đź“ť SSG and All Gamers Eliminated as Champions Clash gets underway
The first Overwatch major of the year, Champions Clash, is underway! With a hefty prize money and direct qualification to the Midseason Championship on the line, all eight teams went all out right from the get-go.
You can also catch up on the story so far for every team coming into the tournament right here:
- Twisted Minds
- ZETA DIVISION
- Crazy Raccoon
- Virtus.pro
- Weibo Gaming
- All Gamers
- Dallas Fuel
- Spacestation Gaming
Upper bracket round 1
Match results
ZETA DIVISION 2 - 0 Spacestation Gaming
Dallas Fuel 0 - 2 Crazy Raccoon
Twisted Minds 2 - 0 All Gamers
Recap
Weibo Gaming kicked off the first match of the tournament with the infamous Cat/Bastion composition. Virtus.pro, however, brought out Bastion, paired with a more familiar Lucio/Kiriko, which they used to secure a 2-1 victory. kevster put on a highlight performance on Cassidy in Junkertown.
The second match was a swift 2-0, with ZETA DIVISION prevailing over Spacestation Gaming. While this match wasn’t particularly close, ZETA did bring out some interesting hero picks, such as a surprise Reinhardt pick from Lee "Mealgaru" Jeong-hwan and even a rare Mizuki from Park "Viol2t" Min-ki.
Dallas Fuel vs. Crazy Raccoon was a surprising blast from the past as both teams opened Oasis with a Reinhardt mirror match. Despite Kim "Kellan" Min-jae getting the better of Park "JunBin" Jun-bin in the mirror, both he and the rest of the Fuel were unable to stop Crazy Raccoon’s Mauga composition. The throwbacks continued onto Circuit Royale with both teams opting for a Sigma mirror and another surprise Mizuki from Sung "CH0R0NG" Yoo-min. While Dallas performed better than their NA counterpart, they were unable to stop Crazy Raccoon from taking the series 2-0.
The final upper-bracket match continued the swift 2-0 trend as Twisted Minds took down All Gamers. While there was a brief scare as Twisted lost a round of Oasis trying to play the Cat/Bastion, a quick swap to more comfortable compositions easily secured them the win and sent All Gamers down to the lower bracket.
Lower bracket round 1
Match results
Spacestation Gaming 0 - 2 Weibo Gaming
Recap
The first lower brackets round started with Weibo Gaming against Spacestation Gaming, with elimination on the line. SSG took a page out of Virtus.pro’s playbook against Weibo, putting Denis “Lethal” Tari on Bastion with Oliver “Admiral” Vahar sticking to Lucio. The attempt, however, did not bear fruit. It did have Zheng “shy” Yangjie pick the Lindholm Explosives perk, which gave SSG some space when Admiral switched to Jetpack Cat. But Weibo looked much more superior overall, making swift work of both Oasis and King’s Row, sending SSG home within hours of the tournament starting.
All Gamers vs. Dallas Fuel started with a rare map pick: Antarctica. Both teams mirrored the Mauga/Cat/Bastion comp, but Dallas Fuel looked much more comfortable on the map and capped two sub-rounds for the win. In Runasapi, Dallas came out with a completely unorthodox comp, pairing two-hitscans with Sigma. All Gamers answered by delivering D.Va-bomb after D.Va bomb using the Jetpack Cat with super results. It was a close affair, but ultimately, Dallas Fuel edged out a win, and All Gamers became the second team to get eliminated from the competition.
The schedule is all set for Day 2. Both Korean and EMEA teams have proceeded to the upper bracket quarter finals. Twisted Minds will start the day facing off against Crazy Raccoon. The loser will face off against Weibo later in the day. Virtus.pro will play ZETA DIVISION right after, with the loser playing against Dallas Fuel.
Check out the OWTV Champions Clash tournament page for full details on every matchup.