One week after the Pacific Showdown concluded in Shanghai, the best teams from North America, Europe, and South America gathered in Krefeld, Germany, a venue with a long history of Overwatch competition, to determine which team was the best in the West. While Fusion University took home the Atlantic Showdown trophy in a dominant performance, there was still much to be gained and learned from for the other teams. Here are our takeaways from the Atlantic Showdown.
Never bet against Fusion University
If there’s one thing four seasons of Contenders has taught us, it’s to never bet against Fusion University. Ever. Even when the game went to a map 5, even when they lost their first competitive game in history against Mayhem Academy, even when they were playing on 200 ping, they never failed to win the tournament.
In hindsight, it seems almost stupid that we thought any team could match Fusion University on LAN when they were finally freed from the shackles of ping, as they dropped just a single map in the entire tournament. European champions Angry Titans were dismissed from the winners' bracket in a 3-0 thrashing, while Envy managed to grab one map before they, too, were sent down to the lower bracket. And in the finals, Fusion University gave their opponents hope by almost failing to take the point on their attack after a clean defense, then snuffed it out simply through superior clutching ability.
If Team Envy’s motto was “Every Fight Is Winnable," then Fusion University’s should be “Every Last Fight Is Clutchable." Thrice Team Envy were on the verge of a miraculous defense to take maps off Fusion Uni on Eichenwalde, Gibraltar A and Gibraltar C, and thrice Fusion Uni held their nerve to win it all, each time staring down the barrel of defeat and saying, “Not today.” The Fusion organization might be making a tradition out of giving their fans heart attacks, but they win the fights they need to win, and that’s all the difference.
Scrappy play Is Meta now
Casters Jack "Jaws" Wright and Harry "Legday" Pollitt frequently talked about how Envy's motto was "Every Fight Is Winnable," and we indeed saw shades of the Vancouver Titans or San Francisco Shock in their play with how willing they were to invest ultimates even when down players. This surprising willingness to fight instead of taking the safer option of giving up and retreating caught many teams off guard as it has in the Overwatch League, and in the final both Fusion University and Envy showed an intense desire to throw everything into fights.
This could indicate that more and more teams are starting to figure out when and where fights can be won even when down players, which surely makes for another interesting evolution of the GOATS meta, Previously, a first pick would almost always decide the fight.
Now that teams like the San Francisco Shock are figuring out how to win fights even when losing the first player, recording an astounding 41 percent teamfight win rate even after losing the first player during their "Golden Stage," we can expect to see more teams do the same in the future as play evolves.
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Please, someone stop Alarm
Who else should be the champion of the Atlantic Showdown than the unkillable demon king of NA Contenders, Kyung-bo "Alarm" himself? Throughout the tournament, Alarm was crucial in finding early picks and simply outputting a megaton of damage.
Even in the final against Team Envy, he was consistently building and holding a 10-20 percent advantage in ultimate charge over his compatriot William “Crimzo” Hernandez, who is no slouch in the flex support department himself. Part of it does come down to the insane peel his team gives him, but that is simply the Jjonak phenomenon: being so good your team peels for you like there’s no tomorrow, which allows you to continue being so good.
Even Fusion University's entire fight plan at times revolved around the rate at which Alarm could build Transcendence, with his astonishing production allowing them to rush in with Transcendence before the enemy Zarya even had Grav. This allowed them to rapidly kill someone, making the enemy reluctant to invest their ultimates while already down, while also building up Fusion University's ultimates in the process. It was a strategy that would not have been possible without Alarm's sheer ability.
At this point, someone should sign Alarm to the OWL just so it would be fair for the other teams in Contenders. After all, everyone else on the Fusion University roster from the first season of Contenders has already been replaced.
An Overwatch League team needs to sign Ellivote and Sharp
Speaking of players who should definitely get signed to the OWL, how about Team Envy's Swedish D.Va and Zarya duo, Elliot "Ellivote" Vaneryd and Hugo "Sharp" Sahlberg? The two players were instrumental in Team Envy's run to the final, with Ellivote in particular being noted for his constant (and sometimes successful) attempts at assassinating supports with D.Va, while caster Andrew "ZP" Rush stated he had never seen Sharp play so well in all his time watching him.
The two players showed they are no slouches on other heroes as well. Sharp cleaned house as Tracer on Oasis City Center against the Angry Titans, while Ellivote pulled out the Mei pick he had used so frequently in North American Contenders, creating one of the highlights of the tournament in the process.
After their performance in Krefeld, there can be no doubt that these two players would make great additions to the Paris Eternal, who have been struggling to lock down a D.Va and Zarya player all season. I would be very surprised if these two players do not get into OWL by next year.
Would Envy have won with Trill?
An extremely useless thought experiment would be to wonder if Envy would have been able to make the final closer with their previous main tank Ashley "Trill" Powell in.
Trill was, of course, signed to the Dallas Fuel at an extremely strange time just before the Showdown, most likely in response to a buyout offer from another OWL team, which in turn caused Envy to turn to Ji-won "Stand1" Seo as their stand-in for the tournament.
While Envy did extremely well, looking good in their lower bracket final against European champions Angry Titans and taking a map off Fusion University, there was a visible disconnect between Stand1 and the rest of the team at times, which was heavily punished by Fusion University.
Take, for example, the final fight of the series. Stand1 lands a good shatter and charges in to confirm the kill, which leaves him completely vulnerable and isolated from the rest of his team. We also saw Stand1 charge in numerous times throughout the series, which more often than not cost Envy fights.
Stand1 is not a bad tank player at all (as this tournament demonstrated), but perhaps if the sudden signing of Trill had not happened, we would have seen a far more cohesive and polished Envy, and perhaps it would be the Boys in Blue lifting the trophy instead of the black and orange of Fusion University.
The EU falters yet again
Much has been made of European teams' apparent superior ability to play GOATS, mainly stemming from the United Kingdom's surprise defeat of the United States at the 2018 Overwatch World Cup.
Multiple analysts and coaches all believed that European champions Angry Titans would be the ones to finally prove European dominance, and if not them then British Hurricane would step up. But perhaps no one expected this level of disaster, as Atlanta Academy sent British Hurricane home in fifth place, losing a Gauntlet spot for Europe in the process, and Angry Titans failed to make it to the final in a lower bracket final that always felt controlled by Envy.
The Angry Titans defeated Atlanta Academy but failed to make it to the final. (Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment)
And so, instead of Europe establishing itself as one of the reasons to beat, North America stole their thunder by achieving four Gauntlet spots (even more than Korea's 3!), having the final be contested by two NA teams, and generally adding to European Overwatch fans' misery after the Paris Eternal's dismal performance in the Overwatch League.
The excuse some in Twitch chat gave was that NA simply had more academy teams and could buy out the best European players, as well as that Fusion University was more of a Korean team than an NA one.
However, academy teams do not make a region: look at China, which had four academy teams and now has three after the disbanding of Guangzhou Academy, and their performance in comparison to Korea, who have one academy team. Nor does the buyout argument hold up well: Ellivote failed to win a single Contenders championship across three finals with Angry Titans, and Sharp has not played in Europe since before the Overwatch League.
Fusion University then accepted the criticism that they were a Korean team by simply moving to Korea and taking part in Contenders Trials for Season 2 of Contenders Korea, where they will be favorites to grab one of the spots at the Gauntlet from the Korean region. Barring a major upset at the Gauntlet, EU fans can expect to hear taunts from across the Atlantic.
An inherent disparity
At the Pacific Showdown, it was the Aussies who were unlucky, as Order failed to win a single map in the entire tournament and went crashing out after just two games, losing their region's only spot at the Gauntlet in the process. In Krefeld, it was the South Americans' turn, as Lowkey Esports also failed to win a single map in the entire tournament, and also went crashing out after just two games, and also lost their region's only spot at the Gauntlet.
(Lowkey Esports)
It may seem unfair that some regions just get fewer invites, but the fundamental problem in Contenders is that some regions are weaker in terms of competition than others. Team Envy has regular scrims with their parent team, the Dallas Fuel. Can Lowkey or Order boast similar resources? Until they can, there will always be a near-insurmountable difference in terms of support and resources for the players.