THE USA team is a beast and by the looks of it seems more balanced than Canada, but I don't think they'll be able to Overcome Taiwan/Flash Wolves with them being a full team and how strong they seem to be.

I don't know if a sweep is in the cards but I think a Taiwan victory is likely, though "surprises" aren't totally unexpected.

Jake is scary. Not as in mechanical or smart scary, but like you watch the guy play or hear him talk, he has charisma given how young he is. His mindset makes him a huge threat I think. Good thing he's team captain.
Also, I never thought I'd say this, but CoolMatt's Dva play was sick on FNRGFE. Rawkus is comfortable on Lucio if they decide to pull a Pharamercy as Adam's Mercy is arguably the best in NA. And Sinatraa is Sinatraa, kid's nuts.

And FCTFCTN is still the best tag I've seen. Ever.

As Ygritte would say, I know nothing about Taiwan so I won't say anything. But this match is promising.

I actually think this has the potential to be a 2-2, but maybe with Taiwan edging out USA in the tiebreaker (which works better for USA in terms if bracket)

So the second in this group plays Canada in the playoffs, the first plays SK, assuming they win against UK, Germany or Belgium, am I right?

This would mean that Taiwan had to play SK again and also that the 3 best teams would all be in one side of the bracket.

That's my order of teams, from strongest to weakest:

1. SK
2. Taiwan
3. China
4. France (2-4 may be interchangeable)
5. US
6. Sweden
7. Canada
8. Australia

Obviously this can easily change until Blizzcon, but from what we've seen so far (+considering Taiwan and the US play how they are supposed), I think it's pretty accurate.

edit:
I would have put Russia on 5th-6th, as I still think they are better than Canada. Who knows, maybe the US won't make it to playoffs either, Brazil definitely has the potential to upset this group.

Taiwan 4-0.

i love TW, visited, have many friends there, but they're getting dumpstered by US.

US is going to get trashed 4-0,.

I thought Taiwan didn't look all that great today, and I think that USA has the edge in every 1v1, Taiwan should have the organization of a full team who's been playing together for a long time but I just didn't see it today. 3-1 USA.

I think Taiwan were just sloppy on the first defense on King's Row, but then immediately found their footing and punished Brazil real hard. Still think Taiwan has the edge, but USA also have coolmatt and sinatra who have been absolute monsters on their respective roles, so I have to say 3-1 Taiwan

Both teams will throw to avoid facing SK.

I think it will be a close one.

With both of these teams having performed like they did I don't think we can call Taiwan the heavy favorite, maybe a slight favorite, but team USA looks extremely good and very flexible.

This will probably just come down to execution and who can punish the other more whenever possible. I still think Taiwan has a slight edge given their more reactive play style but I can see this going either way.

Now the question is if Taiwan wont give sinatraa's zarya 100 charge the moment the first fight starts

I say USA wins and has an easy road to top 8- unfortunately they'd have to face SK.
If Taiwan wins, USA has a harder road to beat U.K., but then have a slightly easier playoff run afterwards (compared to the other half of the bracket.) I think USA can beat U.K. tho.

Sinatraa's Zarya has torn up every team I've ever seen him play her against - I'm not worried about how his Zarya will perform.

From what I've seen I would say the USA seem stronger than Taiwan. Both games for both teams have been stomps though, so I suppose we really haven't been given a proper idea of the potential of either team. Right now I'd go for either 3-1 USA or 2-2, but really it could also end up being 4-0 to Taiwan.

It can't be 2-2. It's a Canada vs Russia situation where one of them has to win to decide who takes first and second in the group. I'm predicting 3-2 for US. I hope they lose, so we can get Canada vs USA at Blizzcon, though.

Us needs to lose here and uk beat germany so i can get my US vs UK

No one would risk their potential career and definitely their OWL spot over a meaningless tournament. OWWC is just an event for fun, to broaden the game's audience and as preparation for future LAN events etc.

Imo the team that wants to vs Korea is the one with the highest chance of beating them.

Throwing to get a more favorable spot isn't bannable.

No throwing is only bannable if you have some sort of monetary gain from it. Blizzard can't ban you for not trying your hardest in a match but it you were to get something in return for throwing then I'm sure they would ban you.

Im gonna say this as a brit but honestly thunk taiwan will beat US and i think the assumption that US will beat UK in an easier route to the finals is a silly one. They've said they will beat US and so far look on fire. Will be a close match and would love to see the boys take it.

UK is a solid team, but USA has appeared to play at a higher level so far.

According to SK OW committee, Flash Wolves (TW) had a needle match vs X6-Gaming when SK was having some matches with KDU and Ardeont.

Waiting for Taiwan making good match, but US would win this if TW don't get a significant improvement, I think.

If this is team usa why don't they have taimou?

U meta too good, UK and USA move on
USA 4-0
All jokes aside, this should be a hype match.

If they were to throw they could lose respect but there's no real proof they threw unless they were to physically gain something from it. Otherwise they could just say "we were trying something out" or "we just weren't feeling it".
I'm not advocating for anyone should throw but unless they get something for it Blizzard can't really do anything.

How many USA players are free agents? Deeper runs look better for getting picked up.

That being said, I dislike throwing and I really don't want to watch it happen.

Jake can write and can play

Well they didn't let Sinatraa's zarya bully them but damn this match has been tense as fuck

Jake is pounding, but Adam man. Doesn't die, constantly peeling for Rawkus, always there to disengage. Good ass game.

This is probably the most exciting Overwatch match I've ever seen. So much back and forth!

change Taiwan to Chinese Taipei pls over.gg

Very well played, USA. This game was a lot closer than the score would indicate, though. Every map (except maybe Route 66) easily could've gone either way.

Sinatraa is an absolute beast, he won so many duels on his own, he's a scary ass mofo to go up against. USA looked like they had the better strats and they took full advantage of Taiwan's passive play. Was a good match to see and I think we could be looking USA vs Germany and UK vs Taiwan later on.

LETS GO CHAMP

US taking the game pretty convincingly imo, Taiwan put up a good fight but was never enough. Beautiful game to watch though.

And this is why all successful teams have a really, really strong support duo.

Overwatch community before the Los Angeles group stage: USA LUL USA LUL

Overwatch community after USA takes 1st in group, defeating an extremely high-regarded team in Flash wolves:

U PogChamp S PogChamp A PogChamp

USA USA USA

Been pleasantly surprised by the USA. On paper they aren't world beater individuals but their synergy has been outstanding in every game. It's a shame they'll be facing South Korea should they win their qualifier as they could have probably done alright on the other side of the bracket. Unfortunately I can see them getting the same treatment that everyone's received when they've played SK so far. You never know though, maybe they'll surprise us all again.

I'm not saying I knew it all along, I'm just writing out what twitch chat pretty much was in a nutshell.
I did however, believe much more in the potential of the USA roster than a lot of people did. There was a reddit thread a few weeks ago and a majority of the comments were discusssing how they all found it unlikely that USA would even make it out of groups. I'm just happy that the roster proved everyone wrong, :)