèvre, and together, they shaped a large part of the roster’s core identity.

Team Peps are at their strongest when they are allowed to play the frontline their tank, WillyS, thrives on. WillyS’ top pick is Hazard and D.Va, and he’s been very impressive on both, but he can also pull out the Zarya if the enemy comp demands it. WillyS’ influence on the former two is so large that the team noticeably struggles when one of those heroes is banned.

Behind WillyS, Zorrow, and Dip have both made a lasting impression as Peps’ DPS duo. The former is dominant on Freja, but impressive on Sojourn as well. And Dip has been in a frightening form lately, demonstrating a ceiling that will be very interesting to follow as he continues to prove himself at the highest level of the competition.

At the back sits a support line that balances experience and synergy. Brice “FDGod” Monsçavoir, a name French fans have been chanting since the Overwatch World Cup in 2019, a chant that may even be reinvigorated soon with the announcement of OWWC 2026. Known mainly for his Lucio, but he’s also adapted quite swimmingly to playing Wuyang as well, a hero that hasn’t been all that popular in EMEA. Benjamin “Xeriongdh” Nambruide partners with him on Kiriko, creating a disciplined backline that enables the rest of the team to ramp up the tempo ahead of them.

When Peps get their preferred setup of Hazard, Freja, and Tracer, they become an explosive machine capable of punching well above their perceived weight.

Peps also carry a quirky statistic into Stockholm:

A 100% win rate on Esperança in Stage 3.

Unfortunately for the French team…

Esperança is not in the map pool for the World Finals.

Whether they can transition that dominance to New Queen Street or Runasapi is one of the biggest strategic questions surrounding Peps heading into the tournament.

As the #3 seed from EMEA, Peps were always going to face a difficult bracket, but the draw they landed may be the harshest possible.

Their opening match will be against Spacestation Gaming, North America’s #2 seed. If they win, standing on the other side is none other than Crazy Raccoon, the leading favourites from Korea, and one of the most dominant teams in Overwatch today, if not the most.

The French team enters Stockholm as the biggest underdog in the tournament. But, then again, that was also true only a few weeks ago, and here they are. They’ve already done the impossible once, and they might just do so again.