This weekend the first major Finnish LAN of the year kicks off in Helsinki with Assembly Winter 2018 hosting the OMEN by HP: Overwatch tournament. The four best teams will compete across Friday and Saturday for a sizeable prize pool and the opportunity to be crowned the best team in Finland as teams start gearing up for Contenders Trials and 2018 Contenders Season 1.

Schedule

Friday, 2nd February

Saturday, 3rd February

Format

Team Gigantti and ENCE eSports were invited to the tournament, while FC Lahti Menace and Team Nemesis earned their spots through online qualification. The invited teams will playoff against the qualified teams in a double elimination bracket.

Each series will be played as a best-of-five from the following map pool:

Assault

  • Temple of Anubis
  • Horizon Lunar Colony

Escort

  • Route 66
  • Watchpoint: Gibraltar

Control

  • Lijiang tower
  • Nepal

Hybrid

  • Eichenwalde
  • Hollywood
  • King's Row

If a map is tied, an immediate tie-breaker will be played on best-of-three Control. Ilios will be played for the first instance and Oasis will be played if there is a second instance.

There will be a map veto system with the following format:

  • A removes one of 9 maps.
  • B removes one of 8 maps.
  • A removes one of 7 maps.
  • B removes one of 6 maps.
  • A chooses the 1st map to be played.
  • B chooses the 2nd map to be played
  • A chooses the 3rd map to be played.
  • B chooses the 4th map to be played
  • The remaining map will be played as the 5th map if necessary.

The full list of rules can be found here.

Prize Money

There is a total €10,000 at stake, divided as follows:

  1. €5,000
  2. €3,000
  3. €2,000

Broadcast team

Stage host

English commentators

Finnish commentators

  • Tomi “Tombha” Rinne
  • Juha-Pekka ”ZeiZei” Joutsenlahti

Teams

Team Gigantti

After their Contenders Season 1 victory much of the Team Gigantti roster was snapped up by Overwatch League teams. With zappis recently leaving the roster—likely joining the Overwatch League mid-season—it leaves Davin as the sole remaining player from that championship lineup.

Head Coach Seita has rebuilt the team with as many like for like parts as possible, reportedly replicating a similar style. lhcloudy takes over the aggressive main tank duties while nil has been brought in for the unenviable task of filling LiNkzr’s shoes. They have not had much exposure in tournaments with this starting lineup, but with reportedly strong scrim results they are still deemed as heavy favourites.

  • Tuomo "Davin" Leppänen (DPS)
  • Sebastian "nil" Apell (DPS)
  • Richard "rCk" Kanerva (Off-tank)
  • Roni "lhcloudy" Tiihonen (Tank)
  • Riku "Ripa" Toivanen (Support)
  • Petja "masaa" Kantanen (Support)
  • Joni "Seita" Paavola (Coach)

ENCE eSports

The ENCE organisation have been around Overwatch for quite a while now but lost much of their roster to the Gigantti rebuild back in December. The new look team features some recognisable names in DPS combo OLBAA and Lalli. Though they have been hurt by support Styge leaving and former coach elfi having to step in.

After going winless in the Group Stage of the PIT Championship Season 2, they will be looking to improve their fortunes with a strong performance here.

  • Oula "OLBAA" Räsänen (DPS)
  • mATIAS "Lalli" Kivimäki (DPS)
  • Kalle "Cali" Yiönen (Off-tank)
  • Roope "Ruape" Kurkela (Tank)
  • Samuli "elfi" Sihvonen (Support)
  • Robin "snappe" Uotila (Support)

FC Lahti Menace

A young finish squad comprised of some of the most promising talents in Finland; including Winston maestro xippeli and 15-year-old star DPS VirtiS. The young squad caused several upsets during their qualification run and will be looking to make their mark in this offline tournament. While the talent is present, replicating it in a high-pressure environment will be the most prominent hurdle for Lahti Menace.

Team Nemesis

One of the longest standing rosters in Finnish Overwatch also came through the qualification bracket. Despite having a talented main tank in Kouhia and the explosive star power of Olu’s Genji, they have often failed to garner significant results. However the addition of Ice to the off-tank role and to their comms has seen their fortunes change for the better. Whether it will be enough to cause an upset at Assembly is yet to be seen.

  • Chris "KarvaRausku" Räisä (DPS)
  • Waltteri "Olu" Leskinen (DPS)
  • Joona "Ice" Pöllänen (Off-tank)
  • Lauri "Kouhia" Kouhi (Tank)
  • Henry "Hepa" Parviainen (Support)
  • Saska "Vahv" Sinkkonen (Support)

Coverage

All matches will be streamed on the official Assembly Twitch as well as a Finnish stream on Tombha’s own channel. All matches will be covered on the over.gg match ticker and the action can be followed on our Event page.