The finals of the Overwatch Winter Premier were held in a LAN setting at PAX South.
The finals was a best of five affair. The ConnorJ team was the only unsigned team moving into the Playoffs. Following their surprise performance in the Group stage, they were signed on by Ghost Gaming organization.
https://twitter.com/GhostGaming_GG/status/824702355740495874
The maps for the finals were:
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Lijang Tower
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Dorado
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WatchPoint Gibraltar
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Nepal
Immortals came into the tournament with a stand-in. They had Chance playing the tank role for the team. There was some obvious lack of coordination with his team mates as there were several times that he would be segregated from the team.
Lijang Tower
The first point, Control Center saw Ghost Gaming take a clean sweep of 100-0. Their game was so dominant that they were even spawn camping Immortals.
Night Market saw both the teams trade the control point back and forth. We saw some amazing individual performances by GrimReality and ConnorJ alike. Immortals were able to claw their way back in They took control of the point back from Ghost. But an amazing Graviton Surge by Babybay saw the Ghost team wipe out Immortals off the point and win the point.
The third point for the Map Night Market saw ghost take the point in a dominating fashion. They were able to wipe out Immortals based on aim punch alone. With some amazing hookś by ConnorJ to initiate the fights, Immortals always seemed to be at a disadvantage as we walked into the point.
Dorado
Ghost started out on the offense on Dorado. They were able to break in early against Immortals. Immortals seemed extremely uncoordinated with their ability usage. We saw a 1v6 nanoboosted Roadhog, a reinhardt who was caught out in no manś land several times. The cart seemed to stop only near point 2 ( mainly due to closer respawn teams). Immortals were able to stall Ghost for quite sometime on the second point. GrimReality showed how useful Mcree can be in professional gameplay with his Four man ultimate. Ghost was ultimately able to take point 2 and push the payload a bit more. But the amount of time wasted on Point 2 definitely proved to be a hindrance for them to finish the map.
Ghost picked Symmetra on their defense. It was not really a surprise pick as teams are known to do so on Dorado ( on the first point). Immortals took the high ground, gaining a positional advantage. GrimReality was unchallenged with his Mcree and was able to dish out a lot of damage to Ghost Gaming. However, the Symmetra teleporter was extremely useful as Ghost were able to come back after the first defense to hold the first point. A big advantage in the ultimate economy definitely saw Immortals go through the first point in the next push. Agilities was instrumental in setting up team fight advantages. He was able to hook important characters such as Ana, Roadhog etc to gain a numbers advantage. Ghost was very strong on their defense on the third point. Immortals were barely able to move the payload 20 meters post the checkpoint and we saw various combinations of the ultimates from Ghost gaming. However, Immortals were able to bring down Ghost Gaming and push the payload.
WatchPoint Gibraltar
GrimReality continued his form into Watchpoint Gibraltar. Mcree is not really a normal pick for competitive teams. Mcree has high damage, however, has low mobility. GrimReality was able to position himself in really advantageous positions and deal out lots of damage. With Agilities playing Tracer and Grim Reality dealing damage from behind with his Mcree, Ghost was sandwiched between the two players for the most part.
GrimReality was the star of the map as Ghost did not have any answer to him. Immortals won the second map due to GrimReality playing in a very calm and serene manner.
Nepal
The fourth map for the series was on Nepal. Nepal being yet another control point map looked favorable to Ghost ( since they had won Lijang tower ) in such a dominant fashion. However, Immortals were able to find their stride. They seemed extremely confident as they took their individual 1 on 1 battles. There was definitely a big difference in the aim of the two teams.
The second point was a very close matchup but Grim Reality was again left unchecked for the most part as he was able to do a lot of damage. After some really close contests, Immortals managed to win the second point in the end.
The third and last point saw Immortals put on a strong show. In the end it was a nanoboosted Roadhog who forced the opponents out of the point and win the tournament.
The Immortals roster has been together and practicing for almost 2 months. They have been improving daily and despite not having Nomy in their lineup for the LAN finals, they still managed to win against Ghost quite convincingly.
You can watch the entire series live on Youtube.
With this victory, they won $40,000 in total prize money. This comes as the first victory of 2017 in the Overwatch scene. Ghost Gaming moved on to the second place with a $20,000 prize pool.
