📝 St. Clair shines, BSCVA suffer early exit during Day 1 of OWCC Open playoffs

After a suspenseful weekend to finish up the Overwatch Collegiate Championships - Open Swiss stage, the playoffs kicked off on Friday night.

The Top 32 teams from the first phase of the tournament were cut down to the final eight during the single-elimination section of the playoffs.

Several teams rose to the challenge, while the #5 team in the Overwatch Collegiate Ranking Association poll suffered its worst OWC finish in nearly two years.

Here’s how the first day of the OWCC Open playoffs played out:

OWCC Open Round of 32 Recap:

Round of 32 results:

• #2 Northwood 2 - 0 UVA Blue
• 10 NC State 2 - 0 TAMUSA
• 3 Fisher 2 - 0 Michigan
• Miami OH 2 - 1 Oregon State
• #1 Winthrop 2 - 0 Texas Tech
• #20 Georgia Tech 2 - 1 #18 Arcadia
• #7 Cumberland 2 - 0 #13 Texas A&M
• Northeastern 2 - 0 Converse
• #6 Fisher Navy 2 - 0 UT Varsity
• Winthrop Acad 2 - 0 Cincy
• #4 St. Clair 2 - 0 Georgia State
• #5 BSCVA 2 - 0 CSULB
• #16 Cleveland State 2 - 0 UNLV
• #15 Briar Cliff 2 - 0 Syracuse
• #12 Bellevue 2 - 0 UCR Blue
• Alvernia 2 - 0 Grand View

Main takeaways:

The best game of the Round of 32 was hands down Georgia Tech’s win over Arcadia.

Georgia Tech and Arcadia traded the first two maps, sending the series to a decisive map three. And even on Aatlis, the series went down to the final fight on the final flashpoint. But the ultimate advantage was too much for Arcadia to handle, as Georgia Tech moved on to the Top 16.

It was an incredible series on stream to kick off a long weekend of collegiate Overwatch action.

Northeastern also continued its underdog run through to the Round of 16 with a sweep over an improved Converse squad. Max “Frisco” Innes led the way for the Huskies on tank with some fantastic plays on Sigma in New Junk City.

And Alvernia was able to hold onto its momentum from its run in superweekend, sweeping a Grand View roster that has found great form over the past month.

OWCC Open Round of 16 Recap:

Notable results:

• #2 Northwood 3 - 1 #10 NC State
• #3 Fisher 3 - 0 Miami OH
• #1 Winthrop 3 - 0 #20 Georgia Tech
• #7 Cumberland 3 - 0 Northeastern
• #6 Fisher Navy 3 - 1 Winthrop Acad
• #4 St. Clair 3 - 0 #5 BSCVA
• #16 Cleveland State 3 - 1 #15 Briar Cliff
• #12 Bellevue 3 - 1 Alvernia

Main takeaways:

Two matches stood out from the Round of 16, which ended up in the same group in the bracket: St. Clair vs. BSCVA & Cleveland State vs. Briar Cliff.

A match to the caliber of St. Clair against BSCVA is typically saved for the later phases of the tournament. But due to the Bobcats’ unfortunate draw of Winthrop and Northwood in the Swiss stage, BSCVA fell to the #11 seed of the tournament.

Both St. Clair and BSCVA lost to top-seed Northwood 1-2 in the Swiss stage, so expectations were high. However, the Saints dominated the frontline throughout the series and sealed a ticket into the double-elimination phase of the tournament with a sweep.

Alexander “Tred” Madgwick-Smith was fantastic throughout the series, coordinating perfectly with DPS Jack “Reyzr” Francis and Thierry “Noxious” Whitehead.

It's uncharacteristic for the Bobcats to be eliminated so early in the tournament, but they became the latest victim of an incredibly close spring semester near the top of the table.

And while it may get lost in the shuffle of results, Cleveland State’s win over Briar Cliff is arguably its most impressive win yet.

The Vikings recently had a roster shuffle due to eligibility issues, but it appears those concerns didn’t bear much merit after this result.

Briar Cliff had been one of the brightest stories of the semester, using some winter transfers to catapult back into the OWCRA Top 20 with some impressive upsets early in the semester.

The Chargers of BCU will still have another chance to shine in the OWCC Varsity playoffs later this month.

OWCC Open Upper Quarterfinals:

• #2 Northwood vs. #12 Bellevue
• #7 Cumberland vs. #6 Fisher Navy
• #3 Fisher vs. #16 Cleveland State
• #1 Winthrop vs. #4 St. Clair

Looking ahead:

Simply put, Winthrop versus St. Clair has the potential to be an unbelievable game to kick off Day 2.

St. Clair played some of its best Overwatch of the entire school year over the past two weeks, but it will need to continue that form if they want to take down the top-ranked team in the country.

Winthrop will be looking for a little bit of redemption after dropping its first series of the spring semester to Northwood during the OWCC Open superweekend.

On paper, Fisher Navy’s game against Cumberland should be another barn-burner. But as of now, there is doubt that the main support, Stijn “Schef” Scheffers and hitscan Kurtis “Kabe” Bogner, will be able to play due to a graduate program seminar on Saturday. As of Saturday, it is still unknown if either will be able to play at all for Day 2.

Cleveland State have played close with some of the collegiate Overwatch giants in the past, but they are going to have some issues against the Falcons of Fisher College. The Falcons only lost to St. Clair during the Swiss stage and will enter as the easy favorites.

And at the top of the bracket, Bellevue will look to pull one of the upsets of the tournament in their match against Northwood. The upper bracket quarterfinal is a rematch of the final round of swiss, when Northwood took the series in a 2-0. Even with an extra map or two added into the mix, Bellevue would need to find a special performance to upset the Timberwolves.

By the end of Day 2, these eight teams will be cut down to six. In addition, the team that wins the upper bracket finals will lock in their spot in the OWCC Open Grand Finals, which will be played in person at the OWCC Varsity LAN in Orlando, Florida, next month.

Remaining OWCC Open Playoffs schedule:

• Saturday, March 14
  • Upper Round 1: 2 PM EDT
  • Lower Round 1: 3:30 PM EDT
  • Upper Semifinals: 5 PM EDT
  • Upper Finals: 6:30 PM EDT
• Sunday, March 15
  • Lower Round 2A: 2 PM EDT
  • Lower Round 2B: 3:30 PM EDT
  • Lower Semifinal: 5 PM EDT
  • Lower Final: 6:30 PM EDT

Select matches will be streamed Saturday and Sunday on the OW Esports Twitch and YouTube pages, starting around 1:50 PM EDT.