In an unbelievably close match between the two best teams in Europe, Misfits found the edge over Rogue to win in a gruelling 3-2 fashion. The two teams stepped their play up to the next level and every map was on a knife edge, but Misfits are the European champions and go on to face EnVyUs in the Grand Finals.

Rogue had an emotional battle to get to the EU Finals. They had to perform a reverse sweep to come back against FaZe and had to step up into another gear to win. Whilst unexpected it didn’t appear to be due to worse play by Rogue and by the fourth and fifth map they had begun to look incredible. Misfits were the team that overcame NiP with their cohesive teamplay and strong backbone. Both teams had proven they could clutch victory from the jaws of defeat and had shown some superstar talent on their rosters.

Misfits lost to Rogue earlier in the groups, but the experiences of the tournament had changed both teams. The map elimination got rid of all Control maps and started the match off on King’s Row. From there, the losers would pick from Route 66, Gibraltar, Hollywood, and Eichenwalde.

Misfits vs. Rogue. Image credit: ELEAGUE

Rogue had already shown themselves to be incredible on three of the maps in their previous fixtures. This was going to be a hard task for Misfits to take on the Atlantic Showdown champions.

King’s Row

Misfits started on attack with Nevix on Mei against TviQ. Unlike in previous fixtures Nevix was facing a Mei with as much star talent as himself and the difference came down to the tanks. Despite the best attempts of Rogue’s tanks and some great play, Kryw just did far more damage in the fight and got a really early Graviton Surge to catch the defense off-guard and take the point.

In the streets winz’ Graviton was negated perfectly by the Misfits squad, making it look a bonus for their team to be all bunched up in a black hole. Rogue threw an Earthshatter in there to try and save the fight but a counter Blizzard from Nevix caught two and opened up the streets for a quick capture. Misfits couldn’t take it all the way into the final bends but left themselves with over three minutes to crack last.

A repush from a wipe let Misfits come around the final bend and they got very close to finishing with a black hole and Blossom. Rogue successfully cleared them again though and pushed back up, forcing a Sound Barrier and Nanoboosted Reinhardt to come back towards the end. As Rogue players flooded out of spawn desperately trying to stall for time they were battered back by ryb and Kryw. Misfits took the attack in overtime.

TviQ tried a Hanzo play, a hero he had seen success with in the previous game against FaZe. Rogue got a ton of poke damage and forced Misfits out, but Kryw felt able to re-engage and made it a little more messy. Just as Rogue thought they had taken the point, Nevix took attention, healed, then popped out a Blizzard as his team rushed in from a flank. It took Rogue another push and three ultimates to take checkpoint A.

The next three minutes in the streets were the definition of back and forth. A really dynamic defense saw Misfits dance forwards and backwards to stall out Rogue and make them fear the aggression. It took the full time for Rogue to get through the streets, so they were left with 90 seconds to match Misfits and attack. SoOn and Kryw looked excellent as they helped their team to a victory on King’s Row.

Watchpoint: Gibraltar

Rogue’s defense saw TviQ pick up Genji alongside winz on Winston. Their first point defense wasn’t the best, and Rogue committed too hard to a repush before hangar which lost them any opportunity to hold strong underneath the spacecraft. Rogue had to hold strong on the final stretch to delay, as Misfits still had three minutes left in their bank. Only three metres away from the end, Rogue clutched a defense for the first time in the map to reset the fight and give themselves some breathing room. winz tried to clutch a second teamfight but nothing went right for them and Zebbosai’s team got to the finish with 1:21 still to play with.

TviQ started on Tracer, ready to cause carnage in the back lines. A dive to put pressure on the supports of Misfits let the cart ride to the top of slope, but Rogue couldn’t find a way to clear the defenders against SoOn. Eventually it was the tanks of Reinforce and winz who cracked open the nut, with TviQ cleaning up some of their damage. They had to storm forwards and catch Misfits as they were staggering, but the necessary aggression was into all six defensive ultimates.

After some intense pressure and time taken to force out ultimates, Rogue countered with their own. They wiped Misfits and they made the mistake of trying to recontest without the high ground as they spawned. Rogue now had a real chance to take it all the way in their final minute. They stormed forwards with Reinforce leading the way and akm providing a lot of McCree damage from the back, crushing the makeshift defense from Kryw’s side and clutching the attack.

It all came down to distance. Misfits had an extra minute thanks to their superior offense previously, but started as the defenders. akm and TviQ skilled the first engagement to find solo targets and got themselves a double wipe to take the first checkpoint and head into overtime. Misfits quickly stopped the train in its tracks at the beginning of the hangar stage but Rogue had gotten far enough.

In classic Rogue style they pulled the perfect defense exactly when they needed it most. The Mei/McCree worked well behind the backbone of Reinforce’s Reinhardt, but the Nanoboost proved too strong for Rogue to hold on the first point. They recognised the lost fight immediately though and made sure they bled nobody in. An instant retreat and aggressive position on top of the hangar set them up for the final defense. As Misfits blobbed up on the cart, with victory mere inches in front of them, the entirety of Rogue dropped from the skies and wiped them from the face of the map.

Rogue tied up the series 1-1.

Route 66

The compositions were interesting straight off the bat. Reinforce and akm picked up Winston and McCree for an aggressive defense while Nevix and SoOn picked a Genji and Reaper. SoOn went huge in the first fight and cleared Rogue but their mobility let them re-engage and they took all the space straight back. It was another two minutes before Misfits cleared the area but they quickly took control of the streets as well. Their Genji / Reaper combo had given them the ability to minimise weaknesses and make use of Nanoboost, and even with the delays Misfits had a minute left to push last.

Rogue’s Reinforce switched back to Reinhardt for the warehouse and built his ultimate rapidly. He slammed down an Earthshatter to deny a good push and forced one final desperate attempt to take the map. Misfits burned all of their ultimates to come two metres away from finishing but just couldn’t hold the spawners out despite their best attempts. They now had to defend and could hold them almost anywhere to win the map.

Rogue opted for a Genji and McCree attack, with Reinforce playing a very aggro Reinhardt. The three of them combined to get all six kills early on in the round, and a Nanoboosted Dragon Blade cut through Misfits like raw fish on the repush.

Rogue broke through the streets as a result of every ultimate finding great success. A flank from akm’s Deadeye found two, a Nanoboosted TviQ bought room and killed one, and the rest of Rogue swarmed over the floor to win the fight. They had four minutes to get to within two metres of the end of the map.

Reinforce found a pin that opened up the warehouse for his team and they were able to get close without using many ultimates; even after they wiped to the spawners, it was trivial for them to come back in with a Graviton/Pulse Bomb combo to find four and take the map.

Eichenwalde

Misfits had to win both the remaining maps to progress to the Overwatch Open Grand Finals against EnVyUs. They chose Eichenwalde to kickstart their comeback, a map that Rogue had annihilated FaZe on to clutch victory in the Semi-Final.

Misfits isolated Reinforce to find an early pick for their attack and turned it into a successful push for the point. The height advantage proved harder to overcome but a Blizzard helped turn the tide of the fight, and let Nevix get up towards the bridge. They battered through the gates with two and a half minutes to see how far they could get in the halls. Their first push was blocked by a Death Blossom and Earthshatter very quickly, but Rogue had lost too many players to hold tight at the chokepoint entrances.

Misfits got within five metres after blasting through the doors and again it was Nevix’ Blizzard that let them wipe Rogue and convert the attack with 57 seconds remaining. It was one of the best times of the tournament on Eichenwalde and saved Misfits from their potential elimination.

Misfits gave up the first point fairly easily but they looked tight in teamfights. They dropped from the battlements to clear Rogue and rotated straight back up to repeat their feat. After a few repeats, akm finally got a very successful Nanoboost out to take his team to the bridge and TviQ found four kills with his Hanzo ult to take the checkpoint.

The first push was Rogue’s best chance at victory. Just 0.66m from winning, Rogue were halted by spawners and taken out, forcing them to squeeze through narrow tunnels to re-enter the fight. The cart began to roll backwards as Misfits held for a while, but another Nano-Blossom from akm was too hot to handle and Rogue completed the map with 1:24 remaining.

The second round of attacks was decided on the slightest of margins. With one minute at their disposal Misfits were able to clutch the point and power forward getting kills but, swept up in the moment, forgot to leave a body on the payload. The overtime elapsed and they were left speechless as they realised the gravity of their error.

Weaker teams would have given up and accepted defeat. Misfits doubled down and gave the defense their all; Nevix in particular picked his team up and put them on his back, proving that he had been wasted in his previous role of support. His Mei walls, freezes, and Blizzard let Misfits mitigate huge amounts of damage that came in from Rogue, and in the carnage of the fight Rogue did take the point but hadn’t gained any momentum. Misfits set up close, just in front of where they had abandoned the payload, and hit a big Graviton to deny their position. As they bodyblocked them from getting through the choke and onto the cart, the Misfits players secured all the kills and clutched the final defense to draw the series up 2-2.

Rogue looked devastated after failing to win Eichenwalde. They had built themselves up to believe they were going to win after seeing that awful mistake from Misfits, and the downer of losing hit them hard.

Hollywood

The European side of the tournament all came down to this. A single map to decide who was going to face EnVyUs in the Grand Final. Rogue had to pick themselves up quickly to begin on attack.

They looked a little lost at the start and couldn’t find a good opportunity to initiate despite having a Nanoboost available very early on. They didn’t make any use of the house to gain height for their entry, continuously pushing over the point and into the Mei and Gravitons where Misfits picked them apart. It took a swap, TviQ from Tracer to McCree, and a big Blossom from akm to unlock their potential once again.

In the streets it was the dual threat of Nevix on Genji and SoOn on Reaper from above that made Rogue slow down. They couldn’t take proper control of the roofs and had less mobility than their opponents, but as the time ticked down they had one good opportunity to take it. With a huge ult advantage they tried to collapse, but a crazy clutch from Hidan’s Sleep Darts blocked a Nano-Blossom from akm and then tranquilised TviQ as he went for a Deadeye. Misfits routed Rogue to block them in the streets and set up the win.

They had already done the hard part, breaking Rogue’s attack and their mental fortitude. The offense from Misfits quickly caught Reinforce and allowed Nevix and Kryw to become fed. They ran in with a Blizzard and Graviton Surge, and the two of them dished out the damage themselves with their charge and frost.

Misfits had over four minutes to get a single good teamfight in the streets, but Rogue had found that perfect amount of pressure to produce pure magic. They piled up the won teamfights one after another: one with a Death Blossom, another with a collapse from the houses, a third from a Nanoboost repush.

Suddenly the victory did not seem so close for Zebbosai’s side. They had given an opportunity for Rogue to regain confidence and there were less than two minutes remaining. They absolutely had to convert on a Sound Barrier and Graviton push.

Kryw hit the Graviton into three players but didn’t see akm sneak up from behind, Blossoming into them to kill half the team. Thankfully they hadn’t used the Sound Barrier and had just enough in the tank for one last push - both teams dropped the beat to mash into each other and ryb got right into the thick of things. He built his Earthshatter from 50% to 100% through raw damage and smacked down his hammer to catch four enemies and wipe out all of the defense.

Misfits had clutched it in the final moments to take the win and beat Rogue. It was a ridiculously close battle between the two European juggernauts, but Misfits earned the right to call themselves the European champions and challenge EnVyUs.

Misfits win the EU side of the Overwatch Open. Image credit: ELEAGUE