REUNITED slammed compLexity to earn their spot in this match, while Rogue fought tooth and nail to overcome Cloud9. The two European powerhouses, whose last meeting in the Overwatch Open qualifiers saw Rogue win 3-1, clashed in the Winner’s Match with REUNITED the favourites. The victor would secure their spot in the knockout bracket of the Atlantic Showdown, the loser would go to face the best North American team in their group.

If you’re looking to get more familiar with the teams and understand their storylines, take a look at the viewer’s guide written yesterday for this tournament. The four teams in each group played in a GSL-style format, running a mini double-elimination bracket. Teams with two losses would be eliminated, while those with two wins would qualify to the knockout bracket.

Winner’s Match: REUNITED vs. Rogue

Dorado began with a very offbeat attempt from REUNITED. Their incredibly high-risk high-reward attempt to hold forward outside Dorado spawn left them scrambling after TviQ and uNKOE destroyed the hold. Swatting it away with a brush of contempt, Rogue sensed their opportunity to keep REUNITED on the back foot and pressed hard up the slope and into the courtyard. REUNITED lost position and had to fight with their backs against the wall, leading to another full team wipe and an incredibly quick time for checkpoint one. The ultimate advantage was rolled forward and Rogue stopped any defense being set up on the balcony at checkpoint two, looking dominant. At this point, it almost looked as if Rogue would do to REUNITED what they had done just prior to compLexity.

It was not to be though. REUNITED eventually got themselves back in the game with a block of the second checkpoint after 3 minutes and took position up top. Winghaven set up a great position to allow the payload to trickle backwards, then dropped down to annihilate both dps players from Rogue when they dared to cross into his territory. Rogue waited for all their players to spawn and poked until they could make their way unseen into bank; they then speed boosted and flanked all the way up behind REUNITED to attack from their exposed derriere. Rogue took the height advantage, dropped some damage, then dropped themselves onto the cart to finish off the fight.

At this point, the Rogue offense still looked good. They had taken the second checkpoint in five and a half minutes and had a range of ultimates to crack the REUNITED nut; aKm and team slammed their ultimates forward in succession to break the defenders back and forced spawners to dive onto the payload to block the final metre. REUNITED in desperation expended every support ultimate they could lay their hands on to hold the map past 7 minutes, and then positioned their flanks perfectly on the respawn to allow Winghaven to outplay Reinforce with the final two earthshatters. He dodged around the opposition and took out a swathe of Rogue’s rabblerousers, locking them out of the final checkpoint altogether. Despite a horrifically bad beginning to the map, REUNITED were able to stabilise perfectly and limit Rogue to 82.95m.

In order to give themselves the best chance at qualifying straight into the knockout bracket, Rogue had to block REUNITED from making it to the home stretch of Dorado. A hard ask for the team up against arguably the best side in Europe, a team that had just walked over top NA talent. But you can never count Rogue out.

Rogue defended the slope in a more controlled manner than against Cloud9, not allowing themselves to bleed down the slope and forcing REUNITED to engage. In contrast to the first half of the map, it took REUNITED the full time to break the first checkpoint as they constantly smacked their head against a brick-wall defense. With single seconds remaining REUNITED crawled across the line, then at a huge time disadvantage for the rest of the map.

Morte’s men had three minutes to clear the second checkpoint and almost took it in the first attempt. Kyb broke through and slayed uNKOE to remove Discord from the field, which allowed his team to take the high ground and contest the checkpoint. They got beaten back however and were unable to stop Rogue taking the height again. REUNITED replied by going up through hotel and instantly picked aKm, but TviQ made sure the team was not missing dps ability with some stellar Genji play - Rogue were able to hold completely in front of the second checkpoint and won Dorado.

Numbani was the pocket pick for REUNITED, a map that they used to favour themselves on highly. They began on attack with a team composition featuring D.Va, Winston, Tracer, and Genji, a high tempo offense with mobility. uNFixed began by piling into the tunnel and focusing on the enemy Zenyatta, but wasn’t effective on D.Va until he was able to come in at the end of the fight with a new suit. The rest of his team set up that return nicely to secure checkpoint A in just over one minute.

Once the payload started rolling, Rogue transitioned to a hyper-aggressive defense. Their constant teamfighting and staggering of spawns delayed REUNITED with TviQ on Tracer as a particular annoyance. After three more minutes REUNITED had still not capped the second checkpoint but eventually bunched up and made it through after 6 minutes. aKm continued to amaze, hitting a huge amount of damage and kills on McCree, but a key switch to Tracer from uNFixed caused mayhem at the final checkpoint and forced uNKOE to again save Rogue with a clutch transcendence to block the cart. REUNITED had one minute and a half to finish the map, and a final earthshatter from Winghaven seals the deal by catching three players - his team finishes in a coolly calculated 8:59.

As the sides swapped, Rogue tried a similarly aggressive attack with Winston. Unfortunately for them it didn’t draw enough eyes or find a target and appeared to be predicted and countered by a spread position from the REUNITED players. It took three minutes for Rogue to take the first checkpoint and another two minutes for them to take the first bend of the streets. REUNITED aimed to hold the second checkpoint for a long time in a repeat of TviQ’s performance but Rogue were ready and crushed their initiation to allow themselves an easy entry into the final area.

Kyb switched to Tracer as uNFixed picked up Reaper and they stormed the following teamfight without requiring any ultimates. This left Rogue with two and a half minutes to build up their position and ultimates, and win a teamfight. Winghaven immediately put stop to their machinations by hitting a four-man earthshatter and the next fight is picked apart by a pincer play from Vallutaja and uNFixed. Despite throwing bodies onto the cart in a final desperate attempt, Rogue were unable to capture in less than 8:59 and REUNITED take their pick, Numbani, to make the series 1-1.

REUNITED dressed to impress. Photo Credit: ESL

Rogue had been spreading whispers of their secret strategies at this event and one of them manifested in the next map, Hamamura. The teams had been grafting on this map recently according to Morte, and immediately the casters were rewarded with a Mei play from TviQ.

REUNITED spotted out TviQ’s shenanigans before he had had an impact and speed boosted through the door before an ice wall could block their path. They scurried up the stairs, all grouped together, but as soon as they dropped down to the point Mei and Zarya were waiting. TviQ continued to slam damage into REUNITED with the help of Discord, but when the defenses broke at the first point it was as if the floodgates opened. REUNITED were able to carry the momentum on perfectly to capture both points with 5 minutes left.

uNFixed surprised everyone with a Mei pick of his own, hiding around the corner and splitting up Rogue as they waddled through the door. They didn’t waste too much time in that first attack though and quickly came up with a plan, pushing their low-mobility heroes through first into the Mei and allowing the others to scale the wall behind. An instant focus onto uNFixed caught him out and allowed them to take the first point, but unlike REUNITED they couldn’t keep the momentum running. On defense Kruise switched off to Ana to control the high ground and build up a nanoboost, which he popped onto Winghaven to bunch up Rogue and facilitate the wipe. Rogue were left to pick themselves up, repush, and cap with three minutes remaining in the bank.

TviQ again played Mei on defense and Rogue were able to stabilise on the second checkpoint to defend with five ultimates. They were immediately forced to use them all due to intense pressure from REUNITED and still lost all of their players as REUNITED once again slammed the momentum home. Spawners arrived just in time to dive out of the door and block, and with 40 seconds remaining for REUNITED they got into position. In a flash, five players had fallen for both teams as winz and Vallutaja were left in a 1v1 on the point for the cap. winz hit some perfect direct Zarya bombs to beat out the McCree with 1hp remaining and REUNITED were blocked with a final score of 3.

Rogue needed to cap both points to win but instantly teamwiped on their first attempt, uNFixed once again running Mei with Kyb on Reaper this time. With 1 minute left, Rogue captured the first point and looked to roll their momentum forwards; Vallutaja was too strong on the long corridor though and with 40 seconds left Rogue swarm onto the point and force an overtime. The spawns start running slower and the overtime ticks faster as Rogue is stopped capturing and the game ends 3-3 on Hanamura with the series overall tied as well after three maps.

The random tiebreaker on Ilios favoured REUNITED as their pocket pick, but neither team was prepared to give any ground. REUNITED got an early capture with Vallutaja on Tracer and rolled it forward to an easy first round. On the Lighthouse stage, Rogue were able to find the better end of the first fight and fight from inside the point. REUNITED were able to recap and hold onto the point in a huge fight with multiple pulse bombs and graviton surges expended, but as they got to 97% Rogue regained control of the point; huge congested fights on the point kept the overtime going until REUNITED finally won the map. REUNITED took Ilios and the series in an unbelievable nail-biter to get through the groups and into the single elimination knockout bracket.