And have better dive coordination. The Gido/Esca duo got majorly outclassed here, and I'm not sure why Gido was brought in for this since it's clear they weren't as in sync as with Whoru.

As far as I could see kill just weren't coming in fast enough so time and time again KDP were able to just gather up for another push while Birdring was running around delaying and not getting delt with for several minutes.

Really disappointing show from a team that I expected much more out of.

NAISU.

That's surprising, because from what I saw it was inconsistent at best, and teams just figured it out real quick. It almost felt like solo queue play sometimes.

I just hope they figure out what they need and actually play as a team for all the individual talent they have.

If I remember correctly Agilities is too young to be one the team, I might be wrong though.

As seen by their recent trip in Korea, Rogue aren't unbeatable. You just need inhuman coordination and the best Ana, Winston, Genji and Lucio in the region to beat them.

Jokes aside, they're mortal.

C9 is not playing on the EU side, what I mean is how the top 3 (4?) compare to the rest of the field for Contenders EU.

It really feels to me like the EU brackets are much more top heavy than the NA one, with Rogue and nV out of the picture. I honestly don't know who can truly challenge the top 4 (not sure about Singularity Ninjas though) but I'd love to be surprised by any of the contenders.

Who do you think could upset the top teams here?

That's possible, though I honestly think that if they rebuild around Seagull and IDDQD they can make something happen. Right now they just have some individual talent that doesn't seem to synergize well (looking at you solo flank Harbleu).

The whole team is just not working out as a unit so we'll have to see what they decide to do with them in the end.

Not sure how this question came to be considering where he is and that his stream clearly states his current affiliation. Let's not start fires in damp places when avoidable.

Time to watch ma boi TyDolla swap to something other than Sombra when it's not workin'!

Agreed, this new team could do great things if they can make it work so quick after reforming. I wonder what kind of run this will allow them to make.

I'm interested to see how Cyclowns fares in groups and possibly beyond. This squad is pretty different from the one at TakeOver so hopefully things go much, much better for them.

The French boys are takin' names and leaving broken dreams in their dust. Not gonna lie, I didn't expect them to win like this. I do wonder how they'll do in groups seeing as they haven't won against the big boys yet.

Good thing they ended up qualifying but realistically a team of their "caliber" should have placed first here. Too bad they haven't been able to keep up, but hopefully Linkzr is the start of something new, something more...flexible.

Talk about bad luck for UB, but Iceblock "should" have won against GO. Still, the seeding caused some early drop out of good teams allowing some lucky ones to make it through...we'll see how they fare in the group stages but there's a sizeable gap between the top and the rest here.

Agreed, I did like their attempt at triple DPS though. It wasn't great cause it was obviously not that practiced but heck, they gotta start somewhere.

Yeah looks like MVP's gonna hafta rebuild. At least their sister team isn't being relegated this year.

You Sir, are wise.

The reason I still choose LH to win is because KDP have a very obvious and exploitable weakness that other teams have caught onto, and that's their backline. LH figured it out and even Mighty AOD figured it out.

If they haven't found a way to keep the backline aline I don't think they will be winning this series but in the case they do win I think it would be 3-2, mainly because Assault and Payload "should" go to LH.

HKA brought it to ahq, awesome series. Blank must be hella relieved right now.

Flag meta too stronk.

Rip NiP, they'll be in tomorrow but this is disappointing.

Only losing three maps in group stages? Now they're even heavier favourites to win it all.

Less than 12 hours? Hype.

I tested on both Edge and Explorer and I get the same result. Firefox and Chrome, as you mentioned, are fine.

I think you're not seeing the bigger picture from the perspective of Blizzard. Yes it's because he's a public figure, because he represents the face of the game for so many people and that he's a role model just as many.

Not only was he displaying immature behavior but he was also inciting others to do the same. That's leeway you just don't have as a professional. Because he's getting paid to play this game he HAS to display more maturity than random Joe next door.

In my opinion just being suspended from comp and season 0 would have been enough but they wanted to send a clear message. Regardless of whether we think it's fair or not because they absolutely can't have this be propagated and seen as acceptable.

I doubt they will do this but it;s always easier to reduce a sentence then to increase it after it's been given. But something like this needed to be done.

Again, the game is young and so are all the pros. Mistakes will be made, lots of learning needs to happen in the scene right now, lots of maturity needs to be developed at the top level.

I think the driving force here is the fact that Overwatch is very young and needs exposure. I'm assuming that they need to be hard on issues when they pop up to make sure investors are kept happy along with the player base.

He broke one of their rules as a professional representative of the game and while being banned from competitive would have been a suitable punishment they saw it necessary to show that they won't tolerate this kind of behavior. He's just an easy scapegoat being so known and also having streamed his, at the time, lack of common sense.

Another issue might be how long this had been going on for and I can't vouch for the validity of one posted discord conversation but we're talking a couple of months.

I'm in no way defending him because realistically you just can't have your star players telling their audience to go and make the game miserable for others just for fun.

"Today On Overtalk"

Somehow it feels like Envy still has this problem of lack of flexibility. What I mean is that they can run new comps that we haven't seen from them before, but they don't seem as effective as their standard favorites. I think that as a team Envy is still relatively weak to good dive so in the event that AF Blue loses to Meta Athena they might be in a bit of a pickle.

I'd still pick them over Meta though, really looking forward to this 2nd group phase playing out.

For the most part is was closer than I expected it to be but not by much. Today was full or surprises and I could be wrong but I assume neither of Conbox's next possible opponents should have too much trouble with them.

I see KDP vs Conbox in the loser's match but heck, who knows at this point.

Giving insight into why he may have displayed behavior isn't making excuses. That was made clear when Brad mentioned it himself.

I think the message was that he's not a horrible person (I can't judge or assess since I don't know him), but probably a person that's going through some rough time. Still doesn't excuse the way he chose to cope but again, that's already been acknowledged.

What's important is that

1. He got punished for his actions
2. He's getting help to deal with what ever is going on.

This isn't twitch chat. You could just try and remain constructive in your argument, or at the very least, relevant to the actual subject at hand.

I'd have to agree with you, and honestly I think they could or worst cast scenario they lose one map in this match end finish groups with only having dropped 4.

I'm looking forward to see if teams in 2-3rd place can step it up and bring it to them in the playoffs or not.

Yeah, disappointing but I'm assuming they may be coasting since they're guaranteed 2-3rd place in the playoffs.

Same, I wanted both Huk and Chance, just so we have several different perspectives.

If we get two upsets I'm buying a lottery ticket. Theses matches are absolutely awesome!

2-3? Slightly disappointed but pleasantly surprised! nV has their work cut out for them now!

He can't play at any tournaments for at least 3 months on top of being banned from Contenders 0 and 1. From what I can understand in the post he's suspended but the haven't given up on him if he does end up coming back after his Blizz ban is over. Oh, and while smurfing if frowned upon Blizz themselves don't see it as a problem, but openly trolling and grieffing is. That and inciting others to troll etc...

The correct actions were taken, albeit a bit later than I hoped they would.

That is no reason to break rules, you can't justify this with "well people used to do worst things". Brand perception is important and so is respect for others. The right decision was made here.

2-2? I am entertained.

http://imgur.com/G7pQzkO

This Canadian is obviously #NotImpressed.

On another note, jeebus that's a lot of hair.

The top 6 NA and top 8 EU get a spot in contenders season 1, nothing to do with OWL atm.

He added this from a response to Dafran's tweet:

"I've since learned there's more going on with Dafran's personal life that he has been hiding from others, including his teammates. This doesn't excuse his actions, but likely it accelerated his destructive mindset. We will do our best to provide the resources to help him deal.
That said, punitive actions for Dafran are incoming; more details to come later today."

As he mentioned it doesn't excuse his actions and his punishment obviously stands, but I hope he actually does get the help he needs to deal with whatever is happening in his life.

Not sure if you're trolling or not so I'll just have to assume that you aren't. Your comment is largely besides the point though, cause throwing sucks for the teammates involved and it just makes the game not fun to play when it happens.

I have no clue why you yourself are mentioning skill in this because one does not need skill to throw, but one can indeed be mindless while doing it. And of course, throwing itself is what's classless and tasteless.

Either way, he's been suspended and they're apparently trying to get him some help with whatever he may be going through.

I'd insert the Cwoosh smile after his (almost) team wipe play at TakeOVer, Lijang.

I'm ready to believe that, though what's holding me back is the fact that they were somewhat dismantled by LW Blue during groups already, so unless they really kick it up a notch and find another gear I don't see that changing much.

I'll have to look deeper into this. It feels like EU has fewer top tier teams than NA in general so I'm not sure how competitive the 2nd set of qualifiers will be, assuming the big teams don't cannibalize themselves on the first one.

I refuse this notion, and quite like your "edgy name".

Ma boi TyDolla trying to fit a square shaped Sombra in a circle shaped comp if ya know what I mean.

Gale Force, gone with the wind, gale force winds, I'll let you do the rest.