Overview of OGN’s APEX group stage, day 12: Last day of groups & playoff draw.
Tags: Gaming, Overwatch, Video Games, Esports

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With team South Korea victorious at BlizzCon, OGN returns for the second portion of the group stage of APEX. In it 12 of Korea’s best Overwatch teams battle 4 top foreign teams for a prize pool of over $175,000.

In today’s first series Lunatic-Hai were looking to make a quick work out of Mighty Storm and secure themselves first seed for the playoff draw.

For the second one we had RunAway fighting to get to the playoffs against Kongdoo Panthera looking to secure for themselves spot in APEX’s next season, after already being out of contention for the bracket play.

It is important to note that the games were played on the new patch that just hit the live servers less than a day ago.

For those interested only in my picks for “Map, players and teams to watch” scroll down to the bottom. In those I’ll be listing the players and teams I found the most intriguing, the map I enjoyed watching most and the reasons for my picks.

Match-up 1: Mighty Storm vs Lunatic-Hai

Miro’s boys undoubtedly came into this as huge favourites. Where Mighty Storm came into, not winning single map so far in the group stage, LH had two 3–1 results, run to the final in APAC and 3 of the 6 players being on the winning team in the BlizzCon Championship.

The series started on Village, Nepal. As a result of the new patch changes, both teams opened on Soldier 76. LH complimented that with Ana, Lucio, Reinhardt, Zarya and Mei and MS picked Mercy, Lucio, Winston, Zarya, Phara. After winning the battle for high ground control Miro and co. easily took over the point. Despite that MS managed to trade favourably and take over the CP themselves. Folling that the squads kept trading control and MS won 100–86 on the back of good performance by Chloe on Winston.

For Sanctum, LH switched to 3–2–1 composition, as EscA took over the Soldier 76 and taejun picked Roadhog. Mighty also switched up things, picking Ana, Lucio, Reinhardt, Zarya, Soldier 76 and reaper. Miro and co. won the early fight once again. Outside of two brief slip ups the rest of the map was convincingly in LH’s favour and they equalized the CP score to 1–1.

On Shrine, MS went back to the composition they used on Village, while LH’s only change was taejun switching to Tracer. Once again Miro and his boys took early control of the point. And despite the score being close again, at the end of the stage, LH showcased clearly superior synergy and individual play.

The map pool for the series, presented by OGN with a fancy graphics.

King’s Row was the second map, selected by Mighty Storm. They started on the attack, continuing with the same composition. LH however, already expecting the Pharah,did their best nV impression by picking Ana, Reinhardt, Zarya, Roadhog, Soldier 76 and McCree. Showcasing superior mechanical skill again, Miro and co. had 3 ultimates charged by the time Mighty had only one available, Mercy’s Resurrect. After the Pharah not working out F3LHO switched it for McCree, but that didn’t present much trouble either and the fan favourites executed full hold on point A.

Switching to the offense Lunatic-Hai switched up things again, choosing Ana, Lucio, Zarya, D.va, Soldier 76 and taejun, surprisingly on Hanzo. Mighty attempted to defend with Ana, Lucio, Reinhardt, Zarya, Mei, McCree. That was shortlived though, as Miro’s D.va decimated them for a quick take of the point, putting his team to a 2–0 lead.

For the third map Mighty chose Temple of Anubis. Starting on the offense, they attempted to use the Pharah once again, backed by Mercy, Lucio, Winston, Zarya and Genji. This time LH met it with 3–2–1 of Ana, Lucio, Winston, Roadhog and EscA on Soldier 76. Similarly to King’s Row Miro and co. held on point A, without any real danger of losing even a single tick.

After switching sides Lunatic-Hai decided to have some fun and picked interesting composition, that they probably wouldn’t have played versus another opponent. They put Dean on Ana, Tobi on mercy, Miro on his signature Winston, jehong on the D.va, taejun on Widowmaker and EscA showcasing the brand new hero — Sombra. Despite the crowd getting excited that didn’t work for them and having minute left on the clock EscA and taejun respectively switched to Tracer and Reaper. That finally did the job as before the minute ran out they had claimed point A and the 3–0.

For the MVP interview OGN had Dean and Tobi.

Match-up 2: RunAway vs Kongdoo Panthera

With both teams having some flashes of brilliance previously, but most recently performing poorly this was meant to be a messy affair. Still, coming into the match-up most would have RunAway as a slight favourite over Kongdoo. The skill Panthera had with 3 of the highest ranked players on the ladder was obvious, but they barely showed any ability for teamplay and coordination in their previous matches.

For the match-up began on Ruins, Ilios. RunAway started on Ana, Zenyatta, Winston, Zarya, Soldier 76 and Pharah against Kongdoo’s Mercy, Lucio, Winston, Zarya, Genji, Pharah. As Panthera got initial control of the point Haksal swapped Pharah for Genji. That didn’t help either as his squad continued looking just as confused and uncoordinated. The rest of the stage ended up being easy hold for Kongdoo.

For the Well both teams continued using same compositions. This time RunAway started better, but once Rascal had Dragonblade ready Kongdoo claimed the CP for themselves off of a triple kill bu their ninja. Upon the return push Haksal was looking to do the same for his team, but they got shut down again, this time by Graviton Surge + Barrage combo. After that it was another convincing hold of the CP and quick 1–0 lead in the series for Panthera.

RunAway picked Hollywood as the second map. They started on the offense with Ana, Zenyatta, Reinhardt, Zarya, Soldier 76, Reaper against Kongdoo’s 3–2–1 of Ana, Lucio, Reinhardt, Zarya, Roadhog and Soldier 76. The Zenyatta-Soldier-Reaper combo dealt extremely easy with the tripple tank and Runner’s crew started pushing the ‘cart’, having more than 5 minutes on the time bank. For the payload portion of the map Haksal switched to his signature Genji again and Rascal traded Soldier for McCree. That stopped the push briefly, but when Haksal and co. returned they continued pushing at full speed, to deliver having 2:30 on the clock.

Butcher knocking 3 people into the air for Rascal’s Deadeye.

For the defense RunAway continued running similar composition, only difference being Haksal switching to Mei. Kongdoo on the other hand returned to the Pharah and Mercy, backing Lucio, Winston, Zarya and Genji.Getting caught in the cafe building, RunAway got decimated by wakawaka’s rockets and Kongdoo started pushing the payload, having over 5:40 left on the clock. As the hold on A failed Haksal switched back to the Genji. He found some frags with it, but that wasn’t enough as Rascal and wakawaka were constantly decimating the rest of his team. On the final metert Runner and co. finally managed to slow down, but even after prolonged fight there it was for a 2:46 delivery for Kongdoo.

For RunAway’s second offensive attempt RunAway continued using same composition, while Kongdoo went back to the 3–2–1 around Rascal’s McCree. As the Winston proved ineffective against 3 tanks Kaiser swapped it for Reinhardt. Panthera’s mechanical superiority became evident on this hold as they had 5 ultimates built up by the time RunAway had 2, both on their healers. That allowed the soloqueue heroes to execute full hold on point A.

After the success on their previous offense on the Pharah Kongdoo returned to it, as RunAway showed us 3–2–1 with Ana, Zenyatta, Reinhardt, Zarya, Roadhog and Soldier 76. Initially the push failed as Winston kept getting killed easily, but individual plays by Rascal and wakawaka secured their team the point and second map of the series.

Looking to start a reverse sweep, RunAway picked Temple of Anubis as third map. Following the philosophy of “if it ain’t broken don’t fix it” Kongdoo continued running the 3–2–1 for the defense against RunAway’s Ana, Lucio, Winston, Zarya, Soldier 76, Genji. Losing point A within a minute, wakawaka and Rascal switched respectively to Pharah and Tracer. As Haksal constantly kept switching heroes his team failed to take over B, despite having more than 6 minutes for it.

After the switch of sides both teams returned to what they’ve shown to favour in the series so far on the respective sides; Mercy, Lucio, Winston, Zarya, Pharah, Genji for Panthera and Ana, Zenyatta, Reinhardt, Zarya, Soldier with Haksal on Reaper for RunAway. Runner and co. seemed to put up a strong hold this time until misplay by nanoboosted Soldier cost them A. Following that they quickly stormed into the temple and after prolonged fight on the point they took B as well, taking the series 3–0 and securing themselves spot into the next season of APEX.

Players to watch:

Miro — he returns with yet another superb performance. With D.va possibly in the viable heroes pool, after the patch we might be looking at even scarier Miro now. Especially so with his Reinhardt getting better and better every time we see him. Will be exciting to see how good he can get on it by the semi-finals.

Rascal & wakawaka — Rascal had shown his skills previously, but wakawaka’s Pharah today was revelation to me. Still, I’ll advice fans to be cautiously optimistic as they did play versus a that looked extremely confused. Furthermore, while Mono&Kaiser have looked solid they lack the aggressiveness that top tank players have shown. Regardless wakawaka looked much improved and both of them had better (not good) synergy with their team.

Honorable mentions: jehong, Butcherr, Runner.

Map to watch: RunAway vs Kongdoo Panthera: Hollywood — it was more of an exciting map than a good one, but unless you’d rather watch Miro spanking kids this is the one I’d pick. Runner showed good play on the Zenyatta and how it can deal with the enemy tanks, while Kongdoo showed how you can execute 3 tanks composition. Additionally there were a lot of good individual plays by Rascal, wakawaka and Haksal. For the comedy value, but not much else, I can also recommend Mighty Storm vs Lunatic-Hai: Temple of Anubis.

For the results of the playoffs bracket draw and other information regarding the process you can check this link(click).