A Viewer's Guide to the ESL Atlantic Showdown Final EU Qualifier

The second round of the European Qualifiers for the ESL Atlantic Showdown will be played later today! With the top four teams going to Gamescom later this year and a $100 000 prize pool, expect the teams to be trying their hardest to succeed. 

16 teams battle it out in double elimination format after four European Qualifiers for the ESL Atlantic Showdown. Having qualified in the first EU qualifiers, Misfits, REUNITED, SG-1 and ANOX have qualified for top four seeding, putting them on different branches in the bracket. Three straight wins for any team will see them immediately qualify for Gamescom, while a loss will see them drop into the grueling losers' bracket. This in theory reduces the chances of a major upset occurring, but in truth an early knockout of one or two "big" teams would mean that anything could happen. 

Where to watch 

The event will go live at 18:00 CEST/12:00 EDT/09:00 PDT. If you want to follow the action you can do so on the following channel: 

• ESL Overwatch (English stream) 

Predictions

In order to help you get a better understanding of the teams participating, we have listed the favourites and challengers for today: 

Favourites: 

1. Misfits

Misfits sit atop of the EU rankings in our Gosurankings at the moment following at the conclusion of an impressive July, taking top spot in the ELEAGUE Overwatch Open EU qualifiers. With an 81% winrate all month and a strong record against the other big teams in Europe, it's no wonder ESL have seeded the former Graviton Surge side in 1st place and we're not inclined to disagree. 

2. Rogue 

Rogue have been utterly resurgent since the Ana patch, with AKM absolutely flourishing on McCree at the moment. Despite having a comparatively less amount of success as of late, they are unbeaten in 5 matches and with Misfits out of the picture, beat ANOX, Creation and REUNITED on their road to victory in the 2nd ELEAGUE Overwatch Open EU qualifiers. 

3. REUNITED 

REUNITED boast the highest winrate out of all the top sides in Europe for the month of July, only dropping 7 sets while winning 33. They handed out consecutive defeats to both Misfits and Creation Esports in July, but that was weeks ago and as their recent defeats to Rogue and ANOX show, they are far from unbeatable. 

4. Creation Esports 

Creation have been the top dogs that have perhaps struggled most against the other top teams, but have consistently been achieving top 3/4 results in many tournaments throughout their history. Their consistency against lesser sides sees them ranked #2 in Europe on our Gosurankings, but a failure to beat the teams around their level means that they could have problems qualfiying. Nonetheless there are four qualifying places up for grabs for the top four sides giving Creation plenty of leeway to make it to Gamescom. 

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