This match brought to you by the letter E

Edit: Xou is correct. I read the discord announcement incorrectly and have made the proper corrections. My apologies

Our punny savior returns!

I'm seeing a trend with Nesh and Harb, can't wait to see the future rivalry

Yeah, I've always thought that there would be a player draft for OWL hence why some players are sticking to their own islands using orgs for exposure. There is destructive potential, but if buyers hire coaches/analysts, it wouldn't be a problem (presumably)

SIDESHOW GOT ROBBED! #RIGGED

Personally, I would like to see some sort of challenger series like in APEX and LoL. Give more people a chance to compete.
Also, a slow introduction to foreign talent, give NA something to root for before the Koreans invade

NRG's looking for a projectile DPS (Genji in particular I assume), and there's not too many free agents in NA that fit that description.

Unfortunately no, not to my knowledge

Really interesting to see how TE gels with this squad in the long term. Maybe not making the roster will help. Excited for Kazper, guy had good looks from what I remember

ONE JOB ROUGE! ONE!

All they need is a Finn, someone from ANZ, and a second random Asian country, before I can truly call them the UN of OW
Also, if LK makes more signings/announcements, I see the cat puns slowly degrade

Timo beating the French with the French hero

The vods will eventually be put up on rivalcade's Youtube channel

Sad that the casters didn't put over the whole "Old guard vs New guard" storyline that this match entails. This is pretty much the first match where one of the current big dogs faces an established figure in NA OW

Laser Kittens: The UN of Overwatch

Overwatch open rematch!...featuring only 2 of the players from the actual match

Points to you for making me google clowder, Harsha.

And a new contender for Punniest author enters the fray! Good luck to you CommanderX!

From what I saw in the participant list, there was a few Mexican teams, this was the only one to make it this far :P

https://www.twitch.tv/livethebattle
Some games from the opening rounds are being shown right now for your viewing pleasure, the later rounds will be tracked here.

You can also track the brackets here:
https://arena.razerzone.com/tournaments/details/4868/overwatch-rumble-qualifier/brackets

Aw, I kinda want the logos to face each other, wolves vs lions!

Wow, that's cool of the orgs to allow them to do that, helps out everyone in the long run

Wait, aren't most of Vikings signed to other teams? Did a bunch of teams do a purge?

The fact that most of the articles that have multiple pages of comments involve NRG in someway says something either about the team or the site (quotes in quotes take up a butt ton of space). And in reality, keeping Seagull and potentially getting Mendo is a great business move for NRG. I mean, look at Mendo, don't you just want him on all your NRG posters?

But in the case of Seagull, it always seemed to me that he was dedicated to becoming a pro and being the best. I don't think that he'll make the move to full time streamer, and will still be involved in the professional scene even as a non-player. It may be not be him playing worse, but more teams and individuals playing better more consistently.

Also ha ha, laugh it up, we got to that number.

This match has changed to a Bo3 and will determine a third qualifier spot because LG Evil dropped out of Group play

LG Evil dropped out of OMM, so I believe both teams automatically qualify. Denial gets first choice of groups because they won.

I assume they're talking about the matches for round 2. These first few matches won't be streamed.

The winner of this match will face CLG in the next round

Winner of this match will face Rise Nation next round

Winner of this match will face Faze next round
EDIT: Faze has dropped out of OMM, so this match has been moved to the second round

Winners will face GFE in the next round

Man Harsha improving his title game, how will everyone else respond?

Props to C9 for at least trying out Korean players and giving them a chance on western soil. There was an article on Gosu I read about the recent roster changes(http://www.gosugamers.net/overwatch/features/43966-cloud9-s-musical-chairs-the-struggle-for-a-working-formula), talking at the end about how Adam and Surefour are the only ones remaining from the original C9 despite all the switch-ups. I assume that the org wants Surefour to be their OW representative, and all these roster changes are centered around him, so does he get any input, or does he trust Bishop enough to rework a roster that looked solid enough? Additionally, the article in question mentioned the possibility of a sister team, which I think would help long term.

I share the sentiments about the possibility of an NRG invite but from a business sense, I think OGN wants more people from the West to see their product, what better way then to reinvite one of, if not the most popular OW figures? That added with all the current hype surrounding them, means even more eyes will be on Korean OW.
Additionally, I think, APEX season 3 may turn into a Korean showcase for potential OWL buyers. With the recent Korean imports from C9 and the rumored moves from TSM, a lot of orgs might be looking at this season with a bit more vested interest, though it is unknown if any more moves will go through in time for OWL

So who's the new guy on CoL?

So is TSM like this in general or just to their OW prospects? I'm new to esports in general, but I know TSM from their League team (heck those guys did commercials for geico that ran for awhile). My guess is that the org has just had too many run-ins with bad luck and have had trouble recovering

The Chavs, I believe #1

I, for one, look forward to potentially labelling this team as the "San Francisco Cloud Niners" in Joe Montana's honor.

Well, according to the Nate Nanzer, they'll be the San Francisco Venom Mines

Well, we may see a reschedule/forfeit via "act of god" as there is a tornado in Jake's area.

Nesh was on NRG? I only know him from his CoL trial

Before anyone starts questioning these results, every round was a BO1, so YGGP might have had a lucky map against Fnatic. Semis and beyond will be BO3

Flippy in for Hqrdest

Iko in for Sypeh apparently

Sad that there won't be a crossover between regions, I want more international play!
Rosters are really interesting concerning that like 5 teams have no official rosters set up, with even more filing under technicalities, so we will see who's staying where.
What really interests me are the open qualifiers, we could see an unknown team come from left field. Personally, I would like Selfless take one of those spots; they suddenly gained a public eye with their level of aggression, then faded into the background again, and I really want to see that strategy against some of the higher level NA teams.

Strange, I always felt EISSFELDT was really good on LG Loyal, but I see how i lack of gelling can hurt a talented roster. Hopefully an org picks up him and Mineral.

P.S. points for the punage, but you might have tried a bit too hard with that title, just sayin

Did the rifle nerf affect her healing output? cause that would definitely hurt her.
Also, I was hoping that they kept the discord buff, though I see how that would sway the meta too much.

Due to a mass power outage in Detroit (high winds apparently knocking down power lines), this match has been postponed and will be rescheduled. Stay safe RNG!

Any word on who will be swapping out for these two?

Not gonna lie, I would be very interested in at least updating match tickers, maybe some short updates. I recently been analyzing some matches on my own, and have been sharing some of my views here. This site is how I got into professional OW in the first place, so I want to help it grow. I hope you can employ a filthy casual like myself.

Does anyone know about the two new trials from CoL? It's strange to me they're trialing new tanks because I thought Dcop and Bischu did pretty well for them.