Following on from our pundits NA predictions, I racked their brains to discover their forecasts for the slightly more competitive EU group stage. Being a primarily European team of writers turned pundits there is a bit more heart behind these predictions – especially in the case of Eden’s bold third place pick, which certainly raised … Continue reading “Winston’s Lab predicts: Overwatch Contenders Season 1 EU”

Contenders season 1 is on our doorstep, with it comes Blizzard’s last league-style tournament before Overwatch League launches later this year. After season zero we are now left with the top eight teams from both NA and EU. They will do battle over a six week group stage in order to whittle the groups down … Continue reading “Winston’s Lab predicts: Overwatch Contenders Season 1 NA”

I discussed in the Overrated podcast with Yiska that Overwatch Contenders S1 had many similarities with Overwatch Winter Premiere that was held last Winter (from the early December 2016 until the end of January 2017), since we have 8 remaining teams fighting for the Top 4 spots in the offline finals. However, the two tournaments … Continue reading “From Winter Premiere to Summer Contenders S1”

Winstonslab is gratified by the presence it has gained as a result of the hard work those who contribute to it have done to make it interesting and useful for a broad range of purposes and users. With this exposure, it has arose many of the problems generally associated with public debates over data and … Continue reading “What Power do Statistics Have in Overwatch?”

Cloud9, after securing the coveted London slot for Blizzard’s much hyped Overwatch League, has signed the entire roster of Laser Kittenz and will compete in Contenders’ Season One – Europe. Cloud9 expands its Overwatch roster, signs @LaserKittenz! Details: https://t.co/loDy9hTqGn pic.twitter.com/qPqRUNqyDG — Cloud9 (@Cloud9) August 14, 2017 Laser Kittenz made it to the semifinals in Season … Continue reading “Cloud9 Signs Entire Roster, Will Compete in Overwatch Contenders Season One – Europe”

Making the transition from player to coach is a difficult enough transition, but when you are tasked with representing your country while coaching six of the best Overwatch players in the world—it becomes something altogether different. Kyle “KyKy” Souder who became the Head Coach for Team EnVyUs back in April, understood that there are differences … Continue reading “Team USA Coach Says Selecting and Training Team Was a Challenge for World Cup”

The world cup debut for Team USA is around the corner. High time to look at the team and their chances in the competition. They will be playing the qualifier in Santa Monica at 7 p.m. CEST, 5 p.m. UCT, 1 p.m EDT, 10 a.m. PDT this Friday,  August 11th. Committee members This year’s World Cup … Continue reading “Heroes in stars and stripes – Team USA Overwatch”

Finding the optimal match format in any esport is not an easy task, especially during its first years, where developers and community are on their honey moon and everything looks shiny and on roses. However, the time of realization comes sooner or later and for professional play, choices need to be made that promote a … Continue reading “Has Blizzard figured out the optimal match format?”

Every season of APEX features some changes in the tournament format and OGN is trying to find the sweet spot in order to make their scene as competitive and fair as possible. However, in season 3 they did some things wrong in their attempt which I hope they fix in the future, unless these changes … Continue reading “Three things OGN did wrong in APEX S3”

The Grand Finals match of APEX Season 3 is, undoubtedly, the match of the year. The teams that are going to clash in this one are the best in Korea and they also are the ones eliminating Rogue in the Group Phase and Kongdoo Panthera stopped EnvyUs dead in their tracks in the semifinals, the … Continue reading “[APEX S3] Grand Finals Pre-game Analysis”

In this piece I will discuss how to collect stats for the Support heroes of the game so as to be able to identify player playstyles and find ways to evaluate performance. This is no easy task, however, because these heroes have skills that enable other heroes, meaning that the stats you collect for the … Continue reading “What Stats are Important Pt. 4 – Support Heroes”

This is the story of how I came to believe that Mitch “Ubershouts” Leslie would be an excellent choice for talent for the Overwatch League and perhaps the voice of the game. An unlikely disturbance The match takes place in the spacious TakeTV gaming bar. For the last four days, some of the best Western … Continue reading “The future voice of Overwatch – Ubershouts’ intoxicating passion”