Between June 1 and 4, TakeTV, a German production company, hosted their second annual Overwatch tournament. Eight international teams competed in a round robin bracket to determine this year’s winner. Each match was played as a four-game set with the winning team moving onto the playoffs. The two strongest teams this year were the North American based, Rogue, hosting an all French roster, and the European team, eUnited.
The finals was a rematch between the two teams. Although Rogue had 3-0’d eUnited in the winners bracket semifinals, eUnited came in red hot, sweeping Cloud 9 in their previous match up.
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On the first map, Nepal, both teams elected to go with the now popular “Dive Comp,” and would do so the rest of the match, featuring a Lucio, Winston, Tracer, Zenyatta, Soldier: 76 and D.Va or Genji. Early into the first round on Nepal: Village, Terrance “SoOn” Tarlier was able to out-duel Hendrik-William “Vallutaja” Kinks in a Tracer 1v1 to give the advantage to Rogue. Snowballing out of that pick, they were able to secure the point first. However, eUnited came back, getting an early pick on Winston and winning the next fight, and the next. They were able to hold the point until 90%, needing only one more fight to secure the first round victory. In the final fight of the round, eUnited’s Andrei “unFixed” Leonov went legendary, getting four straight kills securing the round win.
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The second round on Nepal: Sanctum featured Isaac “Boombox” Charles’s impressive Zenyatta. His mechanics seemed to be getting picks out of nowhere, as he somehow picked off Dylan “aKm” Bignet’s Soldier: 76 multiple times. In what seemed like a lost round to Rogue after eUnited’s Harrison “Kruise” Pond got a quadruple kill with Dragonblade, SoOn’s Tracer was able to barely touch the point in the nick of time to trigger overtime for his team, allowing Rogue to follow up and clean up eUnited. Perhaps shaken from the teamfight, eUnited was unable to defeat Rogue in the next three team fights, giving the round over to Rogue in a stunning fashion.
On Nepal: Shrine, Rogue seemed to obtain full control. With lack of communication and coherence, eUnited lost precious time as they staggered their deaths, meaning that they had to wait longer to push onto the point. Luckily they were bailed out as no one on Rogue was able to stop uNFixed, who was able to acquire five eliminations and the point for his team. Unluckily, in the ensuing fight where eUnited had no support ultimates, Vallutaja got picked by NiCo, leaving eUnited in a disadvantaged 5v6. However, they were bailed out by Boombox, as he was able to out-duel Nicolas “NiCo” Moret’s Genji Dragonblade and secure the fight for eUnited. However, Rogue was not to be denied as they used their superior ult advantage to secure the round win.
Leading 2:1, Rogue needed one more win to secure their first victory over eUnited. Returning to Nepal: Village, Rogue knew they had to do something different as they had lost the first time the two teams met up on this map. Instead of playing defensive when they had gotten the point, Rogue pushed onto eUnited in the final team fight, causing Kruise to waste his D.Va’s Self-Destruct. Without self-destruct available, Rogue focused D.Va down, allowing aKm to clear the field with Solder: 76’s Tactical Visor. With that victory, Rogue looks poised to become victors and takes the lead against eUnited, 1:0.
On Route 66, the next map, Rogue tried to play an aggressive strategy on defense, playing near the cart in boxcars. Unfortunately, their plan was foiled when they were spotted by Hanzo’s Sonic Arrow. Boombox was able to show off his impressive Zenyatta mechanics again, out dueling NiCo’s Dragonblade, again. In a last ditch effort to stop the stampeding eUnited team, Jean-Louis “KnOxXx” Boyer switched to Reinhardt. Almost immediately after, he was able to pin an ulting Genji in midair. However, eUnited quickly responded with their own counter-pick, with uNFixed switching to Sombra. With Sombra’s ultimate, Knox’s shield was no more and Rogue was easily cleaned up, and eUnited was able to push to the end with 41 seconds remaining.
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While eUnited’s attack was impressive, Rogue began on what seemed like a stellar push, never giving a chance for eUnited to fight back. NiCo was able to grab a triple kill with his Dragonblade in the second phase of Route: 66, and they reached the second checkpoint with four and half minutes to go. Rogue’s push slowed down in the third point as they were unable to obtain the picks they needed. But when SoOn was able to pick off Boombox with a Tracer Pulse Bomb, Rogue went all-in. Knox was able stop Kruise’s Dragonblade with a splendid Earthshatter and Rogue wiped eUnited, finishing off Route: 66 three seconds slower than eUnited.
Rogue was given one minute to push the cart against eUnited. With both teams unable to stop the other’s attack on the first point, Rogue seemed to be in very good shape. However, Boombox’s Ana denied Nico’s Genji some very necessary healing with an anti-grenade and died shortly after. Benjamin “uNKOE” Chevasson’s Zenyatta quickly followed suit, dying to eUnited’s Genji. With only 58.78 meters pushed on the cart, eUnited was in very good shape to take the second map over Rogue. However, their extra three seconds did not help them, as SoOn’s Tracer got an early pick on to eUnited’s Zenyatta. Needing a fast reset, eUnited rushed onto the cart into Overtime, but were unable to kill anyone, giving the second map to Rogue.
Following the second map, Rogue lead 2:0. Was eUnited going to get 3:0’d again? The third map, Hanamura, was Rogue’s first chance to become champions. eUnited was first up to attack. Boombox, who was on-fire the entire series, was able to take down three people and secure the first capturepoint on Hanamura. Quickly going off of their momentum, eUnited fast pushed point B on Hanamura, initiating with Thomas “Morte” Kerbusch’s Sound Barrier and Kruise’s Dragonblade. They were then backed up with Boombox’s Transcendence once Sound Barrier was depleted. However, they were only able to get two picks before NiCo used his Dragonblade to start Rogue’s counter attack. Using their short spawns to their advantage, Rogue only allowed one tick to be captured in that team fight. eUnited’s second push was more successful. eUnited traded one for one, that one pick was crucial to eUnited, as now Michaël “Winz” Bignet was unable to obtain and use Zenyatta’s Transcendence. Without Transcendence, eUnited cleaned up Rogue, taking the round with almost four minutes remaining.
Rogue answered with their own fast push, quickly taking point A. Although Vallutaja was able to land very nice double kill with Tracer’s pulse bomb, eUnited could do nothing but stall for the next two minutes on point B. Eager to defeat eUnited, Rogue quickly ended the second round, taking it with more than five minutes remaining, one minute faster than their opponent.
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It was now eUnited’s turn to attack in round 3. By diverting uNKOE’s attention away from healing NiCo’s Genji, eUnited took their advantage and quickly took point A. On point B, both Knox and Normunds “Sharyk” Faterins zoned off each other’s Soldier 76’s Tactical Visors, rendering those ultimates useless. However, Sharyk was not only able to zone off the opposing Solder 76, but he was able to kill both of Rogue’s DPS, giving the advantage to eUnited, and they were able to capture point B before Rogue was given the chance to stall with one minute and 41 seconds remaining.
In round 4, Rogue had little trouble taking the first point again as SoOn was able to participate in five kills. As Rogue headed toward point B, eUnited needed to hold Rogue off to stay alive in the competition. It did not look good for eUnited when Kruise’s nanoblade was unable to get any kills due to uNKOE’s Transcendence. Shortly after, Rogue’s Winz pushed the fight forward with sound barrier and soon after, NiCo quickly obtained two Dragonblade kills while SoOn took another with a pulse bomb. However, it was not enough as eUnited was somehow able to hold, with Boombox barely killing NiCo before dying. After that teamfight, Rogue seemed lost. When they were able to pick off Sharyk in a later teamfight, Rogue’s Morte tried to preemptively use Transcendence to give them an edge over eUnited. However, they were unable to get any picks while Morte used his ultimate, and that lead to nothing stopping Kruise’s Dragonblade, in which he sliced and diced Rogue. eUnited was then able to hold off Rogue to take map three, handing Rogue their first loss in the entire tournament.
With the score 2:1, eUnited was hanging onto a thread heading into the fourth map, Numbani. They were, however, holding the momentum and they took the first point swiftly over Rogue in the first round. Following some missteps on the Rogue side, eUnited was able to also take the second point when aKm accidentally killed himself with a rocket when Sharyk jumped into him. Right when it seemed that eUnited couldn’t be stopped, Rogue regained their composure and won the next fight after SoOn picked off Boombox with a pulse bomb. Rogue needed to hold of eUnited for over five minutes to stop them from completing the map. Even for Rogue, it was no easy task. However, that one teamfight that they won was crucial, was eUnited was unable to regroup, getting picked one after the other. At one point, eUnited had to retreat to their spawn as Rogue just kept building their ultimates killing them one after the other. Even with such good defense from Rogue, five minutes seemed too long, as eUnited was finally able to get a good push in as uNFixed was able to finish off three. Nearly wiped, Rogue was again in a tight spot. uNKOE was forced to burn Transcendence to stall for his team as eUnited was only one meter away from the finish line. The last-ditch effort somehow worked, as the Zenyatta ultimate stalled long enough for aKm to get Soldier 76’s ultimate and force eUnited to back off. Rogue was then able to stop their opponent the following fight, somehow holding eUnited from full pushing Numbani.
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Following the exciting round 1, eUnited was again in a make it or break it situation, needing to stop Rogue from getting to the finish line. Unlike Rogue, they were able to hold point A very nicely following a very aggressive defense strategy, surprising Rogue by the bus at mid. eUnited then backed off and played on site, again wiping Rogue with impressive play all around. eUnited continued their defense winning every single fight decisively. Rogue somehow found themselves with only one push remaining, hoping to finish eUnited right here. eUnited, trying to full hold Rogue and keep their hopes alive by forcing the match to go to a fifth and final game. With such high stakes on the line, eUnited attempted a pre emptive attack onto Rogue, much like their first fight of the round. However, this time Rogue was prepared and the quickly took care of Kruise. With no more Genji, eUnited had no hope of defending the first point anymore, and Rogue finally took point A with less than a minute remaining. With the notoriously hard defense on point 2, Rogue demolished eUnited with aKm’s tactical visor, taking a quintuple kill in the process. eUnited now had to hold Rogue for two and a half minutes to stay alive in this match. uNFixed pulled through in the next team fight, flanking from behind enemy lines and picking off two Rogue members and a team wipe with one minute remaining in the game. After a short reset, eUnited planted themselves on the high ground, trying an ambush on Rogue. However, uNKOE pulled off an amazing Zenyatta right click to kill Boombox, who had been doing such things all match long. Trying to salvage the situation, Kruise dragonblades, killing Morte. aKm responds with his own ultimate, shutting down Kruise’s Genji and Valujallah’s Tracer. After that fight, Rogue had victory in their sights. In the final stretch, Knox was itching for a good Earthshatter.
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Once he saw Sharyk place bubble, he know that no one could stop his ultimate. Timing his ultimate beautifully, he is able to land Earthshatter on both Morte and Kruise, killing them. However, it was not over yet as Vallujalah quickly responds with his own double kill, with a perfect pulse bomb onto SoOn and aKm. What happens next is a cluster of ultimates and chaos. But, unfortunately for eUnited, no one on their team was able to contest the point as Rogue took the fourth and final map, declaring themselves as victors of the Overwatch TakeOver 2 tournament, winning themselves a $25,000 first place grand prize.
Rogue proves to the world why they are considered one of the top teams currently in Overwatch, as they only lose one map in the entire playoffs. But eUnited too, shows that they are not to be messed with, as they were the clear second place team after sweeping Cloud 9, and earning themselves a nice $12,500 for their performance. The finals was an exciting and well fought match from both teams and lived up to what viewers could hope for.
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