Hot on the heels of their success last month, Rivalcade have announced the Overwatch Memorial Day Rumble. Once again, 16 teams from North America will fight, this time for a share of $5000. While some of the biggest names in NA are notable by their absence, with EnVyUs and Rogue off fighting for freedom and French fries in Korea, the competition seems as stacked as ever.

Invited teams

Renegades enter their first event since the Carbon Series in March, signing PrimoDulce and ZachaREEE in their time off. Evil Geniuses make their Overwatch debut, signing East Wind back in April. Despite both teams having proven, talented rosters in the past, with the constant ebb and flow of the scene (especially recently) this tournament will serve as the acid test to see where these squads are on the totem pole. Rise Nation and Counter Logic Gaming join the new invites, skipping the qualifiers. Rounding out the groups are LG Evil, Immortals, Cloud9, and Selfless, all returning Rumble participants.

Tournament structure

The event follows the same structure as April's Rumble. It all kicks off with the Open Qualifier on Friday May 26th where a single elimination bracket and best-of-three matches will produce eight qualifying teams for the groups stages. The qualifier also doubles up as a Rivalcade Weekly tournament, so teams are also vying for a $500 prize pool distributed as follows:

  • 1st Place - $300
  • 2nd Place - $120
  • 3rd Place - $80

The group stages commence the following day, with the 16 teams being separated into 4 groups and facing off round robin style. The top two from each group will move on to the playoffs on Sunday. The playoffs will be an eight team single elimination bracket. All fixtures will be best-of-three up until the best-of-five Grand Final. The prize pool is split like this:

  • 1st Place - $3000
  • 2nd Place - $1500
  • 3rd Place - $500

With some popular names being omitted from the invitees list, one can only assume that they will have to fight through the qualifiers to earn a spot. We may also see a new team rise out from the qualifiers as a potential contender.

If you think you and your squad have what it takes, register for the Open Qualifer. Matches will be streamed on twitch.tv/livethebattle with live updates on the event page and match ticker across all three days.