OWL Countdown Cup Preview – Expectations and Match Predictions

Esports News
July 28, 2021
Jordan Ashley

The Overwatch League’s 2021 season has been running a bit differently this time around. The Season’s new tournament format has made a big change from last year’s events. However, it has proven to be a pretty big success, with jumps in viewing numbers for the matches compared with last season. The last of the game’s tournaments before the grand finals is about to get underway. The first week of the OWL Countdown Cup is going to start off this weekend. This is what’s happening, and what you can expect over the tournament.

Shanghai Dragons

© Shanghai Dragons

OWL Countdown Cup Overview & Format

The Countdown Cup is the final tournament event of the 2021 regular season. Following this, the league is going to be holding its grand finals to pick a victor for this season. To date, the 20121 season has been pretty surprising. The top teams this time around have looked significantly different to previous seasons. However, over the course of 2021, a few teams have definitely risen to the top. The OWL Countdown Cup is the last chance for things to turn around before the finals.

The OWL Countdown Cup is going to be running in the format as the previous tournaments this season. Teams are competing in regular-season matches over the next three weeks. Some of these are held online, but a few are going to be hosted by teams in person this time around. Following these matches, teams go into knockout stages. Here the top teams from East and West play in a bracket to find the top four. Those finalists then compete in a double-elimination bracket to find the victor.

All matches for the first week of the OWL Countdown Cup are going to be played online. Teams in both the east and west are going to be competing. This is what you can expect over the weekend.

OWL Countdown Cup Favorites

So far this season Dallas and Shanghai have definitely risen to the top of the crowd. Former two-time champions Shock have had a bad Season, dropping off the tournaments bracket entirely. With this balance in the league, there are some big matches scheduled for this weekend in the OWL Countdown Cup.

The first game of the weekend sees Dallas Fuel up against Paris, in what should probably be a simple enough win for Dallas. Other fairly easy-to-call games over this weekend include Shanghai v Philadelphia, Atlanta v Gladiators, and Shanghai v New York. All of these should be fairly easy to predict. There are some closer matches to watch though. Hangzhou Spark v Philadelphia is going to be a close match, along with Atlanta v Gladiators and Boston v Paris.

One which likely won’t be tight, but holds some significance is Shock v Dallas. This last cup is the last chance to Shock to turn things around on their fall from grace, but going up against Dallas is not going to be an easy task.

OWL Predictions

There are loads of matches being played this week in the Overwatch League. We’ve looked through the esports odds offered by various esports bookmakers to see which teams are the best predictions for this round both as favorites and in terms of winning coefficients. These are the matches being played, with our predictions for Overwatch betting in bold:

  • Dallas – Paris
  • Houston – Washington
  • Hangzhou – Seoul
  • New York – Valiant
  • Philadelphia – Shanghai
  • Boston – Paris
  • Atlanta – Gladiators
  • Dallas – Shock
  • Seoul – Valiant
  • Shanghai – New York
  • Hangzhou – Philadelphia
  • Atlanta – Houston
  • Shock – Boston
  • Gladiators – Washington

While a lot of these matches don’t feel too close in the build-up, things can change quickly. This season has been full of surprises for the League, so be sure to watch along with the games to see how the OWL Countdown Cup starts.