📝 Twisted Minds unrivalled, Geekay edge through: EMEA Week 3 review

The regular season has come to an end, and we finally have the full picture as to which four EMEA teams stand a chance to qualify for the first major tournament of the year, the Champions Clash in Tokyo, Japan.

An intense weekend of back-and-forths, multiple five-map scraps, and a playoff spot up for grabs right until the very last map of the last match. We have finally made it through and are on our way to the playoffs.

Here’s everything that went down.

Game of the week: Anyone’s Legend 2 - 3 Geekay Esports

Having snatched the Saudi core of last year’s world runners-up, Al Qadsiah, Geekay Esports also snatched some of their lofty expectations. Anyone’s Legend, on the other hand, despite reaching the final weekend winless, somehow managed to drag themselves into playoff contention. For that lopsided entry into this fixture alone, this match is worth watching. The 5-map tussle is a bonus.

Having just edged out their first series win in the season the day before, keeping their playoff dream alive, Anyone’s Legend stepped into the game with renewed confidence. All they had to do now was win.

That confidence would temporarily falter when Geekay Esports came right off the bat looking to dictate the tempo of the matchup. Geekay took Lijiang Tower with ease, but losing the second round in Control Center would give AL the spark they needed, knowing Geekay could bleed.

Anyone’s Legend, having crawled their way this far, were not ones to simply bow out. They banned Zarya in Esperanca and took the fight full-throttle to Geekay. A single massive 120-meter push and Anyone’s Legend were right back in it, with the final playoff spot teetering on the edge. They tied the series up 1-1.

Geekay answered right back with Suravasa. With Mauga banned (AL’s more reliable counter to the D.Va/Zarya dominance), the map quickly turned into shades of 2025 Al Qadsiah between Abdulelah “LBBD7” Alfaifi and Ziyad “ZIYAD” Alkathiri. Geekay put in a convincing argument for the final playoff spot, comfortably sweeping three points for the win.

With match point and the last playoff spot on the line, Anyone’s Legend picked Blizzard World for their final map pick and banned Osama “Haku” Abdullah’s Lucio. It all seemed hopeless at the start as AL came dangerously close to getting full-held, when they somehow managed to capture the first point in overtime, with Ahmed “amdp” Balateef somehow surviving a Nano-Graviton Surge in the process. The momentum AL generated surged them forward with one breath and then some. Not only did they push the payload all the way to the finish line, but they also tore Geekay’s attack to shreds, fully holding them and sending the series to an exciting crescendo.

For the ultimate decider map, Geekay sent the clash to Havana (a thorn in amdp’s side, considering his hero pool). Geekay seemed untroubled from the previous map and full-pushed the payload with ease. AL, having come this far, were not ones to give up easily and flourished an equally inspired push of their own. The one factor they hadn’t taken into account: Geekay’s DPS duo. LBDD7 and Kim “AlphaYi” Jun came alive right in the end and slowed down AL’s push long enough to force them to hit the timebank round in overtime. Despite AL’s heroic resurgence in the dying maps of the season, the time difference was too big, and Geekay comfortably secured the win in the end.

Geekay Esports willed themselves into the playoffs, but coach Go “Aid” Jae-yoon will have his hands full if the Saudi side hopes to avoid similar close calls against tougher sides. Anyone’s Legend will now join Team Peps and head to the Promotion/Relegation to keep their OWCS campaign ongoing.

Player of the week: JaeWoo

This weekend provided the answer to which of Twisted Minds and Virtus.pro came out on top of the flex-DPS swap. Kim “JaeWoo” Jae-woo was consistently impressive in his first season in EMEA last year playing for Virtus.pro. However, he was edged out by Kevin “kevster” Persson in Stage 3, except when VP ran double-flex-DPS comps.

It came as a bit of a surprise when the then newly-crowned world champions let go of Maximillian “Seicoe” Otter, signed JaeWoo, and VP (now with only a single DPS left on the roster) signed Seicoe in return. There were questions as to why VP didn’t keep JaeWoo around, if they were going to sign another flex-DPS in his stead, since he’d impressed throughout the whole year? And how much playtime was JaeWoo going to receive on the big stage, seeing how little playtime Seicoe got during major tournaments?

Neither question has an answer yet, but one thing is for sure: JaeWoo has been an absolute menace in all five regular-season matches so far. Whether on Tracer or Vendetta (even the occasional Pharah), JaeWoo has been nothing but lethal, running rampant in the enemy backline and is one of the biggest reasons behind Twisted Minds’ golden stage achievement. The Korean youngster’s in-your-face playstyle has meshed perfectly with Twisted Minds’ high-tempo brawl, and it’s a sight to behold seeing how quickly they’ve hit the ground running this season.

Hero bans and map picks

Data from OWCS 2026 Hero Bans/Metas

Week 3 match summaries

Al Qadsiah 0 - 3 Twisted Minds

A matchup of two teams that were consistently at each other’s throats last year. Even though Al Qadsiah now boasts an entirely different roster, the regional rivalry is still a major driving factor. With both teams having guaranteed playoff qualification, there was nothing but pride to play for.

Al Qadsiah opened by pushing Twisted Minds to a narrow 99%-100% win on round one, off the back of a mistimed Graviton Surge from Ilari “Vestola” Vestola that opened the door wide open for TM. However, Al Qadsiah struck right back in Night Market with a massive display from Lee “Ade” Ji-hwan on Emre with little regard to Abdualziz “TVNT” Altmimi’s Graviton Surge push. Their momentum would soon come to a stark freeze. A quick opening pick from Ibrahim “Quartz” Alali on Majed “SirMajed” Alrashied set the pace for a quick third round and put the series at 1-0.

Al Qadsiah showed up at Runasapi with Vestola on Mauga, but Twisted Minds’ tried and true comp is unfazed. Cage Fight + Override Protocol seemed effective, but Twisted Minds controlled the game on an individual level on every role. The burst damage from D.Va/Juno/Emre was too much for Mauga/Juno/Brigitte to withstand. Al Qadsiah lasted the whole map duration, but they never managed to establish a foothold strong enough to stage any pushes.

With match point on the line, Al Qadsiah took the series to Havana. Twisted Minds stumbled their way to two points. On point three, Ade switched to Widowmaker and brought TM’s push to a finish.

He swiftly took out Quartz from the last fight. With the push deep into overtime, Ade landed an incredible grapple shot on JaeWoo, who was hiding behind the payload, to cause the overtime bar to swiftly run out before TVNT could get there. Al Qadsiah kicked off their attack with conviction. Vestola on his favoured Zarya and a revitalised display from Taejong on Tracer secure Al Qad the first two points. Twisted Minds rallied just in time to remind everyone what a world champion team looks like. Despite Taejong’s continued heroics, a series-losing Graviton Surge misfire from Vestola, and with TVNT, Quartz, and Kim “Simple” Ji-sung firing on all cylinders, Al Qad are successfully held, and Twisted Minds extend their golden stage hopes to a final decisive series.

Anyone’s Legend 3 - 2 Team Peps

The first of two must-win games for Anyone’s Legend this week. If they were to stand any chance in qualifying for the playoffs, they would have to beat the winless Team Peps, who were already destined to face the Promotion/Relegation playoffs despite their OWCS Partner Team status.

Team Peps quickly set out a reminder as to why they earned the partner team slot in the first place. Lijiang Tower started in favour of Anyone’s Legend, but as soon as Team Peps took the cap, they did not let go for two rounds straight, getting the series lead 1-0.

Whether Map 2 in Havana was a display of immense skill or the lack thereof is up for debate. It seemed like a done deal for Peps when they successfully full-held Anyone’s Legend. However, Anyone’s Legend answered right back with a fuller hold, achieving their first map win of the tournament and keeping their goal of playoff qualification alive.

Runasapi was a much closer affair, with the two teams constantly batting it out. Team Peps were struggling to put a good push together without Brice “FDGod” Monsçavoir’s Sound Barriers, and Anyone’s Legend looked to have put the game to bed, 90.25 meters to 55. Team Peps just about managed to rally together for two final fights, and with a slight Sound Barrier advantage over Lewis “Crispy” Beer, Peps managed to de-mech amdp just quick enough for him to miss the counter-beat, and the rest was clean-up. Peps pushed the series to match point, 2-1.

Blizzard World was going Team Peps’ way as they forced AL to pay dearly for every meter. That all evaporated when the French team ruined their ultimate economy right at the start of their final push defence. Anyone’s Legend exploited the ultimate imbalance perfectly as they found themselves rotating five ultimates to Peps’ none and achieved the full push. After the side-switch, Anyone’s Legend kept their momentum going and put up a tremendous defence to hold Peps to just a single point, and kept their playoff dreams alive.

Peps sent the fifth map to Suravasa for an explosive finish to the series. With qualification on the line and Peps having already captured points A and B, it looked like a grim ending for Anyone’s Legend. However, Kai “Kai” Collins and William “WMaimone” Maimone had other ideas. AL’s DPS duo came online just in the nick of time to stabilise and achieve the reverse sweep. Team Peps finished the Regular Season winless, and Anyone’s Legend kept their playoff dreams alive, at least for one more day.

Virtus.pro 3 - 1 Geekay Esports

Anyone’s Legends’ victory over Team Peps ensured that Geekay Esports would have to give it their all here if they wanted to avoid leaving their qualification hopes down to a single first-to-three showdown.

Things started on the wrong foot for Geekay Esports. Virtus.pro dominated Lijiang Tower with everyone putting their names on the scoreboard and managing a macro game that saw Geekay outplayed 2-0.

Geekay Esports picked Havana and started their attack by capturing the first point flawlessly. Virtus.pro put out a flawless defence of their own to hold Geekay to a single point, but a single point is all Geekay needed. They full-held VP, and when it mattered the most, Haku and Oh “FiNN” Se-jin’s pocket on ZIYAD flipped the whole script on VP’s Grav-Kitsune Rush push. Geekay tied the series 1-1.

With Mauga and Kiriko banned on Map 3, the teams fully mirrored one another. An early scare momentarily put Virtus.pro on the back foot, but the bears not only overcame the LBBD7/ZIYAD onslaught but stayed mechanically sharp and achieved the full push. Match point in VP’s advantage, 2-1.

Suravasa saw both teams start with completely different comps, except for Landon “Landon” McGee/Haku, who mirrored Juno. Virtus.pro were decisively superior to Geekay on every front. Their only mistake was on point B, where they overspent four ultimates in a losing fight, which gave Geekay their only point of the map. But VP quickly course-corrected themselves, and a consistent performance from kevster sealed the deal. Geekay would have to wrestle Anyone’s Legend for all the marbles.

Virtus.pro 0 - 3 Twisted Minds

The ultimate EMEA battle between the world champions, Twisted Minds, and 2nd-place Virtus.pro. The last time these two sides met was during the 2025 Stage 3 playoffs, where Twisted Minds came out the dominant victors, rattling Virtus.pro so hard that they would go on to lose to Gen.G and miss out on the World Finals.

Both rosters have since mostly stayed the same. Twisted Minds picked up former Virtus.pro flex DPS, JaeWoo, and Virtus.pro returned the favour by grabbing TM’s former flex DPS, Seicoe.

This match would decide two things. Whether Twisted Minds would stamp a golden seal upon their undefeated season, and which of the two would clinch the #1 seed heading into the playoffs.

The teams started their showdown in Lijiang Tower. TVNT/JaeWoo instantly established why the reigning world champions moniker fits so snugly on their brow. kevster put up a good performance, but Twisted Minds had the upper hand with a superior Zarya display by TVNT over Jonas “eisgnom” Stratemeyer. 1-0.

Not much to say about Runasapi. Once the Mauga ban came in, VP had little to provide in terms of answers to TM’s onslaught. A full push with no resistance whatsoever quickly sealed the deal.

Virtus.pro banned TVNT’s D.Va for a final chance at extending the series to at least four maps. Both tanks mirrored one another on Hazard, but the difference came in through Simple playing Ana. Eisgnom found no quarter as Simple consistently shut him down with a good ol’ Sleep/Nade every time the German dared lunge into TM’s backline. JaeWoo and Quartz put constant pressure on the rest of VP, and Twisted Minds secured the golden stage in quite the unceremonious fashion.

Even though this was VP’s first loss of the stage, the difference in quality between the two teams should ring some bells over at VP HQ if they hope to put up a more successful obstacle to, currently, their only rivals.

Week 3 and the regular season in EMEA is now over. Twisted Minds head to the playoffs not only as the top seed, but having achieved a golden stage (not losing a single map). Virtus.pro, Geekay Esports, and Al Qadsiah will follow them into the playoffs where we will find out which two teams will head to Tokyo, Japan, for the first international tournament of the season, the OWCS Champions Clash.

Team Peps and Anyone’s Legend will head directly to the Promotion/Relegation playoffs, where they’ll face the top two teams from the FACEIT League Master season nine. The two winners will join the aforementioned four in OWCS Stage 2 later this year.