It was never going to be an easy fight though, and with Invictus Gaming, Fnatic will have its work cut out. It was Fnatic, however, who won the championship back in its inaugural year in 2011, so it’s fitting they might be the ones to bring the trophy back home to the continent. For years, the tournament has tended to be dominated in the later stages by Korean teams. Europe’s Fnatic has found itself in the grand finals against China’s Invictus Gaming after an unlikely run through stiff competition in a competitive bracket. This weekend is also the conclusion of Worlds, League of Legends’ big annual tournament.

You can find the schedule and streaming channels for those and other matches at the BlizzCon esports page. It’s wild, and actually a lot of fun to watch. Yes, WoW, the MMO that’s been going for so many years now it’s all but incomprehensible to anyone who hasn’t followed it closely since the beginning, also has a competitive mode where opposing teams of four manage auto-attacks and ability cooldowns until one of them is dead. It’s also home to the championships for Blizzard’s other games, including Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, StarCraft II, and my personal favourite, World of Warcraft. All of those games will be streaming on Blizzard’s website as well as Twitch.īlizzCon is much bigger than just the Overwatch World Cup though. Tomorrow, the semifinals get underway at 0330 AEST, followed by the grand finals at 0945 AEST. the United States and will run until approximately midnight.

The quarterfinals started today with the United Kingdom vs.

Canada, Australia, and the rest could all mount cinderella runs through the quarterfinals and semifinals.įinland in particular is looking like something of a potential wild card this year, having tested South Korea by forcing a five-game series in their encounter during qualifying and being stocked with veteran players unlikely to be easily riled. While they benefit from not having to face South Korea in the first round (who knocked them out in 2017), it’s hardly a get out of jail free card the way it might be in other tournaments. The USA is first seed going into the tournament’s single elimination bracket at BlizzCon. Also, each player has to be from their team’s country, so while some nations are powerhouses overall, like South Korea, the constraints make for a more even playing field overall. Unlike OWL teams, World Cup Overwatch teams are hodgepodges of pros, popular streamers, and fan favourites, thanks to the role voting plays in finalising the lineups. It’s one of the game’s most entertaining events for all the same reasons people love the soccer World Cup: it’s messy, unpredictable, and often full of “holy shit” moments that professionalised teams are trained to stomp out at all costs.

Overwatch world cup grand