Recap: REUNITED vs. Rogue - Grand Final ESL Atlantic Showdown

With the most dominant team in the world firmly out of the picture, the title of the champion of the Atlantic Showdown and the lion's share of the $100,000 prize pool was up for grabs. After Rogue dismantled EnVyUs in a crazy upset, they met REUNITED again. The top European team had powered through the group stages, beating Rogue on the way, and overcoming Fnatic in the Semi-Final.

One best-of-five match remained for both of these two teams. Both European, both legends. Rogue had won TakeOver, albeit with REUNITED notably absent, and placed second at the Acer Pro Challenge LAN to a team already knocked out. They had won the most recent head-to-head before this tournament in the Overwatch Open qualifiers, but apart from that match, REUNITED had not lost in a month.

As the #1 ranked European team, REUNITED had been on a hot streak for weeks, and had also narrowly edged out Rogue in the group stages of this very tournament in a best-of-three. Would REUNITED be able to continue their dominance and beat down their upstart rivals again? The stage was set for an incredible all-European showdown.

Title, money, and trophy up for grabs. Photo Credit: ESL

The random selection of Hollywood fit Rogue perfectly to begin. As the first map that they won in their last final against REUNITED, Hollywood favoured Rogue's creative strategy-making. Having already seen TviQ pull out some interesting heroes, REUNITED were instantly having to adapt to a map pick advantage.

Rogue kept it classic on the defense however as they knew they'd be facing Kyb on Genji, but got wiped out in the first attempt and checkpoint one fell in one minute. Rogue looked shaky to begin with but quickly stabilised behind Reinforce's shield. They couldn't find a favourable teamfight however in the first three minutes until TviQ finally got a nice dragon blade off with help from aKm's deadly sniping accuracy.

With the confidence of a successful teamfight behind them, Rogue began to find themselves and turn the thumbscrews, winning multiple battles over the next three minutes to delay REUNITED significantly before checkpoint two. Further harassment as they came through the final tunnel stalled REUNITED out for even longer, and Rogue timed their ultimates perfectly to stagger their spawns and make sure they kept the game alive until the entire time ran out. Nevertheless, REUNITED were able to push the cart so far that Rogue would have to capture the final checkpoint to win.

On attack Rogue failed only a single attack before winz was able to get onto the point as a fully charged Zarya and locked out the area with excellent photon shield placement and some great deathmatch. Almost immediately afterwards his team got stuck horrifically at the beginning of the streets though and failed seven teamfights in a row. Eventually after three whole minutes of literally feeding into REUNITED, winz switched off to Winston and their engagement with a speedboost and a dropping monkey bought enough space for a dragon blade to wipe the defenders.

Two and a half minutes to finish the map - exactly the same as REUNITED had had before them. Rogue, with their Reinhardt/Winston rather than Zarya, played hyper-aggressively with their tank and dps players to push the payload instantly towards the end at the cost of a team wipe. With one minute remaining it was becoming desperate for Rogue but they were able to burst into the final area with every player and pop off a string of excellent plays to secure themselves the win on Hollywood.

*Rogue focused on victory. Photo Credit: ESL

As a map that they had beaten Rogue on earlier in the day and one they classically have favoured, Ilios was the obvious solution for Morte's boys. On both Ruins and Lighthouse they had won with 100%-0% in their previous tiebreaker, but Rogue were chomping at the bit, desperate to prove they were better than that.

On Well, a stage that hinges on great interplay between tanks, Winghaven and uNFixed were a backbone for their team as they took an early lead and managed to keep on top of it despite fierce resistance from Rogue's aKm on Reaper. As it neared the end of the map aKm truly went insane, finding kills that he had no business getting and sending his team into overtime. REUNITED had one last fight to recap and take the map as both teams ended in overtime, and a perfectly timed graviton surge and pulse bomb combo from winz and TviQ made it look as if they'd stolen it. The spawners for REUNITED dived in, powered by pure desperation, and the overtime continued for another minute before Kyb and Vallutaja finally manged to clutch it for their team.

It took everything from REUNITED to win the first round on their home pick and they had to maintain that level going into Lighthouse. They took the first fight after Vallutaja output a massive amount of damage and held on to tick themselves up to 50%. As the timer continued to roll up to 99% Rogue just managed to squeeze out a teamfight, but holding onto the point for 100 seconds without a single lost teamfight was a hard ask. REUNITED had all the time needed to engineer a player and ultimate advantage to take the point and go up 2-0.

Ruins had the potential to be the final stage of Ilios but Rogue started well with an initial capture after focusing down Kyb. REUNITED instantly replied with their Tracer/Genji combo to recapture the point and as it was traded over the next few minutes the two teams looked dead level. A masterclass of distraction and dodging from Kruise was unfortunately not enough and Rogue put their first point on the board.

Despite a better showing than their previous Greek experience, REUNITED took them on a tour of the sites and showed them exactly why they were crowned the kings of Ilios on the next stage, Well. Finally converting their map into a point on the scoreboard, Kruise shotcalled his team to a fluid victory and tied up the series 1-1.

REUNITED come straight back. Photo Credit: ESL

After their game against EnVyUs, Reinforce admitted that they had expected to take Dorado against the top North American team. Rogue obviously felt that they could step up against their European rivals, especially having seen them play against Fnatic and studied their positions.

REUNITED attacked out of the gates without a Reinhardt, putting Winghaven onto Winston for a high tempo offense. Throwing individual players into the backline, they met TviQ on Reaper and all got sent back to spawn. After three minutes of attacking they broke through but were still held back by Rogue from balcony; aKm continued to play expertly with his regular McCree play as well as getting the maximum value from deadeye.

With six minutes gone, REUNITED still couldn't get near to the second checkpoint. They switched uNFixed over to Reaper and jumped as deep as possible with their three dps ultimates to finally push the cart across the line. The momentum cannot travel any further though and Rogue are able to tick the time down into the final minute with five ultimates live on their team. Reinforce whiffed his earthshatter and had to flee, prompting KnOxXx to pop off a badly timed sound barrier and everything began to fall apart for Rogue. Just in the situation where it looked best for their team, Rogue let a single fight slip and end up giving up the map in 8:53 rather than stopping them dead.

REUNITED, in a haunting mirror of their previous failed forward defense, began the map in hyper-aggressive positions. As the memories flooded back of how badly Rogue made them pay last time and the players realised the gravity of the situation, they slowly slinked back and held in a more classic fountain position. While understandable and possibly even wise, it ended up terribly for REUNITED as they gave Reinforce and winz too much room and were rolled backwards.

Vallutaja put up his own masterclass in McCree from the high ground around the second checkpoint as REUNITED denied the attack repeatedly. With four minutes ticked off the clock Rogue were in a slightly better position than their opponents had been, but similarly were struggling to take the second checkpoint against the Reinhardt/Winston combo and McCree.

With two and a half minutes left Rogue were able to batter through the defensive wall and had another mountain to climb. A great aggressive play from winz pinned five of REUNITED's players in the back room and allowed his team perfect positioning; despite going down for his efforts he respawned in time to help at the end of the fight and pick up both Kyb and Vallutaja. There was no chance for REUNITED to recover after a lost teamfight so close to the end and Rogue slammed the payload across the line with under a minute to go.

Atlantic Showdown nears its finale. Photo Credit: ESL

The pure joy was visible on Reinforce and TviQ's face as they went to their first of two match - and tournament - points. Their first opportunity was on King's Row, a true classic.

Rogue began on defense with a truly classic team composition as well, but Kyb pulled out the bow and arrow. A great hook over onto Reinforce secured them an early pick, but Rogue's awareness was excellent as they realised they had to take the fight to the attackers to avoid creating an opportunity. As the fight became more messy it looked to have gone the way of Rogue, but a burst of headshots from Kyb and Vallutaja smacked down the fortifications and gave REUNITED control of the cart.

At this point, Rogue showcased their aggressive defense and repeatedly boosted back into REUNITED to win teamfights and delay in the streets. The coordination was exemplary every time from KnOxXx and the rest of his team, keeping them pinned back to the shop after as much as six minutes had passed. By bashing their head against the wall repeatedly REUNITED eventually made their way through however, making the most of their one opportunity to push the cart a huge amount in the following minute.

With Winghaven outplaying Reinforce a couple of times toward the end of the eighth minute, the rest of REUNITED were able to capitalise on the space bought and players knocked to the floor to take the attack in 8:11 - a long time for sure, but both beatable and defendable.

Reinforce redeemed himself immediately with a perfect pin onto Morte and Rogue had a great chance to win their first fight. Winghaven and Vallutaja picked out players who hadn't quite positioned themselves effectively to return the fight back into their hands though and REUNITED hold strong for the beginning at least. It didn't last long though as aKm weaseled his way into the back lines and opened up space for TviQ's dragon blade to slice up the opposition. In under two minutes Rogue had taken control of the first checkpoint.

In the streets, there appeared to be an unwritten agreement for both teams to expend every ultimate as quickly as possible. An enormous teamfight was decided in part by a play from winz who captured a few pets in his graviton surge and proceeded to serve them for supper. Contrasted with Rogue's proactive hold of the streets phase, REUNITED sat passive and tried to raise an impenetrable barrier but they were brushed aside by the tsunami of talent in the Rogue roster.

With nearly four minutes to push it through one final bend, Rogue could smell the tournament victory. As the feel of the win pushed them to further and further lengths, Rogue became unstoppable and delivered their payload home. Like the inexorable flow of a rock being swept along by a mighty river, Rogue took their place as the winners of the Atlantic Showdown and the champions of the global Overwatch scene.

The match had been almost exactly a repeat of the maps and outcome of the Overwatch Open qualifier three weeks earlier. Despite being on a different patch with different strategies and an increased level of pressure, Rogue was again able to win on Hollywood and Dorado, with REUNITED again able to take Ilios. While the deciding map last time was Route 66, this time it was King's Row, showing that Rogue's preparation and their understanding of the game was enough for them to dominate on a deep map pool.

Rogue were worthy champions of ESL Atlantic Showdown, having dethroned both EnVyUs and REUNITED, and took their place as the first victors of a global LAN championship.

For the other seven teams, they now have time to lick their wounds and prepare harder than ever for the rematch in the Overwatch Open - for three times the money.