This past Sunday Winston Wu and I held our second ever open online Overwatch tournament: 6v6 Sundays. Demand for this one was strong - we had to tell several teams that they wouldn’t be playing, and also regretfully removed teams that weren't able to confirm they were coming in time. Still, that’s just telling us that we’re doing something right, and we’ll be focusing on making the next one bigger and better!
So, for those of you who were unable to watch the tournament, here’s a breakdown of how every single match went down for which I have recordings (there was a technical issue with one of our first round matches so I unfortunately won't be recapping that one). By the way, you can find the bracket for the tournament on Challonge here (spoilers) and the final team list here. Every match was best of 3, single elimination, and losers of the first game picked the next map.
Alright, on to the first matchup.
GG EZ (Average Skill Rating: 45) vs.the qq initiative (Avg. SR 67) VoD link
GG EZ took on much the much higher rated qq initiative for the first match of our tournament. The gap between each team’s average skill rating (averaged from MasterOverwatch.com stats, so they're rough) should tell you exactly how this match went, and true to form the qq initiative seized control of first map Ilios with no problems. In a highlight play, top 500 player Observerward sliced through almost all of GGEZ for 5 eliminations as Genji:
Facing elimination, GGEZ chose to play on Temple of Anubis next. The qq initiative had no mercy, steamrolling them en route to a 1:33 win time and at one point even spawncamping while on defense.
Result: the qq intiative wins 2-0
Cloud Harambe (SR 63) vs. Handsoap Pls (SR 53)
Our second match of the day was highly anticipated and super close! Almost everyone in this match was a veteran of the first 6v6 Sundays held last July. Cloud Harambe was actually entirely a pickup team, formed completely of free agents, and their average Skill Rating of 63 was a bit inflated since two of them don't play competitive. Half of Handsoap Pls, on the other hand, played together since before the infamous Esports Hero Overwatch Open on launch day, but added 3 new players for this 6v6.
So the match opened on Watchpoint: Gibraltar, a favorite map of Handsoap Pls. They definitely showed poise, with an attack time of 5:14 that Cloud Harambe were unable to match. Play of the match for WP:G goes to LazyButt of Handsoap Pls, who had a clutch Mercy ult on the second point of the map that allowed puddsy on Reaper to clean up what was going to be a strong push with a Death Blossom.
Down 0-1, Cloud Harambe came out aggressive on Lijiang Tower for the second game of the match. Harambe would literally take Lijiang as GameAce on Winston jumped and batted his way across the map, often targeting supports and making crazy plays like this:
Unsurprisingly, Cloud Harambe took Lijiang in a shutout, with pushes from Handsoap easily held off.
Down to the wire, Handsoap Pls chose King's Row, but were unable to capture the first point as Cloud Harambe went with a triple support comp composed of Symmetra, Zenyatta, and Lucio. The miscommunication from Handsoap continued here, as staggered ult usage allowed Cloud Harambe to deal with each ult one at a time and Handsoap's DPS players trickled in only to die. So Handsoap tried holding on the flip with a desperation Bastion, but were easily brushed aside as Cloud Harambe moved on in the bracket after again targeting Handsoap's supports.
Result: Cloud Harambe wins 2-1
TinyHands (SR 50) vs. Attack Torbs (SR 67)
This one was a bloodbath in favor of Attack Torbs. Half of TinyHands had played in the finals at the last 6v6, but were pretty outclassed in this one - just look at the skill ratings.
Perhaps figuring that they were the better team, Attack Torbs chose to begin the match on Hollywood and were absolutely proved right. They were much more coordinated than TinyHands' players, holding the high ground all game even when attacking. Attack Torbs would take Hollywood easily on the backs of their playmakers, the tanks Lynx on Reinhardt and Art on Zarya. A highlight of the first match would be Art's triple ult and then chasedown of TinyHands' Lucio almost back to spawn while on defense.
TinyHands picked Watchpoint: Gibraltar next, which was one of their better maps at the last tournament. That would not be the case this time, as Art kept up his stellar play with this 6 elimination Zarya ult:
Result: Attack Torbs win 2-0
Semifinals: Cloud Harambe (SR 63) vs. Meatball (SR 54)
On to the semifinals! Both teams were fresh off their first round victories and gave us an exciting match.
Right from the beginning it looked like the teams were evenly matched. Meatball chose to play on Ilios first, quickly taking the point on Lighthouse on the back of Bullywug's surprise Mei pick. But both teams tussled to the end, as Harambe's GameAce played Winston aggressively to open up the defense while Meatball's Proximobomb on Lucio used superior game sense to shut down several Cloud Harambe pushes. Eventually Meatball would take the first round of Ilios, and carry that momentum on to the next Ilios round as Meatball managed to hold on to the point on Ruins and go up 1-0.
Cloud Harambe wasn't going away quietly, however, as they once again played a triple Support comp on King's Row defense for the second map of the match. It again paid off as the team fielded a very aggressive, roaming defense - Muawdy on Reinhardt often pushing forward into the attacking Meatball, and Xerxes on Reaper running rampant, flanking past Meatball's Bullywug (on Reinhardt this time) to take out choice targets. That aggression would lead to plays like this:
Perhaps the first point hold tilted Meatball, as they were positioned very oddly on defense - they were too far forward and Bullywug's Reinhardt was positioned in a corner, shielding almost no one, while Libertato's McCree and TofuHippo's Zenyatta were off to the side. Cloud Harambe would punish this positioning, quickly taking the point and map with a couple of nice flanking moves from GameAce and Xerxes.
On the last map of the match, Lijiang Tower, Cloud Harambe would use their solo flanker Xerxes (on Genji this time) to great effect in Control Center, taking the first point with an early Dragonblade and never relinquishing it after. And after some back-and-forth in Garden, Harambe would win 2-0 to move on to the Finals.
Result: Cloud Harambe wins 2-1
Semifinals: Attack Torbs (SR 67) vs. the qq initiative (SR 67)
This match was the big one, folks. Our two highest ranked and evenly matched teams going at it - this probably should have been our finals had the bracket been a little different - but no matter. The match happened, and it was a doozy. I'm definitely going to do a more in-depth analysis of it later on because it was just that good.
Here we go.
the qq initiative chose to play on King's Row first, where they would begin on defense. Attack Torbs, with Jfour beginning on the attack Widow for zoning before switching back to Lucio, would take the high ground to attack the first point. This clever positioning pushed the defenders into a corner where Days' McCree did massive amounts of work, getting picks left and right as Attack Torbs snowballed all the way to the last point. the qq initiative would hold there for a while using a flurry of ults, including a 4K Dragonblade from Observerward, but succumbed eventually under a 7:48 attack time. On the flip, the qq initiative would try to take the high ground too but failed to get picks. There was solid teamplay from both sides, with a dash of Observerward and Days multikills, but ultimately Attack Torbs would hold them on time and take the first map.
Numbani became the second map, as the qq initiative began on the attack. Inzo's McCree play was solid here, getting multiple picks at the first point, which lead to a snowball until Attack Torbs rallied at the final point. But Inzo again came through with a shutdown Deadeye among other plays for an attack time of 9:08. On the flip, qq's MeettheJoves on Reinhardt had some solid defensive plays, including charging Observerward off the map without dying and a couple of great Earthshatters. Coupled with Inzo's continued solid play, the qq initiative were able to hold off Attack Torbs to even the series.
Attack Torbs chose Watchpoint: Gibraltar for the 3rd and final map of the match. They started on the attack, and pushed hard first with a deadly flank from Days' McCree, and then a coordinated push from Lynx's Reinhardt and Art's Zarya. Observerward would switch onto a defensive Soldier, taking the high ground and holding the final point on Gibraltar for an impressive amount of time with the rest of the qq initiative. Still, Attack Torbs would push in for a time of 7:08 as Days broke open the defense with a good Lynx Reinhardt charge.
On the flip, the qq initiative would just melt under the flanking actions of Attack Torbs' Days. He got two - count 'em, two - quad kill Deadeyes off, making sure that qq couldn't even get to the second point. Seriously, take a look at this:
Result: Attack Torbs win 2-1
Finals: Cloud Harambe (SR 63) vs. Attack Torbs (SR 67)
On to our Finals! Our pickup team Cloud Harambe showed their stuff in getting here, but faced an uphill battle against the more experienced Attack Torbs. CH would pick King's Row first, playing attack with Fildain on a surprise Junkrat. Twice Fildain would pick off Attack Torbs' Aerosophy on Genji, and twice Cloud Harambe were able to push in even as at other points the Attack Torbs would wombo combo their ults to get a series of multikills. Still, Cloud Harambe were stopped just short of the second point off great plays from Aero and Days.
Now on defense with that triple support comp that we've come to expect, Cloud Harambe seemed to surprise Attack Torbs with their sheer audacity. Xerxes would again post up in flanking positions that Attack Torbs dealt with but definitely did not expect, and GameAce would dive dangerously into a crowd of 6. Those flanks would slow Attack Torbs' advance, but eventually Aero got loose with a 5K Dragonblade that also destroyed GameAce's Symmetra teleporter just as he put it down:
Lijiang Tower: Garden was a different story. On King's Row CH had showed that they had trouble dealing with two great DPSers in Aerosophy and Days, and this weakness was exploited by Attack Torbs to the fullest. They would take the initial point first, and hold it for the rest of the match in a display of dominance even as Cloud Harambe extended overtime longer than expected. In the end, though, Attack Torbs would take the map, the match, and the tournament with solid coordination and skill.
Result: Attack Torbs win 2-0
And that's a wrap! I wouldn't hesitate to call 6v6 Sundays #2 a complete success even though we had tons of technical issues - I really got to hand it to the players here, they gave us solid matches and some sick highlights that I will be analyzing in greater depth in later posts. Thanks for reading, and come play in the next 6v6 Sundays!
