If they do decide to disband the NA leg of C9 there's no doubt S4 will get picked up asap. Too good not to unless he decides to step back.

I think they'll be in one way or another tbh, possibly in a similar way that Lazer Kittens did, just getting bought as a unit since they're clearly the best in EU.

And I just saw that post by poi too, thx for reminding me!

I'd argue that LGE is weaker than Team USA because LGE has a very difficult time coordinating an effective dive. So much so that they've fallen relatively behind compared to a number of tier 2 teams.

A lot of the current full NA teams don't have the luxury of a top tier Tracer the level of Sinatraa and a Flexible DPS who also happens to be a tactical genius in the way he sees the game.

Their losses were similar enough that I see them as having the same weakness Meta Athena had in Season 2 when they had their amazing run. A gaping weakness to aggressive dive, a play style you don't see that much of in the OPC. BLANK used to run tanks and had to adjust but their dive is no where near what USA and UK threw at them today. Scrimming and coaching won't do much to help you if you run into a comp or play style that you're haven't had a chance to scrim against consistently and at that level of proficiency.

You're correct, these are huge losses but they get to bring those losses back with them and learn from them and I think that's good for them in the long run. It's a good wake up call for sure.

Cwoosh would be an amazing upgrade on the Genji role, and I'm wondering if Ryb could be a thing...don't know how his Winston is though, and that's if they want to stay on the all Swede thing they got going on.

Alicus, ruling from behind the scenes. This is absolutely ridiculous and I didn't see it coming. London makes so much sense now.

This leaves me wondering what will actually happen to the NA side of C9 and what Misfits are planning to do with their squad at this point.

Holy shit!!! YES!!! Alicus is a fucking GENIUS.

I think Lui's been LFT for a while and Logix was scrimming with them so it's a possibility. That would make for one hell of a scary ass dive team!

Our 8 teams by original seeding (has no bearing on QF brackets now that they'll be randomized)

1. China
2. Korea
3. USA
4. Sweden
5. UK (6)
6. Canada (7)
7. France (8)
8. Australia (13)

I just hope they don't end up with SK and France on the same side of the bracket.

Chances are they'd still beat most NA/EU teams other than eUnited and our NA tier 1 squads. So probably not as shitty as you'd think.

I think you may have missed a few key things in how the matches against USA and UK went.

1. As I mentioned they admitted getting absolutely dumpstered by KR teams so I'm not sure if you were expecting KR like performances from them

2. Both of their resounding losses were to very aggressive dives which would coincide with what the KR teams would have thrown at them.

3. I think it's less about them being overrated and both the USA and UK teams being underrated for not being full teams.

4. The OPC has a play style that fits them, just like APEX is more friendly to KR teams, and I assume that the western play style is something they just weren't prepared for.

FW is an excellent team in their region, and they get to take everything they learned here back with them. Something most OWC teams can't do. They had obvious weaknesses that never got exposed back home and this will only make them a better team if they were to play these teams again.

It's easy to build up a team that's been dominating in a virtual vacuum but these results make a lot of sense and after seeing the USA match I wasn't surprised at all that they fell to a similarly built team.

So, overrated? Yeah probably, but if you've followed all of their matches your expectations should have been lowered accordingly.

Well now we know, brackets will be done by random draw, not seeding.

UK's Hollywood attack seems to make their scrims results against KR teams make sense. They seem to be very weak against a strong aggressive dive, and it's probably why they were getting crushed by the top KR teams as they mentioned.

Ta1yo with next level planning...finish studies and come play in the west. AKTM to continue to hyper carry the team.

I like double elims to cut to like 4 teams but not so much for Championship Finals. Basically how APEX does it.

If they do re-seed that's how I assume it would go. The brackets could look very different depending on who wins between UK and Taiwan.

I'm seeing some rumblings on Reddit about a possible re-draw of the brackets once the 8 QF teams are known. I'm assuming it would redraw with the top seed facing the lowest seed and so on. I haven't seen confirmation for this anywhere and it would somewhat make sense if true but obviously people taker issue with it since USA might have faced off against SK right off the bat.

This is the Reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/6tgs5p/psa_there_is_high_likelihood_of_a_redraw_at_the/

Another match where the score doesn't do justice to how close the match was. Good hustle by Germany to make a match out of it.

On another note I also seeing some rumblings about a possible re-draw for the Blizzcon Playoff rounds since as it currently stands USA would possibly faced off against SK. Estimated match-ups may be incorrect so a lot of things could change.

Ryb is a possibility but is his Winston an upgrade over Reinforce? He's (Winston) pretty much a must have until the meta viably diversifies again.

I think it's because he himself chose to leave, but I also think he'll get picked up pretty quickly considering how good he's looked in the first two tournaments we've seen him in.

On that note, gotta wonder what kind of results they can get with this new squad. I feel like Laser Kittens' chances at a top two finish just got much higher...

Looks like they'll be grabbing Finnsi, keeping their flash metal intact and soldiering on.

The flag meta is life.

Jake looks so much better when he has the space to dominate. Sinatraa is...well he's just as insane as ever but this makes me wonder if LGE needs to start looking at possibly rebuilding the team if a mixup can make him look this good?

The winner of this match could very well be the one to finish 2nd in the group. MVP Space could end up surprising them both but if I make a judgement purely based on most recent results this match could have huge implications for both teams.

Like a lot of the teams this season this is going to be a battle of the rebuilds but Runaway might have the edge now that Kaiser's back.

First match for ROX Orcas at this level and a huge opponent right off the bat. Not sure if we'll get to see Geguri in this one considering the caliber of opposition they'll be facing but it would be quite interesting if she was subbed in at some point.

This is the match I've been waiting to see for so long. nV facing off against western teams again, but this time with an absolute beast of a Tracer in EFFECT. Really looking forward to see what the pecking order of the apparent top three teams will look like after this season.

#4 He's reportedly scrimming with them and there are few hints littered around the scene hinting towards it but im not sure

Shadowburn + Logix combo would be scary as fuck though.

#5 Trialing, I truly hope he gets in.

Same, that would make them a...CONTENDER For Sure...YYYYEEEEAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

Extremely unfortunate since they were such a breath of fresh air in the EU scene. I doubt he'll be teamless for long since we got to see just how insane the guy is at both contenders and OWC.

From his tweet longer it sounds as if the team will not stay together after this, "insert Hafficool comment here". This could mean that there would be two available spots for EU Contenders Season 1.

Gamers Origin and Vivi's maybe?

This is looking like a probably 4-0 for USA, if it's any consolation for who their next opponent is going to be.

My bias is towards the UK as I'd like them to win but I think it's hard to say. They did look stronger in their matches but they also didn't have to face a team of USA's caliber.

I'll throw in a 3-2 UK win but honestly I have no clue, could go either way.

Would Mendo fit into this roster in some fashion or would we be looking at a continuation of the C9/Midfits role confusion?

I dunno about BM, but I'm guessing they just wanted to try it for fun since there's no penalty for losing the map. Was nice to see though, too bad they couldn't make it work.

Looking at the squad, and pretty much eliminating Tviq from the get go, I think this makes much sense. It's unfortunate but I think they really needed a change, though I'd also advocate for more than just this. In my opinion his Rein was excellent but his Winston play had gotten so much better over time so I'm thinking this really was more of a clash of personalities kind of like the Rubikon situation.

I'm just gonna throw the usual Reinforce for NRG? They need a shot calling tank and his skills fit the bill imo. What do ya'll think?

I'm so looking forward to this. IMT showed they could really take it to Rogue so having our big three teams in one tournament for the first time is gonna be sooo hype!

I'm hoping teams on the EU side can do a better job of challenging eUnited or else it's gonna be another easy path to victory.

If I'm reading into this correctly he might be referring to one of the (YourOverwatch?) guys putting Taimou in his dream team USA roster before the squad was known.

I don't know if it was an intentional meme or not, but yeah.

Germany has a very high chance of getting swept by USA in their next match but I think team UK has a very real chance of taking it to Taiwan. Really looking forward to seeing who comes out on top now that Taiwan's weaknesses have been exposed.

Personally I'm all for a Canada vs UK match...WE WILL REBEL AGAINST THE QUEEN!....by asking her very politely if we can just bring back our constitution. Please and Thank You your majesty.

Kappa.

Brazil hasn't looked as good as I initially thought they would but they can still prove they're a force to be reckoned with in this one. I think this has a high probability to be a 4-0 for Brazil but let's see if NZ can bring it back and either upset them or at least make a solid match out of it.

Hindsight is 20/20 so I'm not even sure what your point is. Fact is Team USA didn't look like they'd be the favorites to top the group. Even though their squad looked good it didn't look great and they just showed that there's far more to them than a lot of people, myself included, initially believed.

It's really easy to be that "I knew it all along" guy AFTER you've seen the results. I hope they make it far, heck I hope they take down SK for some good ol' NA pride, but when trying to predict results like this you're bound to get a lot of them wrong.

I don't know about Winghaven since he seems to have bounced around a lot but Skipjack being dropped by Rogue had more to do with him not speaking french I believe. He's looked relatively good in the OWC so I guess it could be a possibility.

With so many rosters either LFM and even more players LFT the draft period and ORg shuffle should be interesting. Even more so because teams don't have to keep their current rosters if they buy into the league.

Sinatraa is an absolute beast, he won so many duels on his own, he's a scary ass mofo to go up against. USA looked like they had the better strats and they took full advantage of Taiwan's passive play. Was a good match to see and I think we could be looking USA vs Germany and UK vs Taiwan later on.

Or that Blizz would somehow be able to prove that they intended to throw, discord chats or otherwise. Like you say I think it would be close to impossible to prove but honestly pride and exposure might be worth more than more favorable seeding.

Unfortunately not that surprising from a team that came from two arguably mid to low tier squads in this scene but this loss is shaping Team CC up to possibly be one of the teams relegated at the end of groups if they can turn this around.

My are likely to get more difficult going forward so their prospects aren't looking great.

1246 have looked shaky at best and this will be a real test of their mettle. I do think MY will beat them, if not wipe the floor with them, in this match but it's a good chance for them to show that their big win wasn't a fluke and that they can hang with the more dominant teams of the groups.

I think they may be moving away from the all Swedish form factor if I try and read too much into what he said. My best guess is that the team could be opening up to other English speaking players.

MY flexing their recently renewed strength after getting their whole squad back and keep the momentum they've recently acquired from their Nexus win going.

Looking forward to the clash of giants that will be LGD vs MY as I believe they should be our top two forerunners if this early start continues. Still a long Season ahead though so surprises are bound to pop up along the way.

I don't know how far along NRG or C9 are with their team rebuilding but I'd rather see the latter get it if they have a full squad. Though really I'd the most happy if the spot was sold to LGE, eV, Arc6 (if they could afford it) in that order but it sounds like Blizz gave them no restrictions in terms of buyer procpects.

As the OP mentioned it wasn't the intent or the subject of the thread. He's free to start one to talk about said teams attempting to buy in to Contenders.

But this particular thread had nothing to do with it and essentially derailed into it.

He tweeted an article about it.

Tweet:
https://twitter.com/Reinforce/status/896765305099173889

Article:
https://medium.com/@re1nforce/lft-1f9f4bc17c2e

Personally I didn't see this coming. I thought they had been doing better than they had before even though it wasn't quite as well as I thought they could.