📝 Three in, one out: OWCS EMEA Stage 1 Week 2 review

The conclusion of Week 2 marks the halfway point of stage 1 for OWCS in EMEA. With a much shorter regular season, every game matters even more than it ever has. Week 2 saw three teams clinch their spots in the regional playoffs and one team eliminated from playoff contention. Let's dive into the matches and see how the power structure is shaking out.

Game of the week: Al Qadsiah vs. Geekay Esports

The opening matchup of EMEA this week also turned into the best match by far. Both these organizations entered OWCS last year, and had abundant success in their respective regions (Geekay played in North America). When they faced each other - once in the Midseason Championship and once at the World Finals - Al Qadsiah won both of those matchups. After an offseason filled with roster moves and a region change, both teams found themselves in EMEA battling for a spot in OWCS via the Open Qualifiers. These teams are both itching to upset some partner teams and secure a spot in the EMEA regional playoffs and Stage 2.

The match opened on Lijiang Tower, with D.Va and Emre banned. Both Geekay and Al Qadsiah responded with the standard Zarya/Kiriko/Lúcio tank and backline, and star hitscans Abdulelah "LBBD7" Alfaifi and Lee "Ade" Ji-hwan led the way on Sojourn. The rarer sight was Kim "AlphaYi" Jun and Yoo "Taejong" Tae-jong, who pulled out the Pharah, a pick that has taken over EMEA recently. With a mirror match on both sides, Geekay took the map thanks to better rockets and railgun out of their DPS duo.

Map 2 was Havana, where Al Qadsiah looked to hamstring Osama "Haku" Abdullah by banning the Lúcio. Both teams ran the full meta composition centered around Zarya and Vendetta, with Juno filling in at main support. This map was a full back-and-forth affair, culminating in a strong third-point defense by Geekay Esports. On their attack, LBBD7 got multiple opening picks on Emre, allowing for an easy push through first. After getting stalled a bit on second, Ziyad "ZIYAD" Alkathiri showed his Zarya prowess with a clutch Graviton Surge to take the point, and allowed Geekay to step out to a 2-0 lead in the series.

Heading into Map 3, this match was looking like a blowout for Geekay. So much so that they threw away their ban on Aatlis, taking out Domina (her first and only ban in EMEA). Al Qadsiah was confident that they would win with the Zarya/Vendetta comp, and that confidence paid off big. Vestola looked much more comfortable playing in the brawl-oriented confines of Aatlis, and overall, Al Qadsiah looked a lot more team-oriented. It also helped that Ade got back in the groove, showing off his Emre prowess, clinching a 5k on Resort. At this point, it became clear that we had a series on our hands.

Going into Map 4, Geekay sent the series to Runasapi and used their ban to get rid of Baptiste, protecting FiNN. Al Qadsiah used their ban to keep the hitscans in an Emre duel, as Ade was clearly playing him well - as seen on Aatlis. Al Qad started off the map really well, with Majed "SirMajed" Alrashied getting a pick on ZIYAD, forcing Geekay back. They didn’t let up the pressure, taking the first checkpoint quickly after. In fact, they continued to pressure Geekay hard, jumping out to a 100-meter lead (138-26) halfway through the map. Al Qadisha finished off the map and sent the series to a map five.

Map 5 was Midtown, with the compositions staying the same as they have been most of the series. Geekay opened on the attack and played aggressively. A first pick by LBBD7 forced Al Qadsiah to concede the point, and a grav-protocol combo by ZIYAD and LBBD7 secured second just as fast. With a five-minute timebank heading into the final section, Geekay took their time and capped with over two and a half minutes in the timebank.

Al Qadsiah’s attack started off with similar success, as they took the first point after only one fight (although much more drawn out), and were able to nearly match Geekay’s five-minute timebank entering the point. From that point forward, Geekay locked it down, winning fight after fight thanks to clutch picks and plays from everyone on the team. ZIYAD got a 3k to hold Al Qadsiah into their spawn with under a minute left, forcing Vestola to use the Graviton Surge to break out and touch the point to force overtime. Geekay would clutch up to stop the reverse-sweep and won the match in a very entertaining fashion.

Player of the week: FiNN

When Geekay Esports announced their new roster, there was a strong fear that the support line would falter and prevent this team from achieving great heights. Oh "FiNN" Se-jin received criticism for his time on ZETA DIVISION in OWCS Korea. This week, FiNN put his critics to bed.

FiNN spent the entire week wreaking havoc on Kiriko and pumping out absurd healing numbers. In all five maps against Al Qadsiah, FiNN was achieving at least 10,000 healing per map, and even hit as high as 19k on Midtown to win the series. While he didn’t play especially aggressively, his playstyle was exactly what Geekay needed, keeping the team alive and in the fight, opening opportunities for their talented DPS tandem to secure the final blows. He kept the same story up in their match against Team Peps, opening the match by going 17-5 with 19k healing on Lijiang Tower. He would go 11-1 on Aatlis and busted out the Brigitte in Midtown to help secure the sweep and Geekay’s second win of the week. While Geekay has not clinched a playoff slot just yet, they are in a great position, thanks in part to FiNN’s great support gameplay. Keep an eye out for FiNN as he holds it down in Week 3 and beyond.

Hero bans and map picks

Data sourced from: OWCS 2026 Hero Bans / Metas

Over the past two weeks of competition, we have seen thirty-five distinct map selections in EMEA, and we can start to parse through this data to find some key takeaways:

• Lijiang is far and away the favorite control map, being played more than twice as often compared to Busan and Oasis combined
• Worldwide, Hybrid has shifted into one of the least-popular map types, but it sits tied for second place in EMEA
• Aatlis is the much more preferred Flashpoint map, which is incredibly odd. Normally, Suravasa dominates the flashpoint gamemode, and Aatlis went unpicked in the OWCS Bootcamp (New Junk City was picked four times, and Suravasa was out of the map pool). Maybe teams have finally started to adjust to Aatlis’s addition, eight months after its release.
• The absolute refusal to play Watchpoint: Gibraltar is astounding. You’d expect teams that preferred a dive style to take advantage of this map's incredible high ground, but it seems no one wants to play the map after Talon blew up some key bridges.
• Runasapi slightly edges out Esperança for the more popular push map. Which goes slightly against the trend we’re seeing in all the other regions. (Esperança 24 vs. Runasapi 17).

Over the past two weeks of competition, we have seen 70 bans in EMEA, and this sample size is sufficient to identify some patterns. Some key takeaways from EMEA’s Week 2 dataset:

• Hazard is the odd man out. Every other region has Zarya and D.Va flip-flopping as the top two most-banned tanks, but Hazard is never this high. In fact, EMEA accounts for 70% of his bans this year. Most of these have arisen to counter certain players, like Team Peps’s WillyS, but he is not the only player being targeted.
• Pharah is another anomaly. Various flex DPS players (specifically the Korean imports, Teajong and Alphayi, along with Seicoe) made Pharah a staple of EMEA play.
• The relative lack of bans for Vendetta, Symmetra, and Emre is noticeable. Most other regions have them fighting for number one overall, but sit comfortably behind Pharah and Tracer.
• Virtus.pro’s ban of Anran against Anyone's Legend on Lijiang Tower is her only ban.
• Lúcio, being the most banned support, is not super rare, but Ana having none is an oddity. This could be due to the lack of “classic dive” (no Watchpoint: Gibraltar also helps, as that map gives Ana her highest ban percentage).
• Every region has a throwaway ban hero, and for EMEA, that seems to be Moira. Her two bans are 66% of all her bans. 

Week 2 match summaries

Twisted Minds 3 - 0 Anyone’s Legend

The reigning World Champions had little struggle against Anyone’s Legend. Twisted Minds continued their dominance, taking an easy sweep to advance to 3-0 on the stage, their sights still set on a golden stage (not losing a map in an entire stage). This game also clinches them a spot in the regional playoffs, guaranteeing them a spot in Stage 2.

Anyone’s Legend entered the match purely focused on practice, as assistant coach Jamie "Backbone" O'Neill mentioned on the Plat Chat podcast that “I’m not going to sit here acting as if we have a real chance against TM.” It was clear that Anyone’s Legend was outmatched, as nothing they tried seemed to work. They started trying to ban out TM’s strengths, removing Kim "JaeWoo" Jae-woo’s Pharah on Lijiang Tower, but later pivoted to using their bans to protect their hero pool weaknesses. This use of bans was something that plagued Gen.G last year (where the core of this team comes from), and it is a concerning look to be sure.

Virtus.pro 3 - 0 Team Peps

Virtus.pro ended this match looking to continue their dominance and set up for a final battle against Twisted Minds, and they proved their skill here. The offseason additions of Landon "Landon" McGee and Maximilian "Seicoe" Otter played incredibly well, and Kevin "kevster" Persson proved that he is still one of the best players in the world, earning Player of the Match honors. This game pushed their record to 3-0 on the stage, clinching them a spot in the regional playoffs and guaranteeing them a spot in Stage 2.

As for Team Peps, this match was a sight for sore eyes. Peps have never beaten Virtus.pro in OWCS history, and that trend did not change today. William "Willys" Ersson was unable to play his Hazard effectively, and while his Zarya wasn't awful, it was clear it wasn’t as comfortable. Outside of their DPS, Peps were susceptible to getting banned out, with Benjamin "Xeriongdh" Nambruide and Brice "FDGod" Monsçavoir being limited in their flexibility outside of Kiriko and Lúcio, respectively. This game sent Team Peps down to 0-3, meaning they had to win their next game to avoid becoming the first partner team to be sent to Promotion/Relegation.

Team Peps 0 - 3 Geekay Esports

This game seemed to be pulling double duty as the match where both Geekay Esports found their footing and Team Peps accepted their place as a team that needs to fight for survival in relegation. The match opened with a fun Lijiang Tower, with both teams running mirror compositions of Emre/Vendetta/Zarya/Kiriko/Lúcio.

Play-by-play caster Jonathan "Reinforce" Snowden dubbed this map, “the FDGod experience,” as it was filled with three-man beats and two-man boops. His Lúcio gameplay helped secure Gardens for the team, but Geekay won out on the other two submaps and took the map overall.

Aatlis was a completely one-sided affair, as Geekay absolutely obliterated the competition, taking all three points 100%-0%. Peps were able to piece together a defense of Midtown to stop Geekay from completing the map, but their attack was unable to push the payload further. Geekay won Midtown 2-0, and swept the series, putting themselves at 2-1, and eliminating Team Peps to the Promotion/Relegation playoffs matches, forcing them to battle for their spot for Stage 2.

Al Qadsiah 3 - 0 Anyone’s Legend

Al Qadsiah started this week with a tough loss to Geekay Esports and needed this win to get back on the right track. Anyone’s Legend has played and lost to Virtus.pro and Twisted Minds - the consensus top two - and needed to get into the win column and give themselves the best chance of making the playoffs.

Anyone’s Legend took the fight to Numbani to get the benefit of Tama's Winston, but deferred the first ban, allowing Vestola to stay on D.Va. That blunder allowed Al Qadsiah to continue playing to their strength, and D.Va countered Tama hard. While Anyone’s Legend put up a serviceable attack, reaching the third point, Al Qadsiah dominated theirs, finishing with five minutes left on the board.

Going to map 3, Anyone's Legend brought in Ahmed "amdp" Balateef to replace Tama. amdp stepped in for his first map, becoming the youngest player in OWCS EMEA (born in 2008). Despite being known for his D.Va, AL banned it, putting amdp on the Zarya mirror. It backfired: Al Qadsiah started the map with a 139.5-meter lead and went on to easily win the map and the series in a sweep.

Going into the final week of the Regular Season, there are four teams with their futures set. Twisted Minds, Virtus.pro, and Al Qadsiah have all clinched a playoff berth, although the seeding still has to be decided. Be sure to watch the opening match Sunday, as Twisted Minds and Virtus.pro will battle for the top seed in the region. Team Peps are already set for Promotion/Relegation, so their final match has little at stake for them.

For the final two teams, Geekay Esports and Anyone’s Legend, their destiny is still in their hands. Anyone’s Legend's path is easy; they need to win out and have Geekay lose out. AL fans will be rooting for Virtus.pro on Saturday to take down Geekay and hoping their team can clutch it up for the final game on Sunday to clinch a spot in the postseason. Geekay fans have it easy; they just need their team to win one of their remaining games, and they are in. This regular season is coming down to the wire, and there is a very exciting weekend ahead of us!