The Overwatch Alienware Monthly Melee returns tomorrow for the February edition, boasting a doubled prizepool of $10,000.
The Monthly Melee sees eight top teams, now all based in North America, competing on the 25th and 26th February. As always, the Melee poses an excellent opportunity for upcoming teams to prove their worth against some of the best. Last month, Hammers Esport slammed themselves into relevancy with three distinct series wins over LG to take the title; in December, Immortals showed themselves as a top NA team by beating Cloud9 in the Upper Bracket Final and Grand Final to win.
Both teams are present this month to defend their crowns - Immortals having missed out January due to Winter Premiere - but will be joined by Rogue, the new arrivals in the land of opportunity.
Saturday 25th features two groups of four teams, each playing in a round robin for seeding into the playoffs. On Sunday 26th, these eight teams will play in a double-elimination bracket; the top two teams from each group will be seeded into the upper bracket, while the bottom two will be seeded into the lower bracket.
Prize Distribution
- 1st: $6,000
- 2nd: $3,000
- 3rd: $1,000
Teams
Group A
- Rogue
- FaZe Clan
- Hammers Esports
- Renegades
Group B
- Immortals
- Luminosity Gaming
- compLexity Gaming
- Rise Nation
This will be Rogue's first tournament since relocating to Las Vegas. Rogue was a dominant force in Overwatch as the best team of the first half of 2016, but since shuffling with Misfits and LG to create an (almost) full French roster they have been quiet. Outside of a quick elimination at IEM GyeongGi, Rogue have not played and shown their level.
After that loss in Korea, Rogue removed their new tank skipjack. NiCO is reportedly the trial who will be playing for Rogue in the tournament tomorrow, but as yet Rogue have not announced whether he will be signed.
I don't talk trash very often... but old NA is going to get a shock at AMM this weekend. New Rogue > Old Rogue and Old Rogue > Old NA
— RogueFrank (@RogueFrank) 24 February 2017
compLexity are also missing two players from their main roster after jkw and harbleu stepped down. They were seen most recently playing with Txao and Kao in the Carbon Series on flex and tank respectively.
Even FaZe and LG have technically still not formalised their sixth players, though they have been playing with the same rosters in public for a considerable amount of time. MikeyA for FaZe and Ube for LG round out the Europeans that have been drafted in to Uncle Sam's tournament circuit.
Broadcast
ZP and hexagrams pair up again with Slasher and Goldenboy to bring you the action this month, but crucially on a different Twitch channel. Rather than GosuGamers hosting the action as they have done since the dawn of time, the Overwatch Alienware Monthly Melee for February is moving to the Curse Twitch channel. As always, follow the off-air games on our match ticker.