An unexpectedly decisive Grand Final rounded out the $5,000 tournament.
Despite a very strong showing earlier in the tournament, Cloud9 ultimately fell to the aggressiveness of Selfless Gaming to in the Grand Final of the Overwatch Rumble May. Think you missed anything? Don't worry, we've got you covered in the review below.
Quarterfinals Recap
- Kungarna vs Rise Nation - Kungarna wins, 2-0
- Cloud9 vs Counter-Logic Gaming - Cloud9 wins, 2-0
- Renegades vs YIKES! - Renegades win, 2-1
- Selfless Gaming vs LG Evil - Selfless wins, 2-1
Kungarna vs Cloud9- Cloud9 wins, 1-2
Kungarna was quick to take the first point to start out Watchpoint: Gibraltar, grabbing the first point with ease. Gods and Kaiser followed up in the Hanger by shutting down Kungarna on two consequitive pushes, with Kaiser taking out BabyBay just as he pulled his Tactical Visor and Gods taking out Kungarna's supports with his Dragon Blade to effectively stop Kungarna's second push. It looked bleak for a moment or two in Kungarna's third point push, but Mykl's Pulse Bomb on Adam's Lucio was exactly what Kungarna needed to complete the map with only seconds to spare. Cloud9 had a harder time getting out of the first point thanks to Mykl and Bischu targetting Kaiser, resulting in an even harder second leg, as they had to move the payload to the second point while in Overtime. It was a feat they couldn't pull off in the end, allowing Kungarna a surprisingly quick first map.
Hollywood was a different story, however, with Surefour and Xepher controlling most of Kungarna to allow C9 to push on their initial attack. Once Babybay's Tactical Visor was denied, a late Transcendance from Dogman sealed the deal for C9, giving them the full three points and finishing in Overtime. Kungarna was in a similar situation at the end of their third leg, having to run most of their final point in OT, but the difference was a clutch Self-Destruct from Xepher onto Pookz's Lucio that turned the tide in Cloud9's favor, resulting in C9 tying up the series.
Nepal served as the deciding map for ths first semifinal, with Sanctum kicking the tiebreaker off. The first round on Sanctum had long back-and-forths, but it was ultimately Gods and Kaiser's Roadhog and Reinhardt, respectively, that pushed C9 over the edge for the first round. With Gods on Roadhog again, iRemiix was little threat to C9, giving Surefour and Xepher the breathing room they needed to keep Kungarna completely away from the point and grabbing Village in a 0-100 victory. Village was Kungarna's final stand, with a 99-99 Overtime situation eventually going C9's way, resulting in them advancing into the Grand Finals while Kungarna drops into the third-place match.
Renegades vs Selfless - Selfless wins, 0-2
Both teams made it through King's Row with only a six-second difference between the two teams, but the difference was Renegades failing to control Emongg's D.Va and Sinatraa's Tracer. With Sinatraa coming up big with a last-minute Pulse Bomb finding Jer's Lucio and a follow-up kill on Sherlockey's Ana, Renegades just didn't have the support (literally!) to keep their attack going, resulting in them being full-held by Selfless for the first map, 3-4.
Lijang started off on Night Market and a return of Mangachu's Pharah and Sherlockey's Mercy, but a key Sleep Dart from Michael3D's Ana quickly put that duo to bed and allowed Selfless control of the round. Selfless came out on top on Control Center with no major problems, leaving Renegades' last stand on Lijang to be on Garden. An early misplay from Zachareee was forgiven in the late-game, with his Genji being able to clear the way for an unexpected takeback of the point and steal Gardens away from Selfless in a 100-99 win. Despite having the momentum of stealing a round from Selfless, Renegades did not have an answer for them in the second play of Control Center, falling 0-100 and dropping the match, 0-2.
Kungarna vs Renegades - Kungarna wins, 2-0
Kungarna played very agressively on Nepal's Village, baiting out a Primal Rage from Primodulce early on to put Renegades on the back foot, resulting in Kungarna being able to secure the first round. In Sanctum, however, it was Renegade's turn to go on the offensive, grabbing more than 60% charge before Kungarna could capture the point once. With a quick retake from Renegades, the map was tied, 1-1. Shrine, however, found Renegades running out of gas towards the end, with Kungarna's Mykl being able to lead the team to a reverse-sweep of the point to gain the lead on Nepal, 2-1. With Sherlockey's Zenyatta on fire, Renegades fell to Kungarna in the next round on the replay of Village, giving Kungarna to Nepal.
Renegades were able to contest most of Kungarna's push on Watchpoint: Gibraltar, but it was their exploiting J3sus' baby D.va state on their third point push that made the difference, allowing for Kungarna to complete the map with 45 seconds left. Mangachu's Hanzo play was able to set Kungarna back on multiple pushes, but once Mykl and iRemiix were finally able to pin him down, Kungarna was able to overcome Renegades and take home $500 and third place, 2-0.
Cloud9 vs Selfless - Selfless wins, 0-3
Three of Selfless' heroes were in the Wild Wild West section of Hollywood as the first point was being captured, resulting in a relatively quick take and push into the alleyway. It was in the middle of that alley that C9 caught their footing, draining the four-plus minute lead to under a minute as Selfless moved into the third leg. Cloud9's defense wasn't enough to completely overpower Selfless, but they did manage to hold Selfless back long enough to have them with .7 - seven-tenths of a second - left in the time bank. Luckily for them, they were able to hold C9 to finish the map with less than a minute left in their timebank, giving both teams the extra minute that was sorely needed for Selfless. In an unusual set of events, both teams full held each other, resulting in Hollywood ending in a rare tie.
In the resulting best-of-three tiebreaker on Lijang, Selfless showed why this map was their later pick in the series as they blocked out C9 for most of Night Market, with the fights mostly taking place in the row of buildings near C9's spawn. Cloud9 had a much easier time on Garden thanks to Surefour and Adam's Pharmercy play and Kaiser's Winston being able to keep most of Selfless at bay, effectively tying up the best-of-three and leaving the deciding map to be Control Center. In a battle of agressiveness, it was Selfless that came out on top, being able to overcome Surefour's McCree to take the third round and the first point of the series.
King's Row started heavily in Selfless' favor, with them capturing the first point and having over four minutes to get to the second point. Selfless wasted some of that trying out an ill-fated Orisa/Bastion combo, which was later sorely needed as C9's Gods and Dafran going off on their DPS heroes to hold Selfless just before the final turn of King's Row. C9's push on the payload was extremely chaotic, with Selfless spreading out and forcing C9 to try to defend multiple-angeled attacks. In the end, C9 just couldn't keep up, resulting in Selfless being one map win away from winning the tournament.
Nepal's Sanctum once again favored the overly-aggressive Selfless team, who was able to overcome an on-fire Adam and his on-point boops to take the first round after only losing one fight. Cloud9 fought back on Village, thanks to Kaiser and Xepher's work on their respective tanks and Surefour targetting healers. It was that same tactic that allowed C9 the early lead on Shrine, but Kresnik's flanking Earthshatter blocked Dafran's Tactical Visor at the perfect time, resulting in C9 taking the third round. Selfless was able to reel it in to tie up Nepal once more, 2-2, leaving the randomly-selected Village to be the final showdown. The fifth round of Nepal started off heavily in Selfless' favor, but then went back and forth multiple times as both teams had almost the same amount of capture charge with each push. The final push was the epitome of chaos, but in the end Selfless shut C9 down and took home the gold, wiping C9 out of the tournament in a deciding 0-3 fashion.
And with that, Selfless took home $3,000 and first place, Cloud9 secured $1,500 and second place, and Kungarna rounded out the top three and brought in $500.
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