Heading into the double-elimination playoffs stage of Agents Rising, the competition had already been whittled down to 16 teams. With a full day of BO3 games ahead of them, the teams prepared to give their all in North America’s first Overwatch LAN and take home a share of the $10,000 prize.

The day kicked off with Cloud9 and Team Liquid rolling through their first round games, but Liquid were pitted in the second round against the mix-team of GamerSensei - a potentially difficult early fixture. GamerSensei were able to win a number of team-fights and almost held Liquid off on Route 66, but Zomb’s Bastion defense was sublime as they switched, and heavily turned the map around. On Hollywood, Liquid looked strong and the DPS players shone through and carved GamerSensei up.

A plethora of rolls followed for the first and second rounds, with the majority of the weaker teams knocked down to the lower bracket. At this point in the tournament, the top seeded teams began to meet. First of them - Gale Force Esports vs. Still Here.

Gale Force Esports were the third seeded team at Agents Rising, with Still Here unseeded but filled with veteran Quake legends. Gale Force Esports were the favourites going into the match based on recent online results, but there was potential for a resurgence for Still Here. King’s Row kicked the game off, and Still Here had some excellent opportunities to drive home their attack; they kept squandering these opportunities however and couldn’t stop Shake from resurrecting the team in clutch situations despite amazing play from Rapha on Zarya. Gale Force successfully defended, and went on to attack with astounding speed with a shield-shredding strategy. On Hollywood, Still Here again won a number of team fights but were unable to even capture the first point due to completely ignoring a perfectly placed teleporter after a teamfight. Gale Force Esports looked very strong in their disposal of Still Here, and once again the Quake pros fell short in the strange new lands of Overwatch.

Winner’s Bracket Semi-Finals

The second of these large match-ups was Cloud9 against Colorado Clutch in the Winner’s Bracket Semi-Final, and was the first look at two seeded teams against each other (albeit #1 vs. #4). King’s Row once again started the series, with Clutch on attack attempting to push into Reaver’s incredible Widowmaker play. A triple McCree strategy managed to get enough damage to push the first point, and Clutch scaled back to two with Lui styling on his opponents to push the payload all the way home in a fairly average time of 6:48. Cloud9’s use of triple DPS and Zarya set them off to a great start, and Clutch seemed unable to even slow them down leading to a fast attack time wiping the floor with Clutch, and boosting Cloud9 to a 2-1 score.

The game went to Nepal next, where Cloud9’s deathmatch and teamplay took control, their opponents unable to deal with Surefour’s damage boosted Bastion on the first stage and his Genji on the second. Colorado Clutch put up the best fight against Cloud9 so far, and were fairly content with their performance in the Winner’s Semi but did get knocked to the Lower Bracket. Not a bad performance overall however for a team at their first ever tournament.

Picture credit: @EsportsArena

The other Winner’s Bracket Semi-Final saw a crazy match between Team Liquid and Gale Force Esports. Both of these teams were ready to fight tooth and nail for a chance to fight Cloud9 in the Winner’s Bracket Final.

Gale Force started on Hollywood again with a Torbjorn and Symmetra defense, holding very passively and relying on their sentries to split attention and do a lot of damage. They held on for quite a long time, putting the pressure on Liquid, but couldn’t hold a coordinated flank push after Nicolas and Harbleu were caught. For the second stage Tork switched over to Genji and did a great job at picking off Dahang, while Gale Force’s ultimates were used well just before the final area to block Liquid off and tick even more time away. With only a minute left to complete the map, a perfect flank from Harbleu, completely unseen on Reaper, ripped apart Liquid. Liquid spawned in time for one last effort, throwing everything they possibly could at the payload. Carnage ensued, with every ultimate and health point expended to try and finish the attack, but it wasn’t enough; Gale Force Esports defended successfully.

Liquid attempted a mirror defense with their own Torbjorn and Symmetra, and held for the same amount of time until they eventually succumbed to Nicolas’s Widowmaker picks. An odd decision to run Zenyatta without a DPS to synergise lost the second stage for Liquid, and Gale Force Esports rolled through into the last area with a two minute advantage. Zombs gave up the sniper rifle to move over to Bastion for the final defense, and with one minute left Gale Force Esports shoved in and forced out the resurrect, giving them a huge advantage for the final push. It wasn’t enough however - even with the extra resurrect they weren’t able to overcome the formidable defense and also failed to complete the attack on Hollywood, making the score 1-1.

King’s Row once again made a reappearance for map two, and Liquid destroyed the first capture point with double Winston and double McCree, capping in under a minute. Nicolas was forced to switch off Widowmaker to mirror the double McCree, and Gale Force began to slow down the payload with their own fantastic DPS players. A chaotic fight raged for multiple respawns just before the second cap, but once Liquid edged out that fight they picked up momentum and couldn’t be stopped. A big reply was needed to avoid Gale Force Esports slipping behind in the fixture.

Picture credit: @EsportsArena

Rather than attacking with a team composition designed to quickly engage and do damage, Gale Force went for a shield-melting build with Junkrat and Roadhog; although they weren’t lightning fast in their acquisition of the first point they slowly ground down the defense and captured in good time. It became tough for them to push once they reached the second cap, and as the payload slowed Liquid set up for a perfect post-resurrect setup to wipe Gale Force Esports twice in a row. The answer to this, apparently, was a triple McCree strategy. Unbelievable amounts of both sustained and burst damage was too much for Liquid to handle with their team composition. They respawned with a double D’va to counter, but it simply wasn’t enough. Gale Force Esports rode the payload home with their three McCrees like a great Western train robbery, but were robbed themselves of the final bonus point due to capturing just a few seconds slower than Liquid, and went into the final map Dorado 3-2 down.

On Dorado, Team Liquid had a fantastic forward defense at the first choke point, spamming their opponents out completely for almost five minutes. With 40 seconds left, Harbleu switched over to Winston in an attempt to deal with Zomb’s Widow, and Dahang got caught in a heart-breaking Deadeye to wipe the whole of Liquid without the safety net of a resurrect. Gale Force attempted to storm forward to the next checkpoint but were stunted once again with seconds left on the clock - no miracles this time. Liquid sealed the map and the game with their excellent defense, and moved on to face Cloud9 in the Winner’s Final.

Winner’s Bracket Final

The stage was set for a clash of North American titans in this fixture. So far the tournament had avoided all upsets - could Cloud9 complete the flawless Winner’s Bracket road to the Grand Finals by taking out Liquid? We went to Nepal first to find out.

Liquid made some questionable decisions with their team composition on the first stage; they started out with a Bastion which got annihilated in the very first team fight, and were unable to overcome the double McCree/Lucio comp from Cloud9 due to a lack of DPS and shield. Having thrown that round away, they pulled out a more classic composition for the second stage and started well, shredding tanks to cap the point to 50%. After some small tweaks from Cloud9 including a switch from Surefour onto Genji though, North America's best team were able to come back and recap, holding the point to win the map outright and progress to Numbani.

Numbani started with madness. Cloud9 set up a Torbjorn, Mei, and Symmetra on defense to hold the point itself, while Liquid pushed out with a D’va and Bastion in an attempt to barrel through with sheer tankiness and set up. This strategy on offense failed completely, and instead Vonethil swapped to Zenyatta, again for no discernible reason and to no apparent success. With time ticking down, Liquid switched up to a more classic composition but once again got stuffed in a flank. Liquid’s shoddy offense on Numbani seemed to be more of a “feeling-out” process than a real game, perhaps with IGL Vonethil just testing strategies for a potential rematch in the Grand Final. Either way it was a huge under-performance, and Cloud9 easily rolled through to take the second map and book their spot in the Grand Final.

Team Liquid were pushed into the Lower Bracket, where they would have to duke it out with the rest of the teams still in the tournament.