StriveWire Monthly Overwatch Brawl announced

A new regular tournament has hit the European Overwatch scene. The inaugural StriveWire Monthly Overwatch Brawl has been announced, featuring some of the top teams in Europe competing over two days for €350. While the prizemoney seems low, the competition is not - this tournament will be a great show of the best up-and-coming European teams.

Throughout the dry period for European Overwatch, community figures behind the scenes have been working to kickstart a regular tournament series that can grow sustainably. The first Monthly Brawl is a 16-team tournament with GSL group stages and single-elimination playoffs, running over Saturday and Sunday, 4th - 5th February.

The 16 teams, listed below, will be split into four groups of four. GSL-style double elimination groups will commence on Saturday, 4th February at 16:00 CET. The top two teams from each group will progress to play in single-elimination playoffs starting Sunday, 5th February at 16:00 CET.

All matches, both in groups and in the eight-team playoff, will be best-of-three. Control maps will be played as best-of-five in regular series, with predetermined Control tiebreakers played as best-of-three; for matches in the upper bracket the decider map will be Lijiang Tower, while in the lower bracket it will be Nepal. Further rules can be found on the StriveWire page here.

Some of the best teams in Europe will be playing in the Monthly Brawl such as The Chavs, Dignitas, LDLC, and Grand Danois. Notably however the current big three in Europe are absent; Rogue, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and ex-REUNITED are not participating. All three have barely played any matches in over two months, choosing perhaps to build up their strength for large tournaments.

Due to the lack of tournaments in Europe over the last two months, it is unknown whether the gap between these three top teams and the rest of the competition is as wide as it once was. Player reports indicate that various tier-two teams present in the Brawl deserve respect, making Europe potentially more competitive than ever.

Interestingly the Monthly Brawl is sponsored, alongside title sponsor StriveWire, by community member Izzy and a UK organisation looking to break into Overwatch, Feenix. Alastair Whitham from Feenix said to Dom Sacco of Esports News UK:

We are sponsoring the tournament while we don't have an official team. We get to still support European Overwatch while it's still ethical! I've been watching the Overwatch scene recently and with the ESL Premiership being quietly closed, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to help kickstart something that should be good. We do plan to pick up a team, but in my eyes it'd be unethical to sponsor both a tournament and a team.

Prize Distribution

1st. €350

2nd. €150

Teams

The Chavs

The Chavs Grand Danois

Grand Danois LDLC

LDLC Dignitas

Dignitas GamersOrigin

GamersOrigin OW.QQ

OW.QQ Oslo Lions

Oslo Lions b0nkers

b0nkers Sydioda

Sydioda ex-TORNADO.ROX

ex-TORNADO.ROX nerdRage

nerdRage Pale Golden Rod

Pale Golden Rod A Tribe Called Balek

A Tribe Called Balek SOLAR

SOLAR Elysium

Elysium ALTERNATE aTTaX

EDIT: ex-REUNITED have now replaced A Tribe Called Balek.

Broadcasts