FaZe Clan and FNRGFE keep It close while 123 go 4-0 in Overwatch Contenders: Day Two

Aug 21, 2017

Day two of the Overwatch Contenders continued with its array of upsets as things didn’t go quite as planned for some of the league’s favorites. Let’s take a look at what went down as the first week came to an end.

Europe

123 (1-0) vs Team Singularity (0-1)

Nepal – 123

Eichenwalde – 123

Hanamura – 123

Dorado – 123

Heading into Season One I wasn’t entirely confident about 123 matching up against the other European contenders. This is a team that finished strong in Season Zero, taking second place in the playoffs before falling to eUnited. Their recent additions of Finnbjörn “Finnsi” Jónasson (Movistar Riders) and Hafþór “Hafficool” Hákonarson (Ninjas With Attitude), albeit fantastic players, had limited time to practice with their new teammates. With that, any doubts were quelled without a second thought upon immediate entry onto Nepal.

It was 123’s Simon “snillo” Ekström, Finnsi, and Hafficool as a collective unit that Team Singularity struggled to get a grip on throughout the set. This dynamic trio made the lives of their opponents miserable. The moment they finally found a way to deal with Finnsi’s Soldier: 76, snillo would come through with the backline harassment, keeping them on their back foot one engagement after another.

123 came into their match looking to establish themselves as one of Europe’s best and they certainly showed it from the start. I believe their new changes take an extraordinary amount of pressure off of snillo, truly allowing for him to shine because their opponents have to attempt to deal with multiple DPS players who provide a real threat. Look for this team to make waves in the coming weeks as I don’t believe many teams will have the rosters to deal with this team.

Team Singularity has been a long-standing team in Europe and with no substitutes listed on their roster, they’ll have to take a hard look at their performance this weekend. With that in mind, Singularity progressively got better throughout each of their games. Their match with GamersOrigin next week won’t be as tough, giving some time for them to clean things up.

GamersOrigin (1-0) vs Bazooka Puppiez (0-1)

Oasis – GamersOrigin

Numbani – GamersOrigin

Hanamura – Bazooka Puppiez

Dorado – GamersOrigin

GamersOrigin was yet another case of wondering what to expect heading into Season One. Their lackluster performance in Season Zero came as a massive bust, finishing last in their group and racking up a 7-17 overall record. Like many others, GamersOrigin ushered in a wave of new players with Lucas “Leaf” Loison”, Jeremy “Hqrdest” Danton, and Richard “PiPou” Buscemi, two of which are DPS players. Not often do we see such a massive transition with two DPS players, which quite often are the make or break for teams.

Doomfist made his way into the series once again as GamersOrigin clearly noticed his potency from day one. It’s evident teams are struggling to find a way to deal with him and with Hqrdest flexing over to McCree, there was no answer from Bazooka Puppiez due to this team’s unmatched synergy.

Bazooka Puppiez are coming off of a top four finish in Season Zero, making one adjustment with Jacob “PsychoWaffle” Oyer joining up from the United States. They feature a strong lineup with plenty of experience across the board, but we’re not seeing any of the players take up the mantle and stand out from the rest.

A valiant effort through and through from Bazooka Puppiez as taking a map in the set shows the potential they have, despite it being an assault map. A map victory will help them in any tiebreaker scenario at the end of the season, but falling to GamersOrigin isn’t a great look. Things will only get tougher moving into week two as they’ll need to step it up if they want to take down 123.

Current Standings

Team	Series	Individual Games
Misfits	1-0	4-0
123	1-0	4-0
Team Gigantti	1-0	3-1
GamersOrigin	1-0	3-1
eUnited	0-1	1-3
Bazooka Puppiez	0-1	1-3
Team Singularity	0-1	0-4
Cloud9	0-1	0-4

North America

Kungarna (1-0) vs Renegades (0-1)

Lijiang Tower – Kungarna

King’s Row – Kungarna

Volskaya Industries – Kungarna

Watchpoint: Gibraltar – Kungarna

It was a tale of disappointing performances from Renegades. Renegades began the day with substitute Nathan “xRetzi” Telen taking the starting position over Christopher “J3sus” Pavloff. It wasn’t ideal for Renegades fans, but xRetzi has an abundance of experience due to his time spent with Rise Nation over the past year.

Right from the start it was Kungarna showing they came to the Overwatch Contenders ready to play. Kungarna’s ability to talk themselves up is nothing new, but backing it up with a stellar performance was impressive as all six members showed they put in the work during the off-season. It certainly doesn’t help that Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo had a relatively underwhelming performance on Doomfist on the first map. The playstyle was unlike other Doomfists from earlier in the weekend who had tremendous synergy with their counterparts.

With that in mind, ZachaREEE only showed this pick on Lijiang Tower, so I don’t believe this was the takeaway from Renegades’ performance. Kungarna continued to find an edge with their willingness to adapt, moving Michael “mykL” Padilla from Tracer to Doomfist and over to Genji all within the span of a single map. Normally this sort of hero movement would imply they’re looking for a solution, but I think they have such a wide array of compositions to choose from in the current meta that they can truly do what they want.

Now for the real question: how in the world did Renegades let these matches slip away? There were moments of greatness in this match from Renegades. Liam “Mangachu” Campbell kept their hopes alive from Hanzo to Zarya and over to Reaper, but nothing seemed to be enough to pull out a win in a single game. Their numerous advantageous positions on King’s Row and Volskaya Industries should have given way for a possible tiebreaker match.

Credit to Kungarna for winning the 4-0 set, but Renegades left the door wide open to walk through on a couple of these maps. I could keep with the regular “it’s early in the season and tough to tell where teams are headed”, but when teams giveaway games they had in their control, it can be tough to gauge where they are headed. I expected Renegades to step it up next week against a struggling Rogue team.

FaZe Clan (1-0) vs FNRGFE (0-1)

Nepal – FaZe Clan

Numbani – FaZe Clan

Volskaya Industries – FNRGFE

Watchpoint: Gibraltar – FaZe Clan

Heading into the final match of the day, I was expecting FaZe Clan and FNRGFE to match up relatively well against one another. Both teams are coming into this season with impressive lineups with FaZe Clan adding Lee “Carpe” Jae-Hyeok to the list on Koreans in the North American Overwatch Contenders.

This series consisted of several slow and steady maps with FaZe narrowly squeaking out three wins in the process. Easily the closest series of the weekend, both teams showed they are capable of moving into the playoffs in October, but neither had the spark of dominance you’d like to see from a potential champion by the season’s end.

FaZe’s George “ShaDowBurn” Guscha is often referred to as the world’s best Genji, but decided to give Doomfist a chance against FNRGFE. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite what many had hoped for as he kept true to his Genji nature throughout the rest of the series to help give his team the edge.

Despite the loss, FNRGFE had plenty of plays to go around from both Casey “Buds” McIlwaine and Matt “Clockwork” Dias, continuously keeping FaZe on their toes with their respective Genji and Tracer duo. I’m expecting this team to only improve as this season continues as they stunned us with their Season Zero performance with their limited time to prepare. They meet a tough match in Kungarna in week two, but I wouldn’t put it past them to find a way to pull through.

Lastly, for FaZe Clan, it was a tough, well fought victory on their end. I had originally predicted a sixth-place finish for this team, but things turned out to have shaped up rather nicely with Carpe on the team. Carpe will have to continue to step up for the team to relieve some pressure off of ShaDowBurn if they want to continue to find success.

Current Standings

Team	Series	Individual Games
Team EnVyUs	1-0	4-0
Kungarna	1-0	4-0
FaZe Clan	1-0	3-1
EnVision Esports	1-0	3-1
FNRGFE	0-1	1-3
Rogue	0-1	1-3
Renegades	0-1	0-4
Immortals	0-1	0-4