With the third week of Overwatch Contenders upon us, it was do or die time for many of the teams sitting at the bottom of the standings. As teams continued to shuffle their rosters to find the right fit to make a run for the postseason, things started to shape up in the standings.

Europe

  Misfits (3-0) vs Team Singularity (0-3) 

Nepal – Mifits

Numbani – Misfits

Volskaya Industries – Misfits

Dorado – Misfits

Singularity are down in the dumps. Still, with an opportunity to make a run for the post-season they’ve remade nearly their entire roster by adding Christopher “ChrisTFer” Graham, Mads “fischer” Jehg, Eoghan “Smex” O’Neill, Mario “PoPiFresH” Gonzalez, and Dante “Dante” Zegveld. Five notable talents in the European scene, but what could they possibly hope to do against Europe’s best?

The new Singularity roster certainly looks better on paper, knowing that some of these players have prior experience with one another. WIth that in mind, none of them could find a way to get a grip on Misfits’ Andreas “Logix” Berghmans, a player that has risen to the top of the list when it comes to best Tracers in the world.

It took some time, but Singularity began to figure things out on Numbani. Perhaps it was overconfidence from Misfits, but PoPiFresH’s Tracer and Smex’s D.va helped carve a path for the payload. Singularity managed to stabilize themselves throughout Numbani’s defense, giving fans hope that they could bring a win to the table. In the end Logix and Tim “Manneten” Bylund came through to save the day with game-ending ultimates to secure a victory.

Misfits handled Singuarlity with ease on Volskaya Industries, full holding them with Aleksi “Zuppehw” Kuntsi’s Sombra getting work done. From one fight to the next it was Logix opening up the fight with a kill, denying any chance for Singularity to get the edge. Even when PoPiFresH found an early Pulse Bomb kill, they were unable to follow up with additional pressure due to consistent EMPs.

Singularity tried their best to exploit the few weaknesses we’ve seen from Misfits by diving into the backline and attempting to break down their supports, but Misfits held strong throughout and found easy success in the matchup. For Singularity, this may be the end of the line. I would imagine they’ll find some wins later in the season against the teams in the lower half of the standings, but their hopes for the playoffs are out of the question.

 GamersOrigin (2-1) vs Team Gigantti (2-1) 

Oasis – Gigantti

King’s Row – Gigantti

Hanamura – GamersOrigin

Watchpoint: Gibraltar – Gigantti

Without a doubt GamersOrigin and Gigantti looked to be the match of the week for Europe. A surprising turnaround after a disappointing Season Zero for GamersOrigin has put them atop the standings. A 4-0 win over Singularity came at a surprise, so matching up with Gigantti looked to be in their favor.

Lucas “Leaf” Loison’s Doomfist has been a pleasure to watch from GamersOrigin. It’s been the best in the region by a longshot, but he’s yet to have played a team that can throw a potent McCree his way. Gigantti proved early on you didn’t need a McCree, but rather took advantage of exploiting the fact that Doomfist cannot handle the high-ground threat. This forced Leaf over to Pharah for the third round on Garden of Oasis, showing that without the Doomfist GamersOrigin can be defeated.

Gigantti seemed to figure things out with Tuomo “Davin” Leppänen’s Tracer taking care of business, showing there’s nothing to worry about when you have a player like Joonas “zappis” Alakurtti consistently putting out Graviton Surges to clean up the McCree and Doomfist threat from GamersOrigin. After nearly full holding them on King’s Row, Gigantti continued with consistent pressure from Jiri “LiNkzr” Masalin’s offensive Hanzo in conjunction with zappis’ Zarya.

GamersOrigin seemed to have met their match. Outside of the Doomfist composition, nothing else they show proves that GamersOrigin deserves to be at the top. Hanamura played to their advantage, though, giving way for the Doomfist to match up quite nicely against Davin and LiNkzr.

LiNkzr’s Widowmaker was brought out on Watchpoint: Gibraltar but again proved too much to handle. No matter what was thrown at him, whether it be Jeremy “Hqrdest” Danton’s Tracer or Leaf’s Genji, he picked them off one by one. This win showed the Doomfist can be handled with the right players and keeps Gigantti in the running. They’ll have a true test next week when they match up with 123 and Cloud9.

Current Standings

North America

 Immortals (0-4) vs Rogue (2-2) 

Lijiang Tower – Rogue

Numbani – Rogue

Hanamura – Immortals

Watchpoint: Gibraltar – Immortals

Tiebreaker: Ilios – Rogue

Had you asked me about a Rogue versus Immortals match a few weeks ago I would have been ecstatic at the thought. Now that these two have been the biggest letdowns of the season, I don’t believe anyone knew what to expect. Rogue has begun to look better, but it’s clear they’ll won’t be the old Rogue that used to dominate the North American region anytime soon.

Things got heated on Lijiang Tower with Rogue forcing it to a round three thanks to Dylan “aKm” Bignet’s uncontested Soldier: 76, abusing a high-ground advantage on Control Center. It was Nicolas “NiCO” Moret outmaneuvering Immortals’ Brady “Agilities” Girardi on the Genji in the end, giving them the slight edge in the match.

Immortals took Rogue to Numbani where Michaël “winz” Bignet brought out the defensive Soldier: 76 with aKm’s Sombra. The change worked relatively well, keeping Immortals at bay for quite some time. Despite the aggressive playstyle working in Immortals’ favor on defense, it just wasn’t enough to stop the onslaught from Rogue’s dive.

A must-win game three went to Immortals thanks to finding an early advantage and pressing it with Agilities’ Doomfist pressure alongside Christopher “GrimReality” Schaefer’s Tracer. As constant pests, SoOn did his best to challenge but fell short in doing so when given limited time to make a push on their second attempt.

Immortals did the unthinkable on Watchpoint: Gibraltar, being down several minutes for a second attempt they accidentally stepped off the payload to lose their opportunity to cover additional ground. With Rogue thinking they had the win in the bag, they failed multiple times at making a push, ultimately giving Immortals a chance to find their first win of the season.

In the end it was aKm’s Widowmaker taking care of business on Ruins of Ilios during the tiebreaker that helped seal a win to keep their chances of making the postseason alive. On the other hand, Immortals are now nearly out of the playoff race and will have to rely upon some big win conditions for a chance to defend their Season Zero title.

 Renegades (0-4) vs FaZe Clan (3-1) 

Lijiang Tower – FaZe Clan

King’s Row – FaZe Clan

Hanamura – FaZe Clan

Dorado – FaZe Clan

Renegades are down big in the standings and for them a win here would keep things alive. However, a tough FaZe team that has been relentless stands in their way as they have only lost to Team EnVyUs, while being the only team to actually take a map from them.

Liam “Mangachu” Campbell has been what has kept Renegades alive in their matches, being that his Pharah racks up over 40% of the kills when present. FaZe showed their versatility early on with Lee “Carpe” Jae-Hyeok taking on the Genji role and George “ShaDowBurn” Gushcha showing us his Doomfist skills.

Despite numerous pauses throughout King’s Row, Renegades proved they have the skillset to win team fights and look efficient as a team, but the inconsistency and inability to keep up with the constant FaZe pressure shows. The original push from Renegades looked strong thanks to great ultimate coordination amongst the players, but this sort of play faded quickly during their second attempt which was easily handed over to FaZe.

Carpe’s outstanding Tracer performance throughout this set really blossomed on Hanamura as Renegades provided no answer. Any mirror match was shut down from FaZe, showing that Renegades needed to bring something out of the ordinary if they were to succeed. That being said, they did showcase an Orisa, Symmetra, and Torbjorn composition on defense which found brief success before a ShaDowBurn Dragonblade carved a path to the objective.

With the series in the bag, FaZe continue to prove themselves in the North American region. As a real contenders for the top four, they’ll still need to battle past Rogue, Kungarna, and EnVision, none of which will be an easy task. If they wish to avoid EnVyUs in the first round of the playoffs, they’ll more than likely need to secure at least two of those matches.

Current Standings

Next Week’s Schedule

Europe

- 123 (3-0) vs Team Gignatti (2-1)
- Team Singularity (0-3) vs Bazooka Puppiez (0-3)
- Team Singularity (0-3) vs eUnited (0-3)
- Misfits (3-0) vs GamersOrigin (2-1)
- Misfits (3-0) vs Bazooka Puppiez (0-3)
- Team Gigantti (2-1) vs Cloud9 (2-1)

North America

- Renegades (0-4) vs Team EnVyUs (3-0)
- FaZe Clan (3-1) vs Rogue (1-2)
- Kungarna (2-1) vs EnVision Esports (3-0)
- Immortals (0-4) vs FNRGFE (1-2)

Season One of the Overwatch Contenders will resume on September 8th at Twitch.tv./OverwatchContenders at 9am PT/12pm ET.