📝 Cat/Bastion chaos: OWCS Korea Week 5 review

This week, OWCS Korea provided a mixed bag of a viewing experience, teetering on a knife’s edge between entertainment and a divisive trend, with the Champions Clash right around the corner.

Across nine series this week, apart from Poker Face and RØDE ONSIDE GAMING, every team walked out with at least a single series win. However, of the nine matches, six were 3-0 sweeps. While the results were an interesting mix, the individual matches left something to be desired.

A couple of matches that weren’t 3-0 sweeps are still worth watching, especially as an early preview of next week’s playoffs and subsequently the OWCS Asia LAN and the Champions Clash.

One thing stood out above everything else this week—Jetpack Cat/Bastion. ZETA DIVISION brought out the Jetpack Cat as early as Week 2, albeit without a Bastion to fly around. What first appeared as a gimmick against teams lower in the standings has now fully taken over the entire region.

Playoff seeding decider match: ZETA DIVISION vs. RØDE ONSIDE GAMING

The first match of the playoff deciders, between RØDE ONSIDE GAMING and ZETA DIVISION, gave us a good look at the new era of Overwatch at the Korean top level.

On Map 1, Lijiang Tower, both teams pit the Jepack Cat/Bastion combo against one another. ZETA were clearly the more comfortable team playing the new meta. Park “Viol2t” Min-ki/Lee “knife” Seon-woo racked up close to 20,000 damage between the two of them to An “OPENER” Gi-beom/Jung “Kilo” Jin-woo’s 13,900, more than what any other team managed running the Jetpack Cat/Bastion comp in Lijiang Tower.

In Runasapi, ONSIDE GAMING banned Bastion and tied up the series, off the back of another great performance from Kim “Attack” Jun-hwa, which is quickly becoming a weekly occurrence as of late. ONSIDE quickly dropped the ball. On Map 3, they aimed to disrupt the Cat/Bastion comp again, but opted to do it in Blizzard World, where ZETA hasn’t lost once the entire season. The Jetpack Cat ban, which should have been ONSIDE’s silver bullet, backfired as ZETA proceeded to take over the lobby in Havana on Cat/Bastion and put the series to bed.

Last chance qualifier match: Poker Face vs. Cheeseburger

In the LCQ, the only non-sweep game came at the other tail end of the standings table. This match would determine which team would finish the season in eighth place and which would advance to play ZAN Esports for playoff qualification.

When these two teams met in Week 1 of the Regular Season, Poker Face swept Cheeseburger 3-0, but the matchup was much closer than the final score suggested. This week, out of the five maps played in this matchup, four of them featured the Jetpack Cat/Bastion mirror. Poker Face started strong on Busan, grabbing the first point in Shrine, but Cheeseburger quickly stabilised and comfortably took the two subsequent subrounds, winning the first map.

In Rialto, despite the Cat/Bastion mirror, Poker Face just about managed to edge out a win to tie up the series. On Map 3, Cheeseburger picked Esperanca and broke the Cat/Bastion mirror by banning Jetpack Cat. However, it completely backfired as Poker Face looked the clearly dominant side in the non-Cat/Bastion matchup. Poker Face managed a full push without a single meter on the scoreboard from Cheeseburger.

What should have been a clear signal for Poker Face to force Jetpack Cat or Bastion bans for the subsequent maps, they decided to forego that option, and the two teams continued the Cat/Bastion mirror for two more maps. Unsurprisingly, Cheeseburger came out on top. What should have been an open-and-shut case for Poker Face ended up as a strategic blunder that saw them finish the season in eighth place.

It’s worth mentioning that Map 4 in Numbani was still a 10-point slugfest, featuring a massive showing from Cheeseburger in the overtime round, which is worth the watch.

Week 5 match results

Playoff Seeding Decider results

Last Chance Qualifier results

Recap

With the exception of Cheeseburger’s win over Poker Face, every match this week simply reinforced the standings established in OWCS Korea’s regular season.

T1 and ZAN Esports, ranked fifth and sixth in the regular season standings, advanced through the LCQ over the lower-ranked Poker Face and Cheeseburger. In the Playoffs Seeding Decider, the number one team, ZETA DIVISION, dropped a map against both ONSIDE and Team Falcons, but ZETA still won all three of their matches.

On paper, many of the seeding decider matchups looked promising. Just last week, Falcons narrowly avoided getting reverse-swept by RØDE ONSIDE GAMING. But in true “nothing ever happens” fashion, each team ranked higher than its counterpart in the standings went on to win 3-0. ZETA swept Crazy Raccoon, who swept Falcons, who got their revenge for last week by sweeping ONSIDE.

Is there really such a disparity between the top four teams in Korea, or are these simply growing pains caused by the sudden appearance of Cat/Bastion? Speaking of Cat/Bastion, will anyone find a way to counter it? We’ll find out next week, when these teams face off again for the Playoffs.

Looking ahead

Next week is the OWCS Korea Stage 1 Playoffs, the final step of the OWCS Korea Stage 1. The Playoffs will set in stone the final standings for OWCS 2026 Korea Stage 1, the prize money distribution, and will determine the four Korean teams who will advance to OWCS 2026 Asia Stage 1—wherein the top two teams will ultimately advance to the Champions Clash in Tokyo, Japan.

OWCS 2026 Korea Stage 1 Regional Playoffs table

In the Regional Playoffs, ZETA DIVISION and Crazy Raccoon have already guaranteed a top-four finish and their tickets to the international qualifiers.

Team Falcons vs. ZAN Esports and RØDE ONSIDE GAMING vs. T1 will be the first two fixtures of the week. The winners will advance to face ZETA DIVISION and Crazy Raccoon, and the losers will finish the season in fifth-sixth place.

While Team Falcons are the clear favourites against ZAN Esports, ONSIDE GAMING vs. T1 could lean either way. In the first week of the regular season, ONSIDE GAMING defeated T1 in a five-map thriller and ultimately finished the season above them in the standings. However, T1 are no slouch, having taken maps off every top four team they’ve played and defeated Crazy Raccoon in the process.

Notably, the playoff fixtures are first-to-four and will considerably shape how teams approach map picks and hero bans. Especially if teams do not solve this week’s notorious Cat/Bastion combo.