ASUS ROG Summer 2017 Viewer's Guide

Part of the legendary ASSEMBLY LAN series, the ASUS ROG Summer 2017 Overwatch tournament will be getting underway today at the Helsinki Exhibition and Convention Centre in Finland. Eight teams in total have been invited to compete for a slice of $9500, including two rosters of foreign invaders to battle the home-grown talent.

Those eight teams will initially be split into two GSL-style groups of four. Top two from each group will progress to the single elimination playoffs. All matches will be played as best-of-three up until the best-of-five final.

The title sponsor ASUS ROG has tactically provided that $9,500 USD (just enough to slip under Blizzard's licensing radar) to be distributed as follows:

1st: $5,000 USD

$5,000 USD 2nd: $2,500 USD

$2,500 USD 3rd-4th: $1,000 USD

The home crowd will be treated the casting talents of Tomi "Tombha" Rinne and Juha-Pekka "ZeiZei" Joutsenlahti on twitch.tv/assemblyow and on stage for those attending the event in person. For the rest of the world, or English-speakers at least, you can tune in at twitch.tv/rogtournament where Jason "no relation" Kaplan and Robert "hexagrams" Kirkbride will guide you through the carnage.

Schedule

It's not yet clear if the two streams will be used to cover the schedule clashes during the group stage or if some games will go unstreamed. We will update you as the information becomes available.

Thursday 3rd August

Friday 4th August

Teams

We are all too aware of our own shortcomings here at over.gg, so we reached out to our favourite Finnish casting god, Tombha, for some intel on the teams. We were just looking for a few pearls of wisdom, but what we didn't expect him to write the whole thing article for us. Within an hour he had gifted us a bounty of insights from the Finnish scene which you can find generously sprinkled below. What a legend!

Group A

Jeremy "Hqrdest" Danton (DPS)

Jeremy Danton (DPS) Jérémy "DixxyDix" Chaffraix (DPS)

Jérémy Chaffraix (DPS) Gael "Poko" Gouzerch (Flex)

Gael Gouzerch (Flex) Benjamin "BenBest" Dieulafait (Tank)

Benjamin Dieulafait (Tank) Damien "HyP" Souville (Support)

Damien Souville (Support) Martin "Noki" Cornet (Support)

GamersOrigin are the reigning kings of the vibrant French LAN scene. These veterans of offline events have taken 1st at DreamHack Tours, 3rd at Gamers Assembly, 1st at Montpellier and 1st at Gaming WinterFest already in 2017, earning over $10,000 in prize money.

However, that was before they recruited zYKK and DixxyDix in early June with aspirations of becoming a more effective dive team. Those roster changes saw them rampage to the final Contenders Season Zero's Open Qualifier #2, taking down RiP 2-1 on the way. Later in the main event's Group C they would face the Finns twice more, getting blown up 0-4 before delivering a 3-1 beatdown that almost eliminated RiP from the event.

Unfortunately for GamersOrigin, they had already sabotaged their own chances of making playoffs by that point. Finishing bottom of Group C, they were unable to earn a spot in Contenders Season 1 and, like many of Europe's top teams, have been largely quiet since.

The org tweeted out that ex-LDLC DPS Hqrdest will be standing in for zYKK for the event. His hitscan prowess and LAN experience should not be underestimated. Even with a stand-in GamersOrigin should be clear favourites in Group A.

Samuli "BAITO" Karppinen (DPS)

Samuli Karppinen (DPS) Richard "rCk" Kanerva (DPS)

Richard Kanerva (DPS) Roni "lhcloudy" Tiihonen (Tank)

Roni Tiihonen (Tank) Kalle "Cali" Ylönen (Flex)

Kalle Ylönen (Flex) Ville "Trickwide" Saastamoinen (Support)

Ville Saastamoinen (Support) Riku "Ripa" Toivanen (Support)

Tombha's thoughts: ENCE have had their own difficulties to find the best roster to play with, but after last spring they managed to find good squad of skilled players. The newest guys in team are Cali and rCk, who both showed their in-game intelligence at Vectorama-LAN. Their teamplay has also looked to be in good shape. I’m afraid that BAITO and Ripa will be the only couple who still keep running the PharaMercy combo in this tournament, but I hope to be proven wrong. I really encourage the viewers to look out for those moments when rCk takes Tracer or Genji because usually that is when things are about to get serious!

Fred "Eddy" Jõks (DPS)

Fred Jõks (DPS) Kristo "Yoko" Kivimägi (DPS)

Kristo Kivimägi (DPS) Roger "ThaPhoenix" Kikkas (Tank)

Roger Kikkas (Tank) Jan-Jako "Jannukaz" Passimägi (Flex)

Jan-Jako Passimägi (Flex) Aleksandr "ZiCdaMASTA" Smirnov (Support)

Aleksandr Smirnov (Support) Roven "Paandee" Jõekäär (Support)

You would be forgiven for thinking that Estonian Overwatch was a one-man scene comprised solely of eUnited's Hendrik-William "vallutaja" Kinks. However, Estonia's #1 team, Boom eSports, have braved the Gulf of Finland to make it to Helsinki.

We reached out to team captain, ZiCdaMASTA, to give us a rundown of their backstory and he really went for it! Read the complete history of Boom below:

I started playing Overwatch since open beta and found 5 Estonians who were interested in playing ESL tournaments. Time moved on and some people left and some people joined. In November came the first-ever OW LAN tournament in Estonia, TTÜ e-Sport Autumn 2016, and we joined with the first-ever official Estonian gaming organisation, Boom eSports. So we played under their team and won first place. After the tournament there were some roster changes and we competed in ESL tournaments like ESL Heroes, Go4OW, Rivalcade, etc... but we were not yet good enough to win them. Our second biggest achievement was winning the second LAN tournament in Estonia called Mängudeöö. We rolled over every Estonian team in qualifiers and in the main event, taking first place again. Then we won 3 ESL Heroes tournaments in a row (Tier 3 tournaments). We scrim a lot and try to get better and better. Now we don't feel any pressure versus Tier 2 teams and can give them a good challenge. Yes, we still lose sometimes, but we learn from our mistakes and are getting stronger every day.

With regards to the state of the Estonian Overwatch, ZiCdaMASTA offered, "[the Estonian scene] has its own community, Facebook group, website and Discord sever. We have a lot casual players. There are 3 teams, but we are the only one who are active. The other 2 teams are like academy teams for us. We've already recruited 3 different players from them."

"Sadly CS:GO is more popular here", he lamented, "we don't have tournaments here", before proudly saluting vallutaja as the biggest Estonian star and producing a photo of the man himself posing with the Boom boys at LAN.

On the subject of the impending tournament ZiCdaMASTA stated, "We are underdogs here, but we all are very hyped up and happy to play in the ASUS ROG Summer. We hope that we will surprise our enemies. We don't fear anyone and hope for close games." and felt they had made sufficient adjustments to deal with Doomfist and recent balance changes.

He went on to recommend that the viewers keep an eye on their DPS carries, Yoko and Eddy, "Expect plays from them". He also revealed that Boom had previously faced off against both Aces and hREDS, but wouldn't say much beyond that, modestly concluding "All I can say is that we did pretty good".

Rasmus "Kauko" Rajala (DPS)

Rasmus Rajala (DPS) Timi "Love" Saranpää (Tank)

Timi Saranpää (Tank) Tatu "Fishir" Rikala (Flex)

Tatu Rikala (Flex) Jaakko "Zagaz" Nippala (Flex)

Jaakko Nippala (Flex) Pauli "pave" Seppänen (Support)

Pauli Seppänen (Support) Antti "Anatec" Eskel (Support)

Tombha's thoughts: Rynnäkköviikset is an eSports organization founded in 2016. They are the academy team of SJK eSports, a Finnish football club from the city of Seinäjoki. In Finnish their name means “Assault Moustache”, but don’t let that fool you. These guys have really focused on their teamplay. At Vectorama-LAN, they managed to surprise everyone with just how much they have improved in such a short time. I expect they will want to get some revenge after their semifinal loss against Helsinki Reds at Vectorama. They just made some roster changes, bringing in Anatec to the line-up after their old support player nNeco stepped down to become fulltime coach and manager for the team. My MVP pick of the team has to go to Zagaz. A wise man once said "He protec, but he also attac" and that is what Zagaz is doing for his team with his excellent gamesense. He’ll just keep doing annoying D.Va shutdowns on the enemy hitscan players or clearing frontlines with Zarya in different situations. He’s always making it easy for his teammates to do their own jobs!

Group B

Tuomo "Davin" Leppänen (DPS)

Tuomo Leppänen (DPS) Jiri "LiNkzr" Masalin (DPS)

Jiri Masalin (DPS) Joonas "zappis" Alakurtti (Flex)

Joonas Alakurtti (Flex) Joona "Fragi" Laine (Tank)

Joona Laine (Tank) Aleksi "zuppehw" Kuntsi (Support)

Aleksi Kuntsi (Support) Benjamin "BigG00se" Isohanni (Support)

Benjamin Isohanni (Support) Jani "Seita" Paavola (Coach)

The team formerly known as Rest/Ninjas in Pyjamas has just been joined forces with Finland’s home electronics retailer, Gigantti. Two thirds of the roster recently represented Finland in the Sydney where they failed to qualify for the World Cup main event at BlizzCon. How much that will have impacted their preparations for LAN remains to be seen, but rest assured that on paper they are still favourites to take gold here in Helsinki.

Tombha's thoughts: Giga has been traditionally known as the team who dominated the tank meta in early seasons. After their beloved tanks were thrown in the trashcan the team was never really able to find heroes they were comfortable with playing. Now with this new roster including Davin, LiNkzr and BigG00se, I’m quite sure they can handle this new Doomfist dive meta better than ever before! I’m expecting to see some insane Genji plays from LiNkzr, so every Shimada-main should be on stream when Giga is going to play!

For the record, Tombha has been revealed the manager of Team Gigantti since he shared those thoughts. So be sure to let him know how RIGGED the tournament is in Twitch chat.

Jani "Exceed" Kosonen (DPS)

Jani Kosonen (DPS) Eemeli "Woomera" Ikonen (DPS)

Eemeli Ikonen (DPS) Roope "Ruape" Kurkela (Tank)

Roope Kurkela (Tank) Kaapo "Kryma" Laine (Flex)

Kaapo Laine (Flex) Miika "BBR" Tekoniemi (Support)

Miika Tekoniemi (Support) Ville "prettyWise" Mikkonen (Support)

Tombha's thoughts: Helsinki REDS is operated by a limited company based in Finland and owned by HIFK-Hockey Ab, which also operates the professional ice hockey club IFK Helsinki. One of the biggest and most traditional sports brands in Finland, IFK Helsinki is the first in the country to venture into eSports. These guys used to dominate the Finnish Overwatch scene with impressive teamplay, but lately we saw at Vectorama that their individual skills have started to get little bit rusty. One reason for that might have been due to their latest roster changes when they picked up Kryma on flex and moved prettyWise to support. Now we will have to wait and see what they have come up with after a longer period of training with Kryma. I personally prefer to check out Exceed’s aim when he is playing Widowmaker - he usually manages to get some awesome flicks with her sniper rifle!

Sami "Astt" Kuortesaho (DPS)

Sami Kuortesaho (DPS) Samuli "baba" Vento (DPS)

Samuli Vento (DPS) Jussi "twidi" Tiipiö (Tank)

Jussi Tiipiö (Tank) Toni "tonder" Rehn (Flex)

Toni Rehn (Flex) Miku "perry" Airaksinen (Support)

Miku Airaksinen (Support) Petja "tappomasa" Kantanen (Support)

Petja Kantanen (Support) Sami "sami" Ferm (Manager)

We covered the announcement of this new organisation and roster earlier in the week. The upset potential is very real.

Tombha's thoughts: This team is going to be the dark horse of the tournament. Their name comes from the Kalevala, epic Finnish poetry and mythology where Nyyrikki is known as the Finnish God of Hunting. This line-up has REALLY huge individual skill potential, but no one knows how long they have been scrimming with this roster. There is not that much to say as this team got announced only a few days ago! My personal MVP pick would got to twidi due to his long history in professional teams, but some other names may come up too, like perry who is dominating the leader boards with his insane solo Q Lucio plays and great in-game leading.

Roope "Ronski" Somero (DPS)

Roope Somero (DPS) Tomi "Thedesolator" Karhinen (Tank)

Tomi Karhinen (Tank) Timo "Ashieli" Korkeakoski (Flex)

Timo Korkeakoski (Flex) Chris "KarvaRausku" Räisä (Flex)

Chris Räisä (Flex) Timi "MrHamster" Sillman (Support)

Timi Sillman (Support) Janne "Zhaipaa" Nuoristo (Support)

Tombha's thoughts: Porin Ässät (Finnish for Pori Aces) is another traditional Sports Club known for their ice hockey club based in the town of Pori, Finland. Their Overwatch roster formerly played under the name REAKT. They might struggle to find their basic performance level as their main support Tipi is unable to attend the event. Their old friend Zhaippa has come to rescue the Aces, having been on that REAKT starting roster a long time ago! In my opinion, Aces most valuable player is without a doubt KarvaRausku. His Tracer has won many team fights for Aces almost single-handedly and it’s always entertaining to watch some of his slippery escapes from tough situations.

Once again, a huge thanks to Tombha for his insights.