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Twitch Rivals is taking the Overwatch Workshop to a whole new level.
Today, Twitch hosted an Overwatch Workshop Showdown that pitted the most popular Overwatch streamers against each other for a $25,000 prize pool.
Twelve of the biggest Overwatch streamers, like Jeff “Emongg” Anderson, Becca “Aspen” Rukavina, Fareeha Anderson, and former Overwatch League player Félix “xQc” Lengyel, participated in the tournament.
Overwatch League analysts Brennon “Bren” Hook and Josh “Sideshow” Wilkinson hosted the event, in which streamers played wild game modes created in the Overwatch Workshop which allows players to code their own game modes using the Overwatch engine.
The first round of the tournament was a standard match of Overwatch. After the first round, Twitch viewers were able to vote for the next round of gameplay they’d like to see. Every round was either a team game (six versus six) or free-for-all.
In the first round, a team headed by xQc won the $1,200 prize, which was distributed among the six players. Every team game carried a first-place prize of $1,200 and a runner-up prize of $300; each free-for-all game had a tiered prize system, with a first place prize of $400. The player who earned the most wins by the end of the tournament gained an additional $1,000 prize.
Here are the results of the tournament and a quick description of each round.
- Gun Game: This mode, which inspired the Overwatch Hero Gauntlet, made players switch characters after every kill. The first player to 30 kills won the round. Emongg took the win, netting him $400.
- Pick Two Heroes: Players chose two Overwatch heroes and switched between them at will. Streamers were split into teams and actually ended up making realistic team compositions on Hanamura. Team Emongg, which included Fareeha, Gale Adelade, and John “Wanted” Lin, won the match and took home $1,200.
- Lúcio Raceway: The goal of this mode was to wall ride around Eichenwalde, hitting a series of difficult checkpoints; the player with the fastest lap time wins. Aspen, a support player, got the winning time so quickly that she spent much of the rest of the game disrupting her fellow competitors.
- 10k Damage FFA: DarwinStreams, a popular creator of Overwatch Workshop modes, designed this free-for-all to reward damage, not kills. The goal was to get to 10,000 damage throughout the game. Nearly every streamer decided to go with Soldier: 76 for his quick damage output and healing ability; Wanted took the win and $400.
- Freeze Tag: Shooting an enemy froze them in this game mode, and freezing an entire team at once earned the team a point. Standing next to an ally for 2.5 seconds melted them and returned them to the game. Team Emongg scored another win by spreading out across the map and coordinating their freezes, netting them another $1,200.
- Enhanced Ana Paintball: A wildly popular custom game mode gets an upgrade. Zooming in with a scope froze the user and upgrades, like warp pads, dot the map. It was a very quick game as Gale Adelade hit shot after shot, but Atlanta Reign streamer Francine “Franyatta” Vo was the close runner-up.
- McCree Hot Potato: In this mode, one player began the game on fire. They had to pass the “hot potato” by shooting another player or hitting them with melee. Every player stood in a small circle, so there was very little room to run. The last player standing earned a point. It’s massive chaos, but Wanted came out ahead and scored another $400.
- D.Va Space Battle: Hana Song’s mech turned into a spaceship and players had to shoot each other out of the sky. Emongg, a D.Va specialist, nearly won the game until a server error caused a reset. On the second try, Fareeha managed to take the win and $400.
- Infinity Stones: Players had to collect the “Infinity Stones” scattered around the map. Each stone carries a buff; if a player gathers them all and holds them for 30 seconds, they win the game. The game lasted over 20 minutes and no single player won the game. The player who held the most stones over the game won the round, so Gale took another $400.
- Sprint Racing: Every player was Soldier: 76 and they gained infinite amounts of speed the longer they sprinted. Once a player hit a wall, their speed reduced to zero. With 12 players in the game, the streamers were able to bump each other into walls. Aspen ran circles around her competitors and won $400.
- Last Man Bouncing: Twelve Reinhardts bouncing on a large balloon sounds like an absolute nightmare, but that’s this game mode. Each player tried to use their tank abilities to knock each other off a shrinking balloon. The last tank standing took a point and the game went to 30. Connor “Fitzyhere” Fitzpatric took the win on this mode.
- Emote Watch: In this team game, players could only kill others using a single weapon: emotes. The streamers quickly realized that D.Va, who can be removed from mech and not instantly die, was the best hero for this mode. Team Emongg took their third win of the tournament.
- Spies vs. Mercs: Two teams of players fought over objectives in this mode. Spies (all Sombras) were trying to hack the objectives, while “mercs” defended objectives. Mercs also had to try to avoid being stunned by spies. The mercs, headed by xQc, won the round quickly and none of the streamers, or analysts, could exactly explain why. It was an easy $1,200.
- Steal the Crown: One player picked up the crown and gained points as they held onto it. Other players could melee the “king” and steal the crown or stun others with their melee. Wanted took his second win of the tournament and banked $800 since it was the last match.
Emongg and Gale Adelade appeared to be in a dead heat for first place during most of the tournament. With a last-minute win in “Steal the Crown,” though, Wanted literally stole the win away from both of them. As the streamer with the most wins, he was also given a bonus $1,000. Gale took the second place spot and Emongg placed third.
