Season One of the Overwatch Contenders has finally arrived and with it, we have had no shortage of exciting moments with some upsets already in order. I’ve made my predictions for Season One, so let’s see how they stack up against the results from day one.

RELATED: Day 2 recap of Overwatch Contenders

Europe

 Misfits (1-0) vs Cloud9 (0-1) 

Lijiang Tower – Misfits

Eichenwalde – Misfits

Volskaya Industries – Misfits

Dorado – Misfits

 
New players? No problem. Just days after adding Johan “CWoosH” Klingestedt and Andreas “Logix” Berghmans to their roster, Misfits is off to a hot start and is looking like everything their fans had hoped for as their two DPS players were uncontrollable throughout the entire series.

No one was quite sure what to expect with Doomfist being added into the mix, but Kevyn “TviQ”  Lindström made it work beyond imaginable as the pick potential was unmatched with Cloud9 finding it tough to get a grip on one of the world’s best. Add Logix’s Tracer into the equation and you’re sitting around wondering what just happened for four games straight.

Misfits as a collective unit were too much to handle with TviQ being able to flex to Soldier: 76 and Genji accordingly and Logix lighting up the killfeed one Pulse Bomb after another. On the other end it was Andreas “Nevix” Karlsson, Cloud9’s newest addition who previously played for Misfits, who seemingly was a one-man show with his Genji giving his team some signs of life, but ultimately wasn’t enough to muster up a win for the team.

Misfits will hope to keep up the pace as they face an even tougher challenge next week against Team Gigantti while Cloud9, on the other hand, will match up with eUnited, Season Zero’s undisputed champions.

 Team Gigantti (1-0) vs eUnited (0-1) 

Nepal – Gigantti

Numbani – Gigantti

Volskaya Industries – Gigantti

Watchpoint: Gibraltar – eUnited

Gigantti is defying the meta. It may have been brief but it was a pleasure to watch Joona “Fragi” Laine and Joonas “Zappis” Alakurtti unveil the Zarya and Reinhardt on Nepal, securing an intense 2-0 win. On the other end of things, Season Zero’s defending champions were on the ball, but still falling shy of being able to grab the wins to secure the set.

Tuomo “Davin” Leppänen was a force to be reckoned with, dominating the Tracer matchup against Hendrik-William “Vallutaja” Kinks for the better part of the series. Seeing as the pick potential was too much to handle, we finally saw some adaptation come through from eUnited, moving Isaac “Boombox” Charles over to the Sombra before once again falling short on Volskaya Industries, guaranteeing the series for Gigantti.

It wasn’t until the final map of the series and arguably one of eUnited’s best maps where we witnessed their true potential from the star-studded lineup. No composition changes from their original take in the previous matches were necessary for them to find a victory. Unfortunately for them it was too little, too late to put them in a position to start off Season One with a win. Teams will certainly need to find a way to keep Gigantti in check moving forward.

Current Standings

North America

 Team EnVyUs (1-0) vs Immortals (0-1) 

Oasis – EnVyUs

Numbani – EnVyUs

Volskaya Industries – EnVyUs

Watchpoint: Gibraltar – EnVyUs

What better way to start out the North American action with the Season Zero champions, Immortals, taking on EnVyUs, a team that’s returning to the fold after their time in Korea for OGN’s Apex.

This series began with the same question for the third time since the start of the day, “Who can play Doomfist? Who can stop Doomfist?” Kim “EFFECT” Hyeon showed us right from the beginning that he has already added Overwatch’s newest hero into his arsenal, pummeling Immortals down from the start. Unlike teams we saw earlier in the day, EFFECT stuck with the Doomfist selection past the initial control point map into Numbani. His uptime on Meteor Strike was unreal as Immortals attempted to find an answer, but continued to fall short.

The two powerhouse teams in North America were expected to be neck and neck heading into the series, however, after the initial two maps EnVyUs continued to find ways to further their lead even more with a complete shutout on Volskaya Industries. Despite short moments of greatness from Immortals’ DPS players Christopher “GrimReality” Schaefer and Brady “Agilities” Girardi, EnVyUs had too many threats for them to handle, not giving way for them to create opportunities to shine as we’ve seen from these players in the past.

As a final take away from this series, this is the EnVyUs we expected to see as their return to the region has been highly anticipated. On the other end of things, this is clearly not the Immortals we expected. Could EnVyUs just be that dominant with Immortals slotting themselves as the second or third best team in North America? It’s far too early in the season to tell, but this surely will be a wakeup call for any of the other teams watching.

 EnVision Esports (1-0) vs Rogue (0-1) 

Lijiang Tower – EnVision

Numbani – Rogue

Volskaya Industries – EnVision

Watchpoint: Gibraltar – EnVision

North America’s upset of the year? Although EnVision came into this league as a wildcard given their recent acquisition of Team Liquid’s Contenders spot and new addition of Christopher “ChrisTFer” Graham, they had to face off against a team that’s shown little to no weakness since the start of the year.

With that in mind, EnVision came out alive on Lijiang Tower, finding a way to shut down a roster that has continued to thrive. It didn’t ensure a series victory but it certainly put things to the test for Rogue who couldn’t get a grip on EnVision’s Caleb “McGravy” McGarvey with the Tracer.

Normally an upset win comes through on an assault map given the potential for snowballing, but with EnVision winning out on control point and an assault map yet to be played, there was truly an opportunity for them to win the entire series. EnVision’s three victories also came with the understanding that two of their players are currently playing from Europe, as McGravy tweeted out earlier that they were sitting on 200+ ping.

Rogue’s Terence “SoOn” Tarlier put forth his best efforts as one of the world’s best Tracers but even that wasn’t enough to stop North America’s newest wonder. EnVision, against all odds, found themselves taking down one of the best teams in the world in a fashion that not one person thought even possible coming into today’s matches.

Current Standings

Tomorrow’s Schedule

- Singularity vs. 123

- GamersOrigin vs. Bazooka Puppiez

- Kungarna vs. Renegades

- FaZe Clan vs. FNRGFE

Season One of the Overwatch Contenders will resume Sunday at Twitch.tv./OverwatchContenders at 10 am PT/1 pm ET.