Insomnia 58 held its first ever Overwatch tournament last weekend. Craig Robinson looks back on the competition, the matches and how Reason Gaming (pictured) came out on top.
The tournament had a prize pool of £7,500 and high interest – with 38 checked in teams on the day and known UK talents in attendance.
Initial predictions
Team EndPoint, the team that took the first place seed going into the ESL UK Premiership, obviously had a bit of hype coming into this tournament.
Then there were teams like Reason and GamersOrigin, teams we had heard good things from. Then we had some teams that we knew had the potential to go far, like Computerised Gamers, Flash Point, DAA DAA WEEEE (although they only had half of the Team Last Resort roster) or others that had rank 70 majority players.
Talking to caster Joshua “Dowsey” Dowse on Saturday, we came to the conclusion that it was either Reason, GamersOrigin or EndPoint that would take the first place finish. The fourth-place team could have been any of the potential teams that were listed above.
Results
Looking at the top four, Flash Point bypassed the lower bracket by defeating tilted 42 and losing to Gamers Origin. Computerised Gamers just missed out as they finished in R4 of the lower bracket against GamersOrigin.
The top three is where the interesting results were. In the upper bracket, Reason Gaming faced off against Team EndPoint. After the chance for these two teams to face each other in the ESL Contender Cups had been denied due to ESL ruling, so this was perhaps one of the most hyped matches of the entire tournament.
The series between these two teams had been pretty intense. On Numbani, EndPoint secured a decent time fairly early on to earn them the first map of the series. The second point was on Gibraltar. On EndPoint’s defence side, they held the same point for so long, but there was an overtime battle that lasted a good few minutes – and Reason were able to take the point after a very exciting ending!
“The MVP of the tournament was CWoosh of Team EndPoint – one of the filthiest Genji players I have seen.”
Tom “Tridd” Underwood
When it was EndPoint’s turn to attack, Reason held at the same place EndPoint held. Instead of a few minutes of overtime skirmishing, EndPoint were cleaned up by Reason and they took the series to 1-1. The final map that advanced the winner to the finals was on King’s Row. Both teams had fairly even timing on this map. The final few moments of the game was make or break for Reason to advance to the grand finals.
Ultimately, Reason won the series by winning the final payload push with only a few seconds to spare.
This meant the loser bracket final was now EndPoint vs Gamers Origin. The first map was once again Numbani. After some very strong defending by both teams, GamersOrigin were able to take the map with a few seconds left.
The second map was on Hollywood. On this game EndPoint had a strong attack and really strong defence – and so tied the series. The final map was Nepal, where GamersOrigin had been known for strong play on King of the Hill maps. The different control points were held quite well by both teams and the series was brought to all five rounds on Nepal, but it was GamersOrigin that went through to the final.
The final
The final was between GamersOrigin and Reason Gaming. Reason had a 1-0 lead already by finishing in the finals through the upper bracket, which made things harder for GamersOrigin.
The first map was on Kings Row and Reason took that game with a fair bit of time to spare on their attack. The clutch match was map 2 on Hanamura. Both teams held very well on the first point, but Reason found their way into the enemy base with only 20 seconds left on the clock, Gamers Origin altered their capture progress as much as they could, but the series would end there – with Reason taking first place thanks to a strong 3-0!
Massive thank you to our sponsors this weekend for getting us here. @dinopcuk @DivisionZeroPro @esportsclothing ? pic.twitter.com/vRZqUWnc1e
— Reason Gaming (@ReasonGaming) August 29, 2016
MVP
From the comments Tridd gave eSports News UK about the tournament, we have to agree with Cwoosh as the tournamnet MVP. After experienceing it myself and watching him in the twitch vlogs, it make sense to make him the MVP. His clean ups and 1 v5’s were amazing. He nearly gave EndPoint the 2-0 win from one play in the upper bracket final and is just on his highlights from the tournament.
Caster Tom “Tridd” Underwood told eSports News UK: “The MVP of the tournament was CWoosh of Team EndPoint, purely for being in a league above his teammates. He forced Gamers Origin to focus him in his entirety and EndPoint’s success hindered on him being able to go off. One of the filthiest Genji players I have seen.
“The best match of the event was the loser’s bracket final (EndPoint vs Gamers Origin).”
Special mention
From the comments we received about GamersOrigin, we would to thank them for their sportsmanlike conduct.
Whether a win or loss, they walked around and made sure they shook hands with their opponents. As a foreign team new to this event, we would like to thank them for their behaviour and highlight it as a positive example.
Image credit: Multiplay
