There weren't a lot of surprises coming out of the US group stage of the Overwatch World Cup qualifiers. With rosters full of Overwatch League players, it was obvious that Team USA and Team Canada would be advancing to BlizzCon—it was really just a matter of which team would beat the other when the two teams faced off on Sunday afternoon. After a weekend of troll plays, BM, and landslide victories, Team USA got the best of Team Canada by a score of 3-1 to wrap things up at the Blizzard Arena.
Here are some of the most ridiculous moments from the weekend:
Agilities' multikill on Lúcio
There aren't many things Brady "Agilities" Girardi can't do. He's been one of the best professional Overwatch players since early 2017, having played for both Immortals and the Los Angeles Valiant. This is his second time representing Canada in the World Cup, and he really showed off how deep his hero pool is.
When Canada subbed Agilities in as a support player against Team Austria, most figured they were going to run a solo healer with three DPS. That all changed when he locked onto Lúcio.
It figures that a projectile DPS specialist would make an ideal Lúcio on Rialto. With all the narrow paths and bridges, one well-timed boop is all he needed to send three opponents for a swim. However, it's the second part of this play that's truly hilarious. Backed into a corner, Agilities solo-ults himself to survive a D.Va attack and ends up getting a fourth kill out of that engagement.
Rawkus taunts the opposition
Shane "Rawkus" Flaherty is a charismatic support player for the Houston Outlaws, and this is his second year playing for Team USA. Like most supports, he also has a pretty good Soldier: 76 and Widowmaker, which is something top-ranking Swiss player Luca "Luux" Locher found out in an embarrassing way.
Maybe it was nerves. Maybe it was Rawkus' superior presence of mind. Whatever happened in this duel, the outcome was worthy of a huge facepalm. Rawkus barely moved, noticing that he was caught out of position. After a couple of missed shots by Luux, he even waves, asking to be taken out. Instead, Luux sees the kill feed and decides to reset by jumping off of the map—so Rawkus naturally follows for one final insult.
Bastion and Symmetra cheese
It's always fun seeing off-meta compositions at the highest levels of play. Point B of Hanamura naturally opens up some opportunities for creativity, and Team USA took advantage of that against a struggling Team Switzerland.
Zachary "ZachaREEE" Lombardo from Fusion University has been a phenomenal hitscan DPS player for some time. At only 17 years old, he's one of the most promising players who will meet Overwatch League age eligibility next year. Though Bastion probably isn't a hero he takes into scrims very often, Switzerland's inability to find a cohesive way of cracking Hanamura made them easy frags for the Omnic sentry.
Notice that San Francisco Shock star Jay "Sinatraa" Won is on Symmetra for this defensive composition. USA knew there wasn't anything Switzerland could do to win, so they went straight to the B team for a few laughs.
NotE is good at D.Va
Lucas "NotE" Meissner of the Boston Uprising will be the first to tell you that big D.Va bombs are the product of good teamwork more than individual skill. That doesn't take away from his expert timing and unfair luck with D.Va's ultimate. In his first year with Team Canada, NotE is picking up where he left off at Overwatch League—nailing huge bombs at just the right time.
Once again, it's Team Switzerland on the receiving end of an embarrassing play. Their tank players were apparently trying to hide in the stairwell next to point A on Gibraltar when NotE found them. They scrambled to get him out of there, but not before he sent a seemingly bad ultimate up the stairs behind them. Unfortunately for them, it wasn't bad at all, and three unaware players at the top of the stairs were sent to the respawn screen.
It's worth mentioning that he also had a 6-kill against Austria, among several other devastating D.Va bombs over the weekend:
Overall, the US leg of the Overwatch World Cup was average at best. Brazil and Norway were able to put the spotlight on their players, while Austria and Switzerland at least had the opportunity to fly out to Los Angeles and represent their countries. The only real competition came from USA vs Canada at the end of the weekend, and by then both teams had already punched their tickets to BlizzCon. The only consequence of the match was the resulting seeding in the OWWC finals later this year—the loser will have to face the stacked roster of defending world champs South Korea.
