The OWL might only be in Week 6 of its season, but thanks to a longer format including contenders and the OWL 2023 Pro-Am, we’ve got the west Midseason Madness Knockouts bracket locked in! This is going to be one of only two major LANs for 2023 OWL, so there’s a lot riding on teams to perform well here.
The Midseason Madness Knockouts bracket for the west is now fully confirmed and we know where all of the OWL teams are standing. This is what we’ve learnt from the early rounds and how it all looks for the LAN.
Midseason Madness Knockouts
With the OWL Week 5 matches concluded, we’ve got the full Midseason Madness bracket revealed! There are a few surprises in who’s made it up to the bracket too. The first round is going to be the lower side of the bracket, the four lower-ranking teams are competing to make it through to face the teams in the upper bracket. Only one team from these knockouts is going to hit the actual final bracket for the LAN and fight off against the top teams in the East.
Starting in the lower, we’ve got Shock facing Vancouver Titans first then Toronto Defiant and New York Excelsior. New York has done some decent climbing to make it this far. Shock on the other hand is continuing their fall since the days of winning back-to-back trophies. They’re still in the game though and stranger things have happened than a team making the run the whole way up.
These teams will face each other, before coming up against the lowers from the upper bracket. In the higher half, we’re seeing Florida Mayhem up against LA Gladiators and Boston Uprising against Washington Justice.
Source: Blizzard
Teams to Watch at Knockouts Bracket
Heading into the full Midseason Madness, Atlanta Reign are definitely the team to watch. They’ve not lost a full fixture in the whole regular season. Houston has also already made the international LAN. Heading into the Knockouts, there are a couple of teams with an advantage here though.
Florida Mayhem and Boston Uprising have had equally strong results in the regular season. Florida is a little ahead on exact results, but they both look firm to make it through. If you’re looking at OWL betting, these two are both the safer picks in the bracket.
Shock finishing just below the knockout cut-off definitely puts them at the bottom of the pack. They’ve had poor runs in the past though that they’re managed to follow up on strongly. They shouldn’t be written off. They might be the squad to look at for a real comeback story this season.
This is one of two LANs this season, not a lot of space for teams to set themselves apart. This LAN is going to be a major event for the season. The west Midseason Madness Knockouts bracket is the last chance for most of these squads to make a difference for the season.