The GAME Stadium Overwatch tournament is a competition split in two stages, featuring a total of 8 teams of which 7 came from open qualifiers and one direct invitation that went to Team Dignitas. However, in the last week Dignitas have pulled out from the tournament for reasons unknown.

The teams participating are the following:

  • Movistar Riders
  • Wizards Club
  • Prov1dence
  • C.E. Sabadell eSports
  • Team DriftWire
  • Praw Kombo
  • Team DK

The first part of the tournament will be a regular season, from May 9th to June 22nd. All matches will be online in a best-of-three round robin format. Once the group stage has been completed the adventure will continue at LAN in Madrid on July 8-9th. Only the first four teams in the regular season will advance to playoffs, where they will battle in a best-of-five single elimination bracket.

As for the prizepool, the whole competition will have a total of €9,000 for the 7 teams participating, distributed as follows:

  • 1st – €3,500
  • 2nd – €2,000
  • 3rd-4th – €1,000
  • 5th-7th – €500

Matches of the regular season are set to begin with two games a night from 21:00 CEST on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Víctor "Wolk" Fernández and José María "Porre" Santamaría as the Spanish casters will bring the action from the second game each night.

Taking a quick look at the list of teams, Movistar Riders are undoubtedly in the limelight, and at this point they no longer require an introduction. It will be the return of Riders after taking some days off, following their epic ascension to the top spot in Europe.

In any case, the question people unfamiliar with the Spanish scene might have in mind is who are these other teams featured in the GAME Stadium Overwatch. But don't worry, I'm here to assist. Here you have the background you need to enjoy the biggest Spanish tournament to the date.

Wizards Club

  • Miguel "Saura" Peñuela Cristobal (DPS)
  • Iván "KRYPP" Cuesta Mendez (DPS)
  • Antonio Manuel "Woolridge" Fernández Berrueco (Tank)
  • Vicente "Vinanrra" Fernández Guerra (Offtank)
  • Adrián "Shevatas" Viana Fuente (Support)
  • Rui Filipe "Nightyz" Monte Silva (Support)

Wizards is perhaps the team you should keep an eye on the most during this tournament, as they currently stand as the #1 Spanish team. That is, provided we keep Movistar Riders out of the equation — the organization is Spanish, but the roster is not. Leaving the debate of teams' nationalities aside, the Overwatch branch of Wizards is well-known in the Spanish scene.

In retrospect, half of their roster — Saura, Vinanrra and Shevatas — started on a team called OverGaming and with excellent results. They won some major Spanish tournaments such as the Fnac Overwatch Arena, but unfortunately, earlier this year OverGaming ceased all operations and so the players were left without the support of a club. They decided to stay together under the name Por Definir, but with changes to their roster. Namely, the addition of KRYPP and Nightyz to the team. Por Definir participated in numerous ESL Go4, as well as the community tournament SnasGOLD 1, in which they ended in second place.

With this promising career in Overwatch, it is no surprise the club Wizards decided to foster Por Definir early in April, with the latest addition of Woolridge to seal the current roster. Since then, they have participated in several tournaments, standing out in the weekly Go4 Overwatch series organized by ESL Spain. They have won five of those Go4 in a row, earning themselves the crown of best Spanish team. For now, of course.

Prov1dence

  • Artur "Art1er" Bischof (DPS)
  • Edoardo "carnifex" Badolato (DPS)
  • Eduard "ImPact" Abelló Ferrán (Tank)
  • Stanislav "Mistakes" Danilov (DPS)
  • Miguel Ángel "Lawliet" Morcillo Hidalgo (Support)
  • Daniel "haZeR" Peña Andrés (Support)

Prov1dence is actually a mix freshly formed to play this tournament, but their players are not strangers to each other and have played together on and off for a while. Although the Spanish members of the team are quite known in the scene for their individual skill, Art1er and carnifex are arguably the most outstanding players of Prov1dence.

In fact, Art1er began his career in Overwatch pretty early, winning some minor tournaments with FlatEarth and Creation eSports. He even played with Team Dignitas for a brief time, and earned himself a spot in the German roster for the World Cup 2016. On the other hand, carnifex is one of the top players in Italy, where he won the national ESL Championship in 2016 with ExAequo, before joining the rebooted FlatEarth. carnifex also played with the Italian team in the World Cup 2016, but the team couldn't beat Sweden to earn a spot in the group stage.

The latest addition of Mistakes to the team adds a third DPS player alongside carnifex and Art1er. The rest of the team has proven to be very efficient in their positions, with ImPact as the tank, and Lawliet - whom you might remember from nerdRage - and haZeR as supports. They will be a deadly team, so make sure you have them on your radar.

C.E. Sabadell eSports

  • Bruno "Ins" Ribeiro Pereira (DPS)
  • Sergio "NiwOr" Robledo Arbesú (Tank)
  • Ramiro Alejandro "ZoK3R" Martín García (DPS)
  • Nuno "kiler4fun" Ferreira (Flex)
  • Emilio José "DatGazz" Morales García (Support)
  • Juan José "Corestar" Martín Jurado (Support)

The team formerly known as ggifs.tv is not exactly a new team, as half of their roster played together in 2016 as TBA, namely, Ins, NiwOr and DatGazz. After a short break around Christmas, they decided to form a new team with longás, Corestar and Pescanova. As a team, their most remarkable achievement was winning the Spanish community tournament SnasGOLD. Said tournament has been the biggest one in Spain until now, and on top of achieving the first place, they beat Por Definir in the Grand Final, before they signed with Wizards Club.

They are definitely an interesting team, and have proven that they are ready to face any team standing on their way. While most of them have been playing together for some time, the question remains on who is going to fill the offtank role. We had reached out to the captain for an official statement, and he confirmed that the team is holding tryouts.

Then only yesterday the news broke that they had signed with the traditional sports club Sabadell, so now they will be playing under the name C.E. Sabadell eSports, with Zok3R and kiler4fun as the latest incorporations to finalize the roster. They are definitely an interesting team, with a lot of synergy between their players, so we will see all the changes in action in GAME Stadium.

Team DriftWire

  • Vicente "fak3" Fernández Clemente (DPS)
  • Alejandro "t3lle" Tellería Sarabia (DPS)
  • Alberto "Guitonius" Gordillo García (Tank)
  • Iván "Othax" Moreno Lázaro (Offtank)
  • Umut "Johnsinan" Ediz Demirkaya (Support)
  • Albert "Plagi0" Pérez Rubinat (Support)

They were the former Prov1dence team, although they have recently left the club to seek other opportunities. However, since they still have the spot in the GAME Stadium OW, they will remain together with Othax, JohnSinan and Plagi0 as the changes to their roster to have the opportunity of playing against the top teams featured in the tournament.

Roster changes aside, they have been active in the ESL Go4 Overwatch for a while, as well as several European and Spanish tournaments, but without remarkable achievements in their back pocket. It will be interesting to see their performance in the GAME Stadium OW, especially since part of their roster is actively exploring other options for their future in the game.

Praw Kombo

  • Mohanad Mohsin "Tetrix" ali Abbas (DPS)
  • Karim "NeroN" Mohammadi (DPS)
  • Alejandro "Networkz" Martín Pérez (Tank)
  • Guillermo "SolmyR" Arenas Martín-Abril (Flex)
  • Jordi "Mengue" Hernández Valle (Support)
  • Jorge "Figue" Figueroa Triana (Support)

Praw Kombo as it stands is a fairly new team, but their Spanish players are known in the community for the teams they have played for in the recent past. They qualified for the GAME Stadium OW as XXXNaruto, and since then, they have adjusted their roster to include Figue, Tetrixx and NeroN.

With the present roster, Praw Kombo has participated in a couple of ESL Spain Go4 OW, reaching the grand final both times but losing to Wizards Club. This tournament will be their opportunity so measure themselves against other top Spanish teams, as well as the great Movistar Riders​. A formidable opportunity, without doubt.

Team DK

  • Álvaro "ermAt" Castro Abaunza (DPS)
  • Mario "scatmo" Gimeno Soriano (DPS)
  • Guillermo "lork" Lorca Lamadrid (Tank)
  • Javier "Kurch" Sánchez (Offtank)
  • Antonio "Soun" Burgos Corrales (Support)
  • Sergio "St0ne" Sánchez Rivera (Support)

Team DK features part of the former roster of Wizards Club, before the club decided to part ways with the team and pick up Por Definir. To be more precise, lork, scatmo, St0ne and Kurch played for Wizards, so they decided to remain together and add Soun – ex coach of the team – as their main support.

Back when they were playing for Wizards Club, they were very active in a wide number of tournaments, such as the ESL Go4 Europe. With ermAt as the last incorporation to the roster, we will see a group of players that know each other, and thus able to face the top teams waiting in the GAME Stadium Overwatch.

You can follow the action on the official stream at twitch.tv/GAMEeSports and on the over.gg event page.