The Florida Mayhem and Toronto Defiant earned 3-0 sweeps Friday on the first day of West region play-ins at the Overwatch League’s Countdown Cup.
Florida beat the Boston Uprising and Toronto swept the Washington Justice. The play-ins will conclude Saturday when two teams clinch the final available berths in the OWL Season 5 playoffs.
Florida and Toronto will meet in the play-ins’ upper-bracket final, with the winner qualifying for the playoffs. Boston and Washington will face off in a do-or-die lower-bracket semifinal. Finally, the winner between Boston and Washington will play the loser between Florida and Toronto for the final remaining berth.
The double-elimination playoffs will begin Oct. 30. The playoff bracket will culminate in the first in-person Grand Finals in three years at the Anaheim (Calif.) Convention Center on Nov. 4. The grand prize is $1 million, while the runner-up team will earn $500,000.
The Mayhem earned three narrow wins over the Uprising: 2-0 on Busan, 2-1 on Eichenwalde and 1-0 on Circuit Royal.
The Defiant started with a 2-0 victory on Ilios before eking out 3-2 wins on both Paraiso and Dorado for their sweep.
The six West region teams already in the playoffs are the Los Angeles Gladiators, Dallas Fuel, Atlanta Reign, Houston Outlaws, London Spitfire and San Francisco Shock.
From the East, the Seoul Dynasty, Shanghai Dragons and Philadelphia Fusion made the playoffs, along with the winner of the East play-ins, the Hangzhou Spark.
The play-ins conclude Saturday with three matches:
–Florida Mayhem vs. Toronto Defiant (upper-bracket final)
–Boston Uprising vs. Washington Justice (lower-bracket semifinal)
–Florida-Toronto loser vs. Boston-Washington winner (lower-bracket final)
–Field Level Media