Don’t look now but the Overwatch League makes its triumphant return this week. The OWL Pro-Am is the first event in a revamped season structure, where OWL teams compete with Contenders teams in a pre-season tournament, featuring both group and knockout play. This is a first-of-a-kind tournament for the OWL where we see teams battle it out in a weekend-long round robin. Teams will find themselves playing multiple times in the same day, adding another wrinkle to an already unfamiliar environment.
[Related: Overwatch League Pro-Am Groups Announced]
As with any group-stage, only two teams can advance and earn a spot into the knockout portion of the tournament. Admittedly some of these groups seem to be decided before any games are even played, but its still important to break down each group to understand who will move on and why they are favored to top the group. Let’s talk some predictions!
Teams: Vancouver Titans, San Francisco Shock, Florida Mayhem, Trick Room, Timeless
Who Makes It Out: San Francisco Shock, Florida Mayhem
Group A is an interesting group as it appears to be a battle for second place. The San Francisco Shock, lead by last year’s MVP and ROTY Kim “Proper” Dong-hyun, are heavy favorites to finish first in the group – and of course to win the whole thing. The Shock do have a roster packed with rookies, but the O2 Blast core have high expectations despite their limited OWL experience.
The Florida Mayhem and the Vancouver Titans stand out as the two teams that have the best chance to advance alongside the Shock. The Mayhem have made a few adjustments in the offseason that just may deciding factor between the two OWL teams. Choi “MER1T” Tae-min joins the Mayhem after an excellent rookie season with the Houston Outlaws and brings a bit of that much-needed explosiveness from the DPS spot. The returning members of Florida are hungry to prove that this team is better than their 12-12 2022 record would suggest.
On the other side the Titans made a complete overhaul of their own team, only hanging onto Luka “Aspire” Rolovic from the 2022 roster. They added a handful of former Uprising players and even secured Kamden “Sugarfree” Hijada to fill out their new team for the upcoming season. The Titans could easily surprise us all with second-place finish in this group, however grabbing three members (and a head coach) from a team that finished 10-14 doesn’t instill a ton of confidence.
Looking at the two Contenders teams in this group, Trick Room is the one that viewers should see as a potential dark horse to make it to the knockout round. The second-place finishers in the Pro-Am Qualifier tournament are a strong Rush team that were able to play to their strengths throughout the bracket. If Reinhardt mirrors are on the menu, Trick Room might find a way to push back Florida and Vancouver.
Timeless is a pure wildcard in this group. The fourth seed coming out of qualifiers had to adjust their roster just before the competition and appeared to still be working on some synergy as they fought their way through the lower bracket. Cameron “Wub” Johnson joined at just the right time, filling in a key role after an unfortunate rules situation that caused Park “Arrow” Min-seok to be ineligible to play. It will be interesting to watch if the down period between tournaments has helped Timeless become a potential Cinderella story in this group.
Teams: Atlanta Reign, London Spitfire, Los Angeles Valiant, Vegas Eternal, Maryville Saints
Who Makes it Out: Atlanta Reign, Maryville Saints
Due to the extra-long offseason, people might forget that the Atlanta Reign took an early and aggressive approach to building their 2023 roster. They wasted zero time reaching out to Lee “LIP” Jae-won and Jeong “Stalk3r” Hak-yong to secure an elite DPS line before other teams even thought about trialing new players. The Reign didn’t shy away from opening their wallets a second time to grab a championship-caliber support line with Kwon “Fielder” Joon and Han “ChiYo” Hyeon-seok. Atlanta is locked and loaded, ready to sweep this group.
Many see London Spitfire as a team that should escape a relatively easy group, and there is a strong possibility that they do. However the Maryville Saints looked scarily good through the Qualifier tournament. The Saints have a stacked roster featuring former Vancouver members Rene “k1ng” Rangel and Nick “False” Wiseman, as well as former Shock and Uprising tank Michael “mikeyy” Konicki. But people know those names already, and what fans will want to watch is the performance of 15-year old Elliot “TR33” Chu. TR33 is an incredible prospect that has a bright future in Overwatch, if he continues to pursue the Path to Pro. The Saints dropped just three maps throughout their Qualifier run and are easily the favorites among the other Contenders teams to make it to the knockout bracket.
If the Saints fail to live up to the hype, London will surely advance past groups. The Spitfire essentially brought back the same roster from 2022, giving them the luxury of already having a roster with elite synergy. Signs are pointing towards a Rush meta, making the Spitfire a terrifying opponent in those mirror matchups.
That leaves the Eternal and the Valiant as the two bottom teams in the group. Like the Spitfire, the Eternal brought back most of last season’s roster. Unlike the Spitfire however, the Eternal were very weak in 2022. The current version of the Eternal were brought in mid-way through the 2022, and failed to win a single match. Rumors are circulating that its more of the same for Vegas in 2023 suggesting that this roster will struggle once again.
Somehow, someway, we still have no announcement for the Valiant roster. Technically the Valiant have signed a roster at this point in the offseason due to the roster-construction rules set by the league. So the good news is there are players somewhere with Valiant jerseys. The bad news: all signs point to this team having a terrible showing in the Pro-Am.
Teams: Washington Justice, Los Angeles Gladiators, Boston Uprising, WISP, Team Peps
Who Makes it Out: Los Angeles Gladiators, Boston Uprising
Let’s just get it out of the way – yes the Los Angeles Gladiators have allegedly been underperforming in scrims. Actually, some are suggesting they are getting stomped. These results should not condemn the Glads to the bottom of the group. Simply put – this team is too talented to struggle for long. The main concern is Dante “Danteh” Cruz transitioning to tank full time for the Glads. He excelled on a few heroes when he stepped in for the Houston Outlaws, but the big question continues to be “can he play the traditional main tank characters?”. If the Glads do fail to escape the group stage, there will be many more questions than answers after the Pro-Am.
The Boston Uprising might be one of the teams fans are looking forward to viewing the most. Putting all the questionable staffing decisions aside, the Uprising look incredibly strong on paper. In fact only Shin “Kalios” Woo-yeol and Jang “Decay” Gui-un have yet to win a championship on this team. This event should be the first positive step in what could be a massive turn-around year for the Uprising. That is assuming the coaching staff can set up this roster for success.
The Washington Justice are, for lack of a better phrase, very weird. Their DPS line looks very solid, with Kim “AlphaYi” Jun leading the charge. The tank line is a bit of a thinker, as we see Benjamin “BenBest” Dieulafait making his OWL return alongside Huy “MirroR” Trịnh, who is mimicking Danteh in a role swap. Then there’s the support that features another player returning to OWL after a hiatus in Brice “FDGod” Monsçavoir, and another role swapped player with Kim “Teru” Minki. This team could be good, but it could also never mesh. This is one of those teams where we truly won’t know how good, or bad, they are until we see them in action.
Funny enough, Team Peps was thrown into the group with their former head coach (Zouheir “GetAmazed” Baba and former tank (BenBest). Their match against the Justice could be a fun one as the two teams seem evenly matched. Team Peps features four former members of OWL that are still fighting the good fight to prove they have what it takes. Peps will have a tough time facing the two teams likely to advance through the group, but they could find themselves closer to the knockout stage than some fans would imagine.
As the 5th seed from NA, there isn’t much of an expectation from WISP to “wow” people. This will still be an excellent platform for these WISP players to showcase their potential against some of the best players around. WISP’s lead tank player Domenic “Krawi” Akrawi was recently announced to have left the team, putting the entire tank-role on the shoulders of Julian “Jbubs12” Bevien-Guevarra. WISP might need a minor miracle to advance through this group.
Teams: Toronto Defiant, New York Excelsior, Houston Outlaws, Twisted Minds, Redbird Esports
Who Makes it Out: Houston Outlaws, Toronto Defiant
Without a doubt, Group D is the toughest group of the Pro-Am. The Toronto Defiant and the Houston Outlaws both have made huge roster adjustments in hopes to boast the next best roster in NA. Twisted Minds strolled through the EMEA Pro-Am qualifier and enters as the top seed from that bracket. Redbird Esports has consistently performed well through Contenders and are prepped to make serious waves against OWL-level competition. And of course there’s the New York Excelsior who certainly have a team.
Truly the only outcome fans can be sure of is the last place finish for the Excelsior. It sounds harsh, however they are in the same exact position as the Los Angeles Valiant. They have yet to reveal their roster (though they did announce when the announcement will happen) and the leaked scrim codes do not bode well for the supposed roster New York did sign. All will be revealed soon enough though. New York fans may just need to lower their expectations for this tournament – and potentially the season.
The Houston Outlaws and Toronto Defiant are favored in this group, and are strong contenders to take the whole tournament. However all eyes should be on these two Contenders teams, as they have the ability to punch up and take maps off of any team in this group. Twisted Minds unique play style and hero pool could prove to be problematic for some teams. On the other hand, Redbird Esports are a bit more conventional in their approach and are more likely to opt into more meta compositions. That could hurt them in the end, but a lot could change from the last time we’ve seen Redbird Esports play.
Featured image courtesy of the Overwatch League
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