I have been asked a lot how the Overwatch competitive scene is doing and how to keep up with it. With the Overwatch open halfway through the qualifier series I figured now was as good of time as any to write a short article to answer those questions and go into a little detail on the tournament itself.

There are a few different tournaments going on in professional Overwatch. The main two being the GosuGamers Weekly and the Overwatch Open, for right now I am going to focus on the Open. I will leave a link at the end of the article if you would like more information on the GosuGamers Weekly.

Structure

The Overwatch Open is structured a little differently from what we are used to in eSports. It makes a lot of sense when you remember how early into the games cycle we are, but it’s still weird. The first four week(end)s of the tournament are region specific and completely open to any teams wanting to compete. These four weekends are all to see who gets into the main tournament at the end. Each qualifier weekend is done with online matches and is a massive tournament on its own, going from 128/256 teams down to one winner. The winner of each qualifier is automatically put through to the regional playoffs. The top 32 teams each week receive ranking points, at the end of the four qualifiers the top 12 teams make it into the regional playoffs. At the end of the regional qualifiers there will be a 16 team regional playoff. The top four teams of each region will make it to the Grand finals to compete for $300,000.

Current Standings

As I said, we are currently two weeks into the qualifiers, so here are the current top teams in each region.

North America

Week 1 Winner ENVYUS

Week 2 Winner Cloud9

Current rankings MixUp: 36 Points TSM: 30 Points Sodipop: 16 Points Splyce: 16 Points Fnatic: 14 Points Team Liquid: 14 Points 1Shot: 12 Points Selfless: 12 Points NGR: 10 Points ClutchGG: 8 Points PRGN: 8 Points Sea Algea: 8 Points



Europe

Week 1 Winner Misfits

Week 2 Winner Rogue

Current rankings ANOX: 30 Points Reunited: 30 Points Creation eSports: 28 Points LG: 22 Points NIP: 16 Points Prets: 12 Points Aera: 8 Points Bringos: 8 Points Melty: 8 Points OT: 8 Points OWKings: 8 Points Weunited: 8 Points



When and Where

The next two qualifiers will be played on August 6-7th and 13-14th. The NA regionals will be played September 25-26th, followed by the EU regionals 28-29th. Grand finals will immediately follow the regionals and be played September 30th. Both the regionals and the grand finals will be held live at the ELEAGUE Arena in Atlanta, GA. All live tournaments will be shown on TBS and Twitch. However, the qualifier tournaments will only be shown on Twitch.

For more information visit: Overwatchopen.com

To watch the tournament live: twitch.tv/overwatchopen

If you are interested in learning more about the GosuGamers Weekly, check out their Overwatch page at gosugamers.net/overwatch.