For most of the second season of the Overwatch League, there was one meta that prevailed—the infamous GOATs meta, which prioritized three tanks and supports. But, since role lock has made this meta now impossible, some players have wanted to go back to those times. With the Toronto Defiant agreeing with that notion, they decided to run a GOATs only tournament featuring players from everywhere. These players all competed for both bragging rights and a cash prize.
How did the teams form?
To start, each player on the Defiant was a captain to their own six man squad. Here are the teams, thanks to a Defiant fan who annexed them all:
So now we have all teams for the #RiseTogether GOATS throwback tourney, so now we can look at it back to back
this tournament is going to be insanely fun, i already know it
(Updated with S4's team) https://t.co/YlDGMQTlhz pic.twitter.com/qjagQbYkXd
— Statiic 💙 (@StatiicOW) September 25, 2020
Team Kariv was highlighted by all Overwatch League talent, including former teammates: Indy “Space” Halpern, Scott “Custa” Kennedy, and Kyle “KSF” Frandansia. Agilities’ team was also highlighted by previous teammates, the most surprising being Ted “Silkthread” Wang and Christopher “GrimReality” Schaefer. Team Logix had some interesting players on it, from staple players Caleb “McGravy” McGarvey to underrated ones like Jeffrey “Vizility” de Vries. Nevix’s team was going to be the most unknown, but it did include some veterans, like Stefano “Verbo” Disalvo.
Man everyones goats tournament teams are so tryhard and I've made a team with some friends, what have I done
— Seb Barton (@numlocked) September 22, 2020
Numlocked literally admitted going down the route of playing with his old friends, even though none of them were Overwatch League level. Kruise just went full British and made an English squad. Surefour’s team included some popular tier 2 players, especially Anthony “Harbleu” Ballo. Zykk made an all French roster, and RoKy made an almost all Korean team. However, Blake “Gator” Scott was added in to RoKy’s squad, being on the original roster that invented this meta. Last but not least, Adam “Beast” Denton made a roster filled with old teammates and some league players.
How did the tournament games work?
The series were all best of three, and out of popularity, without the assault game mode. These lobbies were made with a workshop code (1GSV3) and modified a little. Basically, it was locked into GOATs only, and sped up ultimate generation and movement speed. The Toronto Defiant tournament started with a round robin, which led to a small playoff format.
Congrats to #TeamRoky on taking the win over #TeamzYKK for third place 🥉#TDThrowbackTournament presented by @TD_Canada Grand Finals starting soon! https://t.co/DRQ15gnAOG pic.twitter.com/kTOQDcfDQO
— Toronto Defiant 🖤 #RiseTogether (@TorontoDefiant) September 27, 2020
This format proved to be both fun and entertaining; seeing teams play more for fun in the round robin before making it to the playoffs. The prize pool of this tournament was $5000 USD, adding some stakes to this tournament. Team RoKy won third place, but the champions ended up being…
Congrats to the winner of the #TDThrowbackTournament presented by @TD_Canada: #TeamBeast, taking the win over #TeamKariV! 🙌
The ULTIMATE GOATS Champs:
> @Beasthalo
> @blaseOW
> @danteh
> @Bernar
> @kjuno_
> @CarCarOW #RiseTogether pic.twitter.com/RWBQIFIUac— Toronto Defiant 🖤 #RiseTogether (@TorontoDefiant) September 27, 2020
Where does GOATs go from here?
From the tweets, it was clear that the community was excited to see this meta once again. Not only the fans, but the players too. A lot of the players post game mentioned missing this time, and the intricacies that went towards it. Plus, we only got to see a couple players from this roster play in the GOATs meta. Seeing them all play their own way with their own teams made it more fun to watch. But it is obvious we’re not seeing this on stage ever again.
LETS GO WON THE THROWBACK GOATS TOURNEY WITH THE REAL GOATS!!@Beasthalo @Bernar @CarCarOW @KJuno_ @danteh
thanks @TorontoDefiant for hosting this, was really really fun!!
— Jeffrey Tsang (@blaseOW) September 27, 2020
Jokes were flying around about how this was free scouting from the Defiant on other players, but I don’t think it was serious at all. This tournament was made for nostalgia and celebration of the end of a season. I am glad players enjoyed this tournament and found joy in it all. I hope this shows that more organizations can make these fun tournaments for the off-season.
