📝 Chinese champions seeking redemption: Weibo 2025 World Finals Preview

Weibo Gaming is full of potential coming into the OWCS World Finals, and their record in the China playoffs shows they remain the kings of China.The China Regional Playoffs appeared to be a breeze for Weibo, with Team CC being the only (somewhat) competitive game. In the ultimate match, Weibo did boast a show of grit coming back from 2-1 down to beat Team CC 4-2. A Ramattra composition proved to be the killing blow for Team CC, with Xu ‘Guxue’ Qiulin flexing from his beloved Winston to provide a more robust frontline for the final three maps. Additionally, Zheng ‘Shy’ Yangjie reminded viewers why he is a top hitscan player, with his MVP performance on Sojourn and Freja securing his team first place.

However, Weibo Gaming have not been without their flaws. During the Midseason Championship at the Esports World Cup, the team placed 9th-12th out of sixteen teams from all regions. The series of games exposed flexibility issues for Guxue on tank, where a brawl favoured meta, where Ramattra was dominant meant Weibo’s comfort Winston dive composition couldn’t be utilised. They lost to eventual winners Team Falcons (2-3) and Virtus.pro (2-3) in close games, but clearly hadn’t adapted quickly enough to a brawl-focused composition.

Compositions

Weibo Gaming have proved to be a proficient, ruthless and aggressive team on one composition in particular; Winston dive. With a star-studded lineup that caters to this style, it's no surprise that they have found great success with it. Guxue has shown himself as one of the best Winston players in the world. Shy has proven himself as a top mechanically-skilled hitscan player on Sojourn, and Zhou ‘Mmonk’ Xiang has been performing at the highest level on Kiriko since her release. Not to mention the 2021 Overwatch League season MVP Huang ‘Leave’ Xin on Tracer and Venture.On top of their individual talent, this is a team that has had the same core since 2023. Starting on the Hangzhou Spark with Guxue, Leave, Shy and Mmonk, they were then picked up by Once Again, where Li ‘Mew’ Xianyao eventually joined and rounded out this superstar roster. You can truly see the level of synergy that these players have built through their years together. All the pieces fit together to make Winston dive without a doubt their best look, and if it is viable in the World Finals, every team should be scared to face Weibo.

In the event that a Winston dive isn’t working, Weibo have displayed struggles when forced to flex to different compositions. This was seen at the previously mentioned Midseason Championship, finding limited success on brawl matchups. In this tournament, they won only one map out of five when Guxue was playing Ramattra. While Weibo can play this style to a high level, other regions such as EMEA and NA are notoriously stronger in these matchups. Ramattra brawl worked for Weibo Gaming more recently in OWCS Stage three finals, potentially pointing to an improvement, however, the quality of the opponent was notably weaker than what will be seen in the World Finals.

A composition we have seen Weibo default to when faced with a flat brawl-styled map is a fast-paced Hazard dive. Hazard is a more favourable match-up into most grounded tanks, such as Zarya, Ramattra and Reinhardt, than Winston, but still allows Weibo to apply their practised fundamentals of a dive composition. With the recent nerfs to Hazard in the Midseason patch, it is unclear how this will affect the viability of the character at the highest level and so may leave Weibo looking for a different approach to the matchup.

Statistics

Weibo lost just five maps during the entirety of Stage 3, leaving them with an impressive 86% map winrate. Of their five map losses, two came on Kings Row, which they played four times. This is no surprise given their favoured dive composition is not suited to the map, and should be something teams look to exploit at Stockholm. Maps where Winston dive is viable had Weibo looking dominant, with one map loss out of nine on Control Point and zero losses in seven on Flashpoint. It is worth highlighting that Weibo’s dive isn’t completely bulletproof, with a 75% win rate on Watchpoint Gibraltar, where dive is extremely common due to the vertical nature of the map.

Teams banned Winston seven times for Weibo in Stage 3, of those seven Weibo managed to win six, proving to be flexible in the face of a target ban. They also didn’t miss a beat when other teams banned Lucio, with a 100% win rate in five games without the character. Weibo showed themselves as rather ban-proof domestically, but the patterns of bans that teams attempted against them are ones likely to be repeated in Stockholm. In the World Finals, teams will be much more suited to exploit the limitations previously seen from Weibo. They will have to ensure they have made the right adjustments when their best heroes are inevitably targeted.

The hero Weibo banned the most with six bans over the Stage was, you guessed it, Reaper. They have a 67% win rate on maps where the Winston counter was locked and will almost certainly be banned as much as possible by Weibo in Stockholm. As for other bans, Wrecking Ball and Genji were joint second with three bans each.

Weibo Gaming are, without a doubt, the Chinese superteam, but the only question for them going into the World Finals is how they will perform against different regions. The most recent international event, the Esports World Cup, showed us they struggle to deal with forced composition changes and unfamiliar matchups. If we look back further to the Champions Clash, where Winston was more meta-relevant, Weibo finished in a much more flattering fourth place. If Winston proves to be a viable option in Stockholm then Weibo are sure to go toe-to-toe with any team. However, if their preferred composition is weaker than hoped, they will have to show the great flexibility they displayed in their home region on the international stage if they are to topple the best.