The Overwatch Winter Premiere is currently underway and it has been definitely an event worth watching.

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For the first time, Next Generation Esports has partnered up with Blizzard to bring about an NA tournament from December 10th to the end of January. During this time, teams from all over North America will battle for the $100,000 prizepool. This tournament features multiple rounds of play, with the opening qualifiers currently underway.

The first phase of the tournament features the open qualifiers that allow teams two methods to advance. Over four days, four seperate Open Qualifiers are being played with the winners directly qualifying for the next phase. Four more spots are given to those teams that accumulated the most points during those days, by winning and getting as far as possible. Three of these have already been played, with the fourth scheduled for later today.

The first qualifiers showed intense competition between Complexity, Kungarna, Kingdom eSports, and FaZe Clan who, together, eliminated the rest of the competition earlier in the day. In the first semi-final, Kungarna’s Connor “ConnorJ” Johnson showed amazing accuracy as Roadhog delivering a powerful blow against Complexity winning the first semi-final 2-0. The steamroll through Complexity was a product of Kungarna showing strong teamwork as all six players showed up playing as a cohesive unit and never lacking any communication.

To determine Kungarna’s opponent, the second semi-final was played between Kingdom eSports and FaZe Clan. It was interesting to see Kingdom Esports play, having recently picked up Mark “Pookz” Rendon and Daniel “Gods” Graser who had left NRG after the Blizzcon World Cup. The match was close, but Kingdom Esports took the victory on Watchpoint: Gibraltar. Kingdom Esports demonstrated amazing teamwork as they proceed to fight Kungarana for the automatic seed into the round of eight.

Even though both Kungarna and Kingdom Esports illustrated good teamwork in their respective games, it was Kingdom who came out on top with a clean 3-0 sweep. Even though Kungarna lost, the team and name has come as a pleasant surprise and has continued to perform well.

Day 2 of the tournament did not disappoint with Cloud 9 showing dominance as the top North American team. With their first match against Complexity, Cloud 9 swept with a 2-0 in both Ilios and King’s Row. Cloud9’s  Lucas "Mendokusaii" Håkansson set up many team wipes with precise Graviton Surges with Zarya sealing Cloud9’s place in the Day 2 finals.

Cloud9’s opponent Fnatic has been showing great play on the road, almost winning the Dreamhack Winter Overwatch Championship. Unfortunately, the constant travelling may have caused the team some fatigue which was shown in their performance against Team Liquid. Fnatic would start off strong, but as the map went on their team would start to deteriorate. Fnatic would eventually outplay Team Liquid on the third map, King’s Row, which got them to the finals.

In Day 2’s final between Cloud9 and Fnatic, Cloud9 was able to burst through Fnatic’s defence with a decisive 3-1 victory and a spot in the round of eight.

With half the qualifiers already over, Day 3's tension was high for most teams playing. This included Complexity who had already played in the finals of Day 1 and lost to Kungarna. After a long day, Complexity made their second appearance in the finals against Luminosity. With great picks and better teamwork compared to how they were in Day 1, Complexity was able to take the match 2-1 against LG.

So far the teams that have advanced (and are likely to qualify through their point totals) are as follows:
 

  • Kingdom Esports (Qualified)
  • Cloud 9 (Qualified)
  • Complexity (Qualified)
     
  • Kungarna 120
  • Team Liquid 110
  • Fnatic 100
  • Luminosity 100
  • Immortals 80
  • FaZe Clan 80
     

Tune in later today (5:30 PM PST), at https://www.twitch.tv/overwatch_nge, to watch the final Open Qualifier conclude.

For more competitive Overwatch news, follow @GosuOverwatch.