The north american Overwatch Tournament of Future Champions concluded Sunday, Jan. 20. This tournament featured a hero protect and a hero ban system in a semiprofessional environment. The best unsigned north american teams competed for a prize pool of $2000 as well as $100 for the MVP. Justin “Jayne” Conroy, Jennifer “LemonKiwi” Pichette as well as Christopher LoBosco Jr. hosted the tournament as well as other staff helping to run it.
Courtesy of: Twitch
Sixteen teams qualified for the knockout bracket, the tournament had prizes for 1st-4th place. These are the winners from the end of the tournament.
First Generation showed why they are in Overwatch Contenders by only losing two maps in the entire tournament. Chicken Contendies took second place with their clutch factor. The D.Va player Salty was very consistent and came up with clutch D.Va bombs. The fan favorite Anthony “harbleu” Ballo showed interesting graviton surges on Zarya, with not all of them paying off.
As for the third and fourth placed teams, Mirage was only shown once on stream, but their main tank Shayne “Chayne” La Rocque was very nimble on Winston. Path to Poverty is a team that competed in the first TOFC and made second place. This time they struggled with the hero bans, being forced to run variations of the standard 3-3 composition.
The hero ban system was expected to be used to get rid of GOATS, but as most teams have been practicing GOATS for months, most of the hero bans were used to get rid of anti-GOATS. Without access to statistics, the most banned heroes looked like Sombra and Mercy, both strong picks against GOATS. The hero bans did make the matchups more interesting, seeing Orisa as the main tank in the 3-3 composition. Mei, Ashe and Pharah were picked a large number of times in place of the heroes that were banned. As for protected heroes, Lucio was seen as a must pick for most teams.
From an outside perspective, hero bans require another level of strategy and flexibility, as well as teamwork and coordination. Forcing players to flex onto heroes that they haven’t played as much is a controversial topic. Regardless, the ban system does make for a more varied viewing experience, which in the current state of the game, most people welcome.
The Tournament of Future Champions ambitiously tested a new system that let both teams have more control over their games while trying to provide a more entertaining viewing experience. Jayne as well as the staff and viewers would love for feedback on the tournament.
Follow Ethan on Twitter @Hearin_Voices.
Featured Image Courtesy of twitch.tv/jayne
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