They Came Two by Two: Overwatch Carbon Series Week 1 Recap

The first week of competition in the Overwatch Carbon Series has concluded, where 6 North American teams played two series each to top the table. Hammers Esports, compLexity Gaming, Immortals, Luminosity Gaming, Team Liquid and Renegades are the six teams competing in this online tournament to determine who some of the top NA teams are, while the best teams are competing at APEX in Korea. Here’s who topped the charts in week one.

Renegades

Coming off of a disappointing end to their run at the Overwatch Winter Premiere, Renegades had multiple questions to answer one of which was to find a sixth member for the team. The team elected to bring in Danish player Mikkel “Sypeh“ Sypeh from Citizen7 to round out the squad as another Flex. Their first series came against fellow Overwatch Winter Premiere team, Luminosity Gaming. Renegades lost the first map after a heroic defensive effort, but came back to win three straight maps to take the series. Their second series against Liquid resulted in a swift 3-0 sweep after a long third map. The key player for this team is Liam “Mangachu“ Campbell. The DPS player has a lot of skill and is crucial in Renegade’s offensive efforts. Renegades face a similar strength of opponent in week two as they will play against compLexity and Luminosity Gaming again.

Hammers

Hammers could be considered the underdogs heading into the tournament because they have not competed at many large scale events and when they have, they went out fairly early. Their first match came against Team Liquid on day two of the first week. Hammers took the series 3-1 bouncing back after dropping the second map, finishing the series in a dominant style. Their next series against compLexity was even more dominant, as they shut out coL 3-0 to sweep the series. Hammer’s DPS player Jake “JAKE“ Lyon was the star of the team in the first week after he got multiple “plays of the game” on Genji. While they did start of the tournament 2-0, they played against two of the weaker teams. The team faces much tougher opponents next week in Luminosity and Immortals who both sit at 1-1.

Immortals

Immortals were riding a high coming into this event after taking the title at the Overwatch Winter Premiere, beating most of the teams that they will be playing in this tournament. Their momentum continued in a strong 3-0 sweep over compLexity in their first series, but they were met with a wall in the second series against Luminosity. Luminosity were out for revenge after Immortals swept them in the semifinals of the Overwatch Winter Premiere. The teams played a thrilling 3-2 series that went in the favor of Luminosity. Immortals DPS duo of Christopher “GrimReality“ Schaefer and Brady “Agilities“ Girardi are still the many focus of this team and the team wants to funnel resources into them in order to win maps. Immortals will face Hammers and Team Liquid next week where they hope to emerge with two wins.

Luminosity Gaming

Luminosity were coming off a strong performance in the Overwatch Winter Premiere where they finished third at the tournament. They kept their stand-in from that tournament, Toni “Ube“ Häkli, to play in this event with them. They lost their first series against Renegades after failing to win a second game after taking the first map. Their second series provided the team with a redemption after when they were able to eek out a win against Immortals in a tense five-map series. Arthur “Eissfeldt“ Marx is starting to emerge as a star player alongside strong tank player Bastien “SuperPlouk” Klau. Luminosity will face the two undefeated teams next week in what should be a tough two series for the team.

Team Liquid

Team Liquid came into the tournament with a few questions after an okay performance at the Overwatch Winter Premiere and losing one of their support players. The team chose to bring in Lui “Lui“ Olivares to replace John “Minstrel“ Fisher for the tournament, while moving raphe to a support role. The experiment has not proven successful so far as they lost to both Hammers and Renegades, only winning one map between the two series. Though they are 0-2 at the end of the week they battled against the two teams that are undefeated, so the 0-2 record may not be wholly indicative of the teams skill. Liquid will look to bounce back against fellow bottom team compLexity and hope to gain an edge of Immortals.

compLexity Gaming

compLexity have even more questions to answer coming into the event after a fourth place finish at the Overwatch Winter Premiere. The team not only needed to find another replacement for Joey “Jkw“ Wavering, but they also lost key player Anthony “harbleu“ Ballo. The team was unable to win a single map losing both of their series 3-0 to Immortals and Hammers. The squad does not look like they can compete with the other five teams, but they may gain some more synergy after playing with their two substitutes more. compLexity will play Liquid in their second match next week to determine which is the bottom team in the tournament, but will face undefeated Renegades before that series.

What team looked the strongest in the first week? Tweet us your thoughts @GAMURScom