It is that time of the year again, the ATK Finals have come and gone, and with it comes the end of South African Overwatch for this season. While the finals may have been played online this year, they were nothing short of spectacular with all sixteen teams giving it their all. Unfortunately, we did not get to see every team play, those that did delivered some incredible Overwatch showing the continued growth in the South African Overwatch Scene. For most, it is a bittersweet ending.

The highly anticipated ATK tournament and finals came to a conclusion this last weekend. 

The first weekend of matches went all pretty much to script with possibly one outlier. That being Ladon Overwatch’s quite comfortable 3-1 victory over Vanguard. Going into this game many were split on who would emerge victorious and many expected it to be incredibly close but Ladon decided they were having none of it.

Our first casted match of the group stages, TSG Team Mist taking on XvG 2CP was bound to be an interesting clash with 2CP looking for revenge and a good start to their redemption arc. 2CP came out flying in this series taking a comfortable 2-0 lead before Team Mist fought back, adjusting to 2CP’s main tank, St4lk3r’s, aggressive playstyle, sending the series to map four. Blizzard World was a far closer map and on it, we saw 2CP make their own adjustments and emerged victorious taking the series 3-1, already exorcising some of those demons from stage 2.

Recent roster changes, most notably in the main tank position, placed The Overwatch Cubs in a different position to where we saw them in stage 2. While in stage 2 they were able to take down Risen 3-2, their match this time around was not to be the same. Risen took a relatively comfortable 3-1 victory over Cubs with their biggest thorn throughout the whole series being MiniTeg, Cubs’ projectile DPS, and Hanzo main. For a lot of the fights that Cubs won, MiniTeg put his teammates on his back and their map victory on Route 66 was mainly down to his insane Hanzo play.

As for the other casted games, Overclocked Esports versus Evo Esports and Omnius Gaming Kintsugi versus Rage Quit Odyssey the results went according to the script. While many expected the games to be closer than 3-0 scorelines to Kintsugi and Evo respectively, the Kintsugi versus Odyssey series being a blowout in favour of Kintsugi came as quite a shock.

Group Stage Standings

Group A

1. ATK Overwatch
2. Evo Esports
3. Overclocked Esports
4. RE ACCE Legion

Group B

1. The Beasty Boys
2. Ladon Overwatch
3. Vanguard
4. Overtime

Group C

1. Omnius Gaming Kintsugi
2. Rage Quit Odyssey
3. iEnvy Calypso
4. KitsuneZA

Group D

1. XvG 2CP
2. TSG Team Mist
3. Risen
4. The Overwatch Cubs

Bracket Stage (12-13th September)

Due to load shedding during the weekend of the 5th-6th of September, the bracket stage had to be delayed a week but that only gave teams more time to practice. Now with the nerfs to Roadhog incoming, throughout the weekend we saw most teams move away from that Roadhog pick. During this bracket stage, we saw all sixteen teams compete once again, with the top two in each group playing in the upper bracket while the other two teams starting in the lower bracket.

There were honestly so many great games throughout the entire weekend and I’d strongly recommend to everyone if you have not watched the games do yourself a favour and go watch them. I think I can safely say that this is the best Overwatch I have seen coming out of South Africa and I am extremely excited to see what happens next year. 

As far as storylines, we finally saw ATK Overwatch dropping a map, while XvG 2CP and Evo Esports continued their redemption arcs finishing off their tournament runs strong. Overclocked Esports and Ladon Overwatch were able to stamp their authority showing that they are not teams to take lightly. The team that did disappoint, however, is iEnvy Calypso who for their match against RE ACCE Legion had to play 5v6 and ended up losing the series 3-1.

I would love to go into each game that we saw get casted but I think that would be a major injustice to the experience of watching those games unfold as I would not be able to truly describe how amazing they were. So go ahead grab your popcorn and watch the matches play out. 

Bracket Stage Results

1st ATK Overwatch

2nd The Beasty Boys

3rd XvG 2CP

4th Omnius Gaming Kintsugi

5th-6th Rage Quit Odyssey, Evo Esports

7th-8th Overclocked Esports, TSG Team Mist

9th-12th Risen, Ladon Overwatch, RE ACCE Legion, Vanguard

13th-16th Overtime, KitsuneZA, iEnvy Calypso, The Overwatch Cubs

It truly was an incredible two weekends of South African Overwatch and a huge thanks and congratulations go to all the players and teams who participated in the weekend’s games. We also can not forget each and everyone who ran behind the scenes, the producers, all the admins, and everyone in between, to ensure that everything went as smoothly as possible. A big shoutout needs to be given to the casters and panel who gave the games the hype that they deserved. As someone who got a sneak peek into what went down over the weekends, the amount of effort that went in was truly amazing to see, and without their hard work, none of this would have come to fruition. Then finally everyone would like to thank ATK Arena for allowing the teams the space and platform to compete and making it the highlight of the year.

We would also like to extend a massive thank you to COWZA for being the heart of the scene. Competitive Overwatch South Africa is a welcome community full of amazing individuals who strive to create a safe and friendly environment for all. To all the individuals involved… we thank you.

A perfect embodiment of the nature of Overwatch in South Africa is the unofficial show match between Rage Quit Odyssey and Evo Esports that took place last night, a game between the closest friends as well the biggest rivals. BLuR and ThePeachZA captured the playful essence of these two teams with their zero filter commentary. The game was filled with many great moments such as players struggling to stay on the map, wacky compositions, and questionable commentary (Peachy looking at you with those sky blossoms). The coach of both teams, BLuR, was able to vent his frustrations through the mischievous flaming of all the players. For us, at RageQuit a game filled with light-hearted shenanigans is the perfect way to end off our season. 

On a more personal note, we must say farewell and thank you to our flex support, in-game leader, and friend, Fluffy. We wish you all the great sleeps, massive anti-nades, and incredible Zenyatta headshots in the future, but most of all we hope that you succumb to your true calling, being a Mercy one trick. Everyone at RageQuit would like to wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors and know that there is always a spot on our teatime couch just for you. 

With endings come new beginnings. This year we have seen all the ups and downs that competing has to offer. New players, teams, organisations have spread their wings and taken flight. However, as the scene grows we must say goodbye to those who are taking a different path. To those of you leaving us, we must say thank you for all the time and energy you have put in to make this scene what it is today. The friendships made transcend the game and we thank each and everyone who has crossed paths with us. Remember this is not goodbye instead it is see you later.