đź“ť Six teams, one tight race: OWCS EMEA Stage 1 Week 1 review
After a lengthy off-season (a week shy of four months!) OWCS is officially back. EMEA kicks off the season as THE premier region in the sport off the back of Twisted Minds’ historic 2025 World Finals win.
Overwatch has taken on a completely different face since then. For starters, the “2” is gone, and while we already got a glimpse of the six new heroes and sub-role passives during Pre-Season Bootcamp, now we’ll finally get to see everything in earnest.
Week 1 of OWCS Stage 3 EMEA is in the books, and the teams have taken their first steps towards Champions Clash qualification and a spot in Tokyo. The 2026 season features six teams, two fewer than the previous year, and as a result, the level of competition is tighter than ever. We’ll follow the action with bated breath as it unfolds over the coming four weeks.
Game of the week: Virtus.pro vs. Al Qadsiah
A grudge match steeped in storylines to kick off the season. Ilari “Vestola” Vestola and Jesús “Galaa” Núñez López, both long-time former Virtus.pro players destined to start the 2026 campaign against their former team.
Towards the end of last season, Vestola was knocked down in the pecking order by the up-and-coming Jonas “eisgnom” Stratemeyer and was eventually let go, and Galaa was replaced by Landon “Landon” McGee who last played for Al Qadsiah. With ample personal scores to settle and both sides itching to hit the ground running, the match was set for an explosive start.
Virtus.pro came out firing on Lijiang Tower, setting the tone early with their newest player, Seicoe, and maintaining firm control through a much better ultimate economy and team coordination. Al Qadsiah showed brief signs of life on Night Market, finding a window back into the round, but VP answered right back off the back of an incredibly early Kitsune Rush from Landon. Al Qadsiah surge forward one last time with a pre-fight pick on Kevin “kevster” Persson by Yoo “Taejong” Tae-jong and investing Penupticon, Kitsune Rush, and Sound Barrier to kick VP out of the point. Al Qadsiah’s triumph is short-lived and their investment too heavy, as Virtus.pro swung right back and closed out the first map with a shining display of individual quality.
On Havana, Al Qadsiah banned Lucio to force FiXa out of his comfort pick, Lucio. The Saudi side, however, hesitated to take full advantage of Galaa’s and Majed “SirMajed” Alrashied’s double-flex pool and instead mirrored VP’s Juno/Brigitte lineup. Al Qadsiah powered through the first two points, with a much more structured showing, especially by Vestola. Their push came to a stop right towards the end after a crucial switch to Vendetta by Seicoe. Al Qad eventually managed a full push, but the long journey back to the payload cost them a lot of time. Virtus.pro’s reply was less refined but effective, they kept the payload moving through steady pressure before a clutch late fight, led by Seicoe and Kevster, forced overtime. The overtime round was all Virtus.pro, rapidly generating ultimates and individual brilliance on every role, completely shutting down Al Qadsiah’s chances and extending their series lead to 2-0.
Midtown saw a resurgence from Al Qadsiah, who finally found consistent footing through Taejong and Vestola. Their attack was relentless, exploiting the matchup against Eisgnom and maintaining control throughout the map. Virtus.pro answered with a full push of their own, but a slight time-bank deficit proved costly. In the deciding moments, Al Qadsiah capitalised on a crucial early pick onto FiXa, denying a key Sound Barrier and enabling a decisive final push to take the map and keep the series alive.
Runasapi served as the decider, delivering a back-and-forth clash worthy of the series. Virtus.pro struck first with a massive opening, achieving 122 meters in a single push, forcing Al Qadsiah into a heavy ultimate investment just to halt their momentum. Al Qadsiah then responded in kind behind a standout performance by Lee “Ade” Ji-hwan on Emre, flipping the script with a single massive push of their own and VP quickly found themselves on the losing end of the battle. Eisgnom, however, had other ideas. A timely switch to Ramattra swung control back in VP’s favour, and a perfectly executed Annihilation won them the most critical fight on the map. From there, Virtus.pro pushed forward and completed the map to close out a hard-fought series victory.
Virtus.pro put up incredible individual and team performances to start their 2026 season with a win and put the grudge match to rest.
Player of the week: Kevster
Coming into the season, Virtus.pro’s decision to pair Kevster with flex DPS Seicoe raised questions, particularly around Kevster’s ability to transition into a hitscan role. While the OWCS Pre-Season Bootcamp offered brief flashes of promise, a disappointing team performance against Team Liquid left lingering doubts. This weekend, Kevster emphatically put all doubts to rest across both matches against Al Qadsiah and Team Peps.
From the outset, Kevster looked fully at home on hitscan, highlighted from the very first map of the weekend, a standout moment on Night Market where he wiped Al Qadsiah to swing control of the round. Across both series, his consistency and mechanical impact stood out, with his Override Protocol proving especially decisive in key fights. Far from a liability, Kevster emerged as a driving force behind Virtus.pro’s success, playing a pivotal role in securing both victories and firmly establishing himself as a hitscan threat moving forward.
Hero bans and map picks
Data from OWCS 2026 Hero Bans/Metas
A couple of things worth highlighting, especially compared to hero bans in Korea:
- There’s a repeating pattern of favouring bans that target individual players’ comfort heroes over banning meta compositions.
- Only a couple of Vendetta and Emre bans, compared to Pharah, Tracer, and Hazard.
- EMEA heavily prefers banning tanks and DPS over supports.
- D.Va and Zarya remain consistently strong and banned frequently across both regions.
Week 1 match summaries
Twisted Minds 3 - 0 Team Peps
The reigning EMEA and world champions started their 2026 campaign exactly where they left off last year. Twisted Minds had already demonstrated their ongoing dominance this year by winning the OWCS Pre-Season Bootcamp in Korea, ploughing through T1, Team Liquid, and Crazy Raccoon in the process.
On Saturday, the Saudi powerhouse took down Team Peps and started their journey to Tokyo with conviction. The matchup of the two OWCS Partner Teams was a convincing one-sided affair. With minimal changes to either roster in the off-season, individual quality carried much greater value over team cohesion. Ibrahem “Quartz” Alali looked fully at home on Emre and Abdualziz “TVNT” Altmimi continued cementing his nomination for best tank in the sport.
Team Peps looked lethal every time they put William “WillyS” Ersson on Hazard, but there’s only so much pressure he could put on TM’s backline when their frontline of TVNT, Quartz, and Kim “JaeWoo” Jae-woo ran rampant over the rest of Team Peps.
Twisted Minds 3 - 0 Geekay Esports
Another swift series from the world champions. TM continued their flawless run, starting with a one-sided showing on Busan. While Geekay Esports are still working to build synergy between their mixed roster, Twisted Minds took full and merciless advantage of it, controlling the game from start to finish. On Esperanca, Geekay tried to enable their key player, Ziyad “ZIYAD” Alkathiri, by banning Zarya, but Alhumaidi “KSAA” Alruwaili’s flexibility with Ramattra and the overwhelming support duo of Daniel “FunnyAstro” Hathaway and Kim “Simple” Ji-sung was too much to handle.
On Suravasa, Geekay showed some promise by capturing the opening point thanks to a great linkup between ZIYAD and Osama “Haku” Abdullah, but it quickly unravelled once Twisted Minds regrouped. TM swept through the rest of the map with little resistance and put the series to bed with a 3-0.
The Geekay roster was expected to build on and iterate upon the foundation of last year’s highly successful Al Qadsiah roster, which pushed Twisted Minds to the brink. However, the team is still searching for cohesion, sorely missing Choi “Junkbuck” Jae-won’s leadership and the chemistry between Landon and Kristian “Kellex” Keller.
Virtus.pro 3 - 0 Anyone’s Legend
Fresh off their victory against Al Qadsiah, Virtus.pro delivered another quick end to their second opponent of the week, Anyone’s Legend. Lijiang Tower was a pretty competitive affair. Anyone’s Legend came out swinging with an explosive opener from Tama. Virtus.pro quickly bounced back with a decisive Sound Barrier management by FiXa. VP allowed Anyone’s Legend back into the game after a sloppy execution in round two. However, they regained control on Control Center, with Kevster consistently finding AL’s backline with Emre.
From there, Virtus.pro took over the series. On Blizzard World, Eisgnom’s dominance on Hazard was a stark contrast to Tama’s Winston and AL struggled to find any notable kills and were full-held on zero points. Runasapi offered a brief resurgence for Anyone’s Legend, as Christian “Khenail” RĂos and Kai “Kai” Collins started to find their footing, but Virtus.pro’s response to every threat was as clean as it gets. In the dying moments of the match, Anyone’s Legend went all-in with four ultimates, but an expert counter-Graviton Surge/Sound Barrier combo from Eisgnom and FiXa allowed them to weather the storm and close out the series in convincing fashion.
Team Peps 2 - 3 Al Qadsiah
With only six teams in OWCS this season, the margins between relegation and the playoffs are tighter than ever, and with both teams losing their first games of the weekend, a victory was crucial.
Team Peps started the series on Oasis and despite a scrappy back-and-forth Al Qadsiah drew first blood. The Hazard ban was devastating for WillyS and Al Qadsiah expertly managed their ult economy and outmatched Team Peps in individual duels. On Rialto, Team Peps started strong, capitalising on a very mispositioned retreat from Al Qadsiah that saw them unable to counter in time to challenge the first point. Despite that, Team Peps didn’t have the necessary consistency to keep their push going, relying only on ultimates to make progress. In contrast, Al Qadsiah’s own attack was clinical—they rolled through the map to take a commanding 2-0 series lead.
All momentum shifted in Aatlis. With the Orisa ban place, WillyS took to his favoured Hazard and Team Peps finally found their footing. Peps dominated every flashpoint and took control of every point to force a fourth map, and gave us a glimpse as to why they deserve the lucrative partner slot in the region. On Midtown, Al Qadsiah banned Lucio to take advantage of their double-flex support duo, Galaa and SirMajed. They initially bounced back and secured a strong first point. However, they overinvested their ultimates in a critical fight, and it completely brought their momentum to a halt. Peps used the mistake to stabilise and hold Al Qadsiah to a single point. The French side then comfortably pushed the series to a decisive fifth map.
Runasapi became the deciding map. Al Qadsiah struck early and struck hard. They put in a powerful opening push all the way to 89 meters, however, the team never extended their push past that point. Instead, the map became a test of resilience for Al Qadsiah. They locked in defensively and refused to concede ground. Leo-Kristian “Zorrow” Sundin delivered a standout performance on Sojourn to keep Team Peps within reach, but their hopes faltered just short of the mark. Despite the late reverse-sweep threat from the French team, AL Qadsiah held firm and got their first crucial win of the season.
Week 1 in EMEA came to a rapid close. Twisted Minds and Virtus.pro capped off the weekend at the top, with the former a third of the way towards a perfect record. Team Peps got off on the wrong foot, but with only five matches in the regular season, every win is extremely volatile, and the French team are more than capable of bouncing back. Geekay Esports and Anyone’s Legend both had a quiet weekend, but now that one of TM and VP is out of the way for each team, they will look to start their season in earnest and rack up a crucial win or two starting next weekend.