Overwatch World Cup Qualifiers: Quarterfinals are set with Paris and United Kingdom making the grade

With the last leg of Regional Qualifiers completed, the final eight Overwatch National teams have been drawn with the first and second seeds placed in different pools to fairly distribute the competition.

In the esports news of the past weekend, France made a statement in front of their home crowd as they achieved a perfect 5-0 match record, only dropping two games in the process. Even though Germany was the only real team that put up a fight against Les Bleus, United Kingdom kept consistent over the weekend and managed to qualify as the second seed of the group. As the fanfare subsides, the rest of the National Teams will have to kick it up a few gears to win what will be the most competitive World Cup to date.

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A French masterclass

France have once again made their case as one of the most dominant regions in all of Europe as they were able to cleanly run through their Group Stage opponents with little to no resistance. After being featured as an honorable mention on our Power Rankings last month, there’s a good chance France can impress and make an even deeper run this year if they can find a way to beat Team Canada.

Apart from their series against Germany, France made quick work of their opponents playing high pressure games. Running down the opposition with triple healer, triple tank combinations and forcing the hand of any team that dared to go strength for strength with them.

While their strategies for this group stage seemed rather one dimensional and recycled, Team France may just be holding their cards close before going against the stronger competition in the Knockout Stages.

London calling

Also making it out of Group D, United Kingdom quietly made their case as the second best team of the group with calculated performances over Germany, Italy and The Netherlands, only dropping one game over the course of those series.

While United Kingdom suffer from a lack of star power, the collective strength of their team is better than any individual part and it’s been interesting to see just how far they’ve been able to make it with teamwork alone. Boombox on main Support continues to be the anchor for this team as they will face even stiffer competition in November, starting with Team USA.

Quarterfinals madness

With the final eight teams drawn and decided, the question of ‘best Overwatch region in the world’ will soon be answered as South Korea, Finland, Team USA and Team Canada are all gunning for that coveted number one spot.

Although France looked more than impressive against their regional competition, Team Canada have been a cohesive unit for almost two years now and the general level of play across all six roles gives a slight advantage to the Canucks in this series.

China have looked revitalized with their new roster, but Finland are two degrees away from being the most dominant region in the world, let alone Europe. Their last series against South Korea, taking the World Cup winners to five games in a heated back and forth series gives Finland lots of hope to makes this World Cup the most successful one yet.

In a classic battle of the Atlantic, Team USA vs. Team United Kingdom will be a hyped up matchup given the ties between the two countries, but Team USA should come away from that series the victor given the plethora of experience they have in the Overwatch League.

Finally, the Oceanic daredevils of Australia will take on their biggest challenge yet as they try to slay the 30-foot behemoth that is South Korea. Even though Australia have a lot to build off of with promising players across all roles, South Korea should take this series cleanly as they look to defend their World Cup championship for another consecutive year.