Spacestation Gaming, Sakura Esports stay alive at OWCS NA Stage 3

Spacestation Gaming and Sakura Esports remained in contention during Day 2 of the playoff portion of the Overwatch Champions Series 2025 -- North America Stage 3 with victories on Sunday.

Sakura Esports, which finished pool play as the No. 5 seed and was off Saturday, eliminated NTMR with its second straight defeat by a 3-1 margin in one best-of-five lower bracket quarterfinal match. Spacestation Gaming, which lost Saturday, bounced back with a 3-0 sweep of sixth-seeded Team Z to stay alive in the other quarterfinal.

The eight-team online competition produced six playoff teams following round-robin action, who all advanced to the double-elimination regional playoffs, which began Saturday and saw the field trimmed to four teams on Sunday.

The top three finishers in the playoffs will earn Overwatch Champions Series 2025 World Finals invitations as well as cash prizes of $30,000 (first), $20,000 (second) and $14,500 (third). Lower finishers will earn less: $10,500 for fourth, $7,500 for fifth and sixth and $5,000 for seventh and eighth.

Sakura Esports won behind a 2-0 victory on Samoa, a 3-2 win on King's Row and a clinching 3-0 win on Suravasa after NTMR won the third game 3-0 on Watchpoint: Gibraltar.

Spacestation Gaming swept with a 2-0 win on Samoa, a 3-0 win on Suravasa and a 142.41m-0 win on Esperanca.

Stage 3 play resumes on Saturday, Oct. 25. Team Liquid and Geekay Esports, which have both already clinched invitations to the World Finals, will face off in the upper-bracket final. Spacestation Gaming and Sakura Esports will face off in the lower-bracket semifinal, with the winner earning the final World Finals invitation.

The stage concludes on Oct. 26 with the lower-bracket final followed by the best-of-seven grand final.

Overwatch Champions Series 2025 -- NA Stage 3 prize pool:

1. $30,000, TBD

2. $20,000, TBD

3. $14,500, TBD

4. $10,500 -- TBD

5-6. $7,500 -- NTMR, Team Z

7-8. $5,000, Extinction, DhillDucks

--Field Level Media