The first round of the Overwatch League (OWL) 2020 playoffs began yesterday, and with it, the Perfect Bracket Contest. Unfortunately, chances are that your bracket has already been eliminated. After the first round, only 151 perfect brackets remain intact.
Boston’s upset over Houston
The very first match of the OWL playoffs featured the 13-seed Boston Uprising playing against the 10-seed Houston Outlaws. Boston hadn’t won a single match since May in Week 15 when they beat the Los Angeles Gladiators 3-2. They were 2-19 in the regular season. While Houston wasn’t great either, they seemed like clear favorites in this matchup.
Only 5.2% of brackets had Boston winning, so when they pulled off the 3-1 win over Houston, that alone eliminated 94.8% of all brackets.
5.2% of fans correctly predicted Boston to win. Best of luck to all of you getting the next 31 matches correct!
— Jon Spector (@Spex_J) September 3, 2020
The other matches
The next OWL match of the day in North America featured the 12-seed Washington Justice against the 11-seed Vancouver Titans. Washington won the match 3-0. While this wasn’t a huge upset like the first match of the day, it could have gone either way as well. After both North America matches, only 291 perfect brackets made it through.
The final match of the day was the London Spitfire vs. the Chengdu Hunters in the Asia region. This match was also close, with Chengdu sitting on an 8-15 record during the regular season and London at 6-15. The higher-seed Chengdu did end up winning 3-1, but more brackets were eliminated. Leading to the 151 perfect brackets left.
The playoffs resume today at 3:00 p.m. ET beginning with the Toronto Defiant playing against the Los Angeles Gladiators. With only 151 perfect brackets left with a chance to take the $100,000 prize, it seems unlikely that anyone will win.
After the first round of both NA and APAC there are only 151 perfect brackets left with 927,712,500,000 combinations ahead. Keep in mind the 151 doesn't include getting the opponent selection right so it's much lower than that.
CAN ANY BRACKET SURVIVE THIS ROUND?
— Injured wrist SI Not Found (@sinotfound) September 4, 2020
If no one ends up with a perfect bracket, no one will win the prize money. This will make things pretty tense for those who did perfectly predict the first three matches. Be sure to catch all the action on the OWL’s official YouTube channel.