Crazy Raccoon stay unbeaten as T1 stumble again in OWCS Korea

This week marks the halfway point of the season, where teams start to lock in playoff spots, and games start to become predictable. Despite that, OWCS Korea gave us some great matches, specifically on day two with back-to-back five-map bangers. With the playoff picture starting to take shape, teams are fighting to secure their seed and set themselves up for the best chance to reach the Midseason Championship in Paris.

Game of the Week: ZETA DIVISION 3 vs. 2 RØDE ZANSIDE GAMING

Both of these teams entered the stage slowly and have spent their recent matches rebuilding their confidence. ZETA DIVISION was the heavy favorite going into Champions Clash Tokyo, but two losses to Crazy Raccoon and Twisted Minds sent them home without a trophy. Coming into stage two, they immediately got upset by T1, losing three straight games (their only three losses this year). They’ve spent the recent weeks grinding up to a 3-1 record with more work to do. RØDE ZANSIDE GAMING lost their two best players - An "SP1NT" Woo-jin to Team Falcons and Kim "Attack" Jun-hwa to Team Liquid. To fill the holes, the team underwent a quick merger, and the new roster looked strong on paper heading into the stage. However, they started slowly, getting swept by Team Falcons, Crazy Raccoon, and newcomer O2 Blast, and began the season 0-3. In recent weeks, they’ve meshed and grown, with two wins against Poker Face and Cheeseburger, bringing them to a 2-3 record. This game showcased further which team has improved more since the beginning of the stage, and the winner will be all but guaranteed a playoff spot. 

The first three maps of this series were incredibly similar in composition, with both teams playing Shion and Reaper, combining the close-range damage with Mauga’s aggressive playstyle, and their ever-present Lúcio/Kiriko backline. ZETA started the game off by playing Lee "Mealgaru" Jeong-hwan on Wrecking-Ball, but on Ruins, he switched to Mauga. In later maps, Shin "Bernar" Se-won was brought in for better Mauga play. The bans from both teams did nothing to stop this composition, although ZETA refused to ban first, and ROZE always tried to prevent ZETA from playing Cat/Bastion. ROZE spent the entire game with Cho "HEISER" Yu-hyun in the tank, the first time they did so all year. His Mauga gameplay was key, and this team looked much better with him out there leading the way. Probe looked like his old self on Shion, filling the kill feed with clutch picks. ZETA was no slouch; their raw mechanics alone made them look great, specifically in New Junk City.

ZETA made an interesting move going into the penultimate map, sending the game to Dorado. This map has very strong highgrounds that favor dive-oriented compositions, which Mauga very much isn’t. On top of the map pick, they also banned Kiriko, allowing Park "Viol2t" Min-ki to show off his skills. With Mealgaru coming back in, ROZE banned Winston, forcing him onto Wrecking Ball, which they already beat on Illios. With the previous composition being useless, both teams took new approaches. ZETA played Cat/Bastion, and allowed Kim "shu" Jin-seo to play his signature, Ana. ROZE played to their strengths, with Kim "Becky" Il-ha going Tracer to complement Jung "Probe" Jun-young’s Cassidy. Their initial defense started out incredibly strong, holding ZETA for three minutes straight. It took Kim "Proper" Dong-hyun, mirroring the Tracer to break them. ZETA would slowly move across the map, edging past ROZE and finishing the map with a few seconds remaining on the clock. On their own attack, ROZE would open with a Juno/Mizuki composition, which put Probe back on Shion. When this faltered, they started to panic, with Kim "iRONY" Baek-kang going Moira, and Becky defaulting back to Reaper. While this swap did let them cap the first point, ZETA held steadfast and sent the game to a final Map 5.

With ROZE having map pick and first ban, they sent the game to King’s Row and banned Ana, surely a respect ban towards Shu. ZETA responded by getting rid of the Mauga, taking away HEISER’s best hero so far this series. Nonetheless, with KR being an incredibly brawl-centric map, ROZE replaced the Mauga with Ramattra and put Becky on Mei instead of Reaper to help seal off choke points. ZETA started with a more poke-heavy composition, having Proper on Pharah, BERNAR on Sigma, and Viol2t on Illari. This comp allowed them to run quickly through the full map with over 2:30 on the clock. In their own attack, ROZE ran London Spitfire's famous brawl, with Becky on Symmetra, Heiser on Reinhardt, and iRONY on Baptiste. They were able to finish the map with just about a minute left on the clock. The overtime rounds were just as chaotic with multiple composition swaps. ROZE started with a pseudo-dive, having Becky on Vendetta and HEISER on Hazard, allowing them to capture the first point, but they couldn’t get past the chokepoint. On ZETA attack, their superior time bank gave them multiple attempts, and a few clutch kills from Proper secured them the map, in an extremely close match all around.

Player of the week: HEISER

Cho "HEISER" Yu-hyun is one of the youngest players in OWCS, turning 18 in February. He played on Poker Face and Old Ocean last year, with ZAN Esports giving him his best results ever in Stage 1 this year. At the start of Stage 2, he sat on the bench after the return of Kang "Void" Jun-woo to professional play. Entering the third week of competition, RØDE ZANSIDE GAMING, realising the need for a change, put HEISER in to play, leading him to play two out of the three maps in their opening matchup and all five in their close loss to ZETA. 

This week started with HEISER entering the starting lineup against Cheeseburger, playing only his third map of the stage. He would go on to run circles around his opponents, going 29-4 in a close 2-1 map win. He was subbed out in favor of Void’s Sigma for Circuit Royal, but after Cheeseburger took that map, HEISER came back in for Runasapi and Hollywood. His Mauga play on push was so threatening that CB banned it outright and went to Hollywood to force a more dive-heavy playstyle, but HEISER adapted, and played Hazard, leading his team in kills as he went 32-3. 

His play at tank was integral to ROZE’s success in this upset, and they tried to carry that success into their next matchup against ZETA DIVISION. That full game has been broken down in intense detail above, but suffice to say that HEISER’s contributions on Mauga allowed ROZE to keep up with ZETA, even pushing them to a Map five. ROZE has looked like a much better team with HEISER out there, and hopefully, his play can catapult ROZE not only to the playoffs but possibly to the Midseason Championship.

Hero ban and map picks

After three action-packed weeks of competition, Korea has totalled 92 maps and 184 hero bans over the 27 total matches. Season 3’s release has changed some hero ban priority, but there is still a large amount of data to pull from. Here are some takeaways from week 3’s map picks and hero bans in OWCS Korea:

• Mauga exploded in bans this week, going from four to six. In a similar vein, Ramattra got four new bans, showing that Korea may be moving towards a heavier brawl meta. 
• One thing that hasn't changed with this new patch is aversion to Catsion. Bastion got five new bans while the cat was exiled six times, 
• Vendetta’s recent buffs saw her ban rate double, getting three bans this week alone. 
• Shion saw two bans in her first week of gameplay, expect that number to increase as she finds her spot in the meta. DPS bans are following the worldwide trend of Bastion and Pharah, although Symmetra and Tracer are banned far less than the rest of the world.
• Korea is responsible for every Anran ban at this stage, all 2 of them.
• Outside of the aforementioned Jetpack Cat, support bans were split evenly, with Lúcio, Juno, and Mizuki all gaining three bans this week. 
• Ilios and Circuit Royale both became incredibly popular this week, being played five times each (meaning they appeared in more than half of the games). 
• New Junk City was even more popular, appearing six more times, doubling its play rate to twelve, and being played in 66% of games this week. Suravasa was played once this week. 
• New Queen Street finally got its second game in Korea! But Runasapi got four more appearances, cementing it as the preferred push map.

Week 3 match summaries:

RØDE ZANSIDE GAMING 3 - 1 Cheeseburger

We discussed this match a bit in the player of the week section, but this game really was the HEISER match. After only appearing in two maps against Crazy Raccoon, he got a full showing in this match against the similarly matched Cheeseburger. This game was also Shion's first appearance in Korea, with Becky and Kim "Argon" Han-saem going head-to-head. (Notably, Probe, who would play Shion against ZETA, was benched for this game in favor of Jung "Kilo" Jin-woo, who ran Cassidy and Sojourn alongside Shion). 

HEISER dominated with Becky on Shion, going 29-4 as Wrecking Ball on Illios. He was subbed out in favor of Void’s Sigma for Circuit Royal, but after Cheeseburger took that map, HEISER came back in for Runasapi and Hollywood. His Mauga play was so threatening that CB banned it outright and went to Hollywood to force a more dive-heavy playstyle, but HEISER adapted, and played Hazard, leading his team in kills as he went 32-3. Cheeseburger dropped to 2-3, and ROZE rose to 2-3, both preparing for much tougher matches later in the week. 

Team Falcons 3 - 0 O2 Blast

After starting the stage with a 2-0 record, O2 Blast has since gone 0-2 (get it). And having to go against Team Falcons and Crazy Raccoon this week means another 0-2 record is likely. Team Falcons, on the other hand, have been untouchable since their loss to Crazy Raccoon, and they continued to showcase their dominance in this match-up. They started with An "SP1NT" Woo-jin on Shion and Choi "Hanbin" Han-been on Mauga (and D.Va when O2 Blast banned the former). 

It looked like O2 Blast had no practice on Shion, as they refused to run her after Kim "Perr" Dam-I got crushed on Map one. Falcons dominated Ilios 0-2, and continued that blistering pace on Numbani, fully capping the map with 2:45 in the timebank. 

On Map three, after subbing in Baek "Checkmate" Seung-hun and Ham "SOMEONE" Jeong-wan, they unlocked a Reinhardt/Symmetra comp not seen since the days of London Spitfire (and then eventually SSG in OWCS 2024). This blast to the past elevated FLC to take Circuit Royal 3-0 and win the series in a similar sweep. 

T1 1 - 3 Crazy Raccoon

T1 entered this week reeling from its close loss to Team Falcons, while Crazy Raccoon lookd to maintain its undefeated record. The match started… oddly for T1, as they banned Wrecking Ball, while keeping Kim "DONGHAK" Min-sung in on Ilios. Banning the Wrecking Ball is understandable, especially against elite talent like Park "JunBin" Jun-bin, but keeping DONGHAK in and running D.Va seemed short-sighted. Crazy Raccoon, seeing how much T1 struggled against Falcon’s Cat/Bastion comp, elected to run that on Illios with impressive results, taking the map swiftly, 2-0. 

T1 adjusted on King’s Row, bringing in Jeong "Jasm1ne" Jong-min to run Zarya in a brawl-heavy comp, while banning Chae "HeeSang" Hee-sang’s Pharah to force them on the ground. Despite these changes, Crazy Raccoon had a great poke composition situated around Choi "MAX" Su-min’s Sigma, and with HeeSang on Symettra to act as a ferryman, CR easily beat T1 2-1 to send this game to match point. 

With their backs up against the wall, T1 brought out their old reliable - New Junk City. DONGHAK came back in to run the Mauga, and with Kim "ZEST" Hyun-woo on a recently buffed Vendetta, they ran the lobby, creating an insane amount of space for  Hong "Proud" Suk-jin to capitalize on Shion, as he went 30-7, amassing 13.5k damage. 

As great as the map was, the match momentum did not shift, as Crazy Raccoon sent the match to Circuit Royal and continued to run their poke composition, allowing them to take the series 3-1.

Poker Face 2 - 3 SuperBad

It is February 22, 2020. Twelve players take the stage in Washington, D.C. to grace the audience with one of the games of Overwatch ever played. What occurred on that date is the notorious match between The Boston Uprising vs. The Houston Outlaws. This matchup went to seven maps, with two draws, with every team fight a chaotic and a messy affair. This weekend’s five-mapper between the winless Poker Face and SuperBad is reminiscent of the fateful clash from six years ago. Having said that, a loss here is almost a guaranteed relegation next week (bar an incredible upset), so both teams were poised to give it their absolute all.

This game was an incredible back-and-forth matchup, with each map showcasing the highs (and some lows) of being a fan of either team. The match started with a close battle in the Antarctic Peninsula, where SENTIER absolutely carried his team, going 42-4 and leading in damage dealt, damage mitigated, and fantasy points, with a phenomenal display playing Sigma. 

Despite his heroics, he was benched for Kim "homerunball" Jae-woo, who came in to play, checks notes*, Sigma? Poker Face took Map two to New Junk City, and pulled out T1’s composition, matching Lee "Fearful" Min-ho’s Mauga with Hyeon "D0D0" Jae-woong’s Vendetta. These two would do 30-6 and 25-5, respectively, but it was Choi "K4ne" Ju-hyung that lit up the killfeed, going 28-2 and leading Poker Face to a 3-1 win on Flashpoint. 

Hollywood saw the return of SENTIER, who went toe-to-toe with FEARFUL on Ramattra. SuperBad’s defense was stalwart, holding Poker Face to merely 65.8% on the first point, a feat which they quickly matched. 

Going into Runasapi, SuperBad banned Mauga, which forced FEARFUL onto Doomfist. SuperBad stumbled over themselves trying to find a composition to match, allowing Poker Face to jump out to a 100-meter lead. Despite a great comeback from SuperBad, a desperate overtime push resulted in Poker Face winning the map 119-117, sending us to Map five. 

On Circuit Royal, we witnessed a repeat of SuperBad’s confusing tank swaps, once again bringing in homerunball to play the same hero SENTIER just played. However, this time it worked, as Lee "Soae" Chae-woo’s Moira held Poker Face to merely 92.53 meters on the first point, which a swift attack from SuperBad triumphed past, and sent Poker Face dangerously close to relegation. 

Cheeseburger 0 - 3 T1

The final match of day 2 was T1’s “get right game”. After starting the season 3-0, T1 had lost its last two games to Team Falcons and Crazy Raccoon and needed a boost heading into the final week of the regular season. The opposition placed in front of them was Cheeseburger, who had just suffered a pretty demoralising defeat against ZANSIDE the day prior. 

T1 made a grand total of four swaps this entire series, and three of them were in spawn (one Sym swap and two Juno swaps). T1’s DPS core was the star of the show, as ZEST went 66-9, leading the lobby in elimination and fantasy points, while Proud won Player of the Match based on his incredible hitscan gameplay, including a full map of Widowmaker on Rialto. While T1 held first, Cheeseburger could not find a composition that suited them, despite making multiple full-composition swaps. 

Team Falcons 3 - 0 SuperBad

This game is very similar to the one above and to Team Falcon’s previous three games, all of which have been dominant 3-0s. Falcons is an incredibly dominant team with their sights already on the Midseason Championship. Despite SuperBad having just scored their first OWCS victory ever against Poker Face, they struggled to gain any momentum against these giants, as Team Falcons held a full house. Oasis was a quick 2-0, and New Junk City was an even faster 3-0 sweep. 

Falcons made some changes between the first and second maps, bringing in Checkmate and SOMEONE to brawl hard on heroes like Mei, Reinhardt, Symmetra, and Ramattra. Map three - Hollywood - was complete domination, as SuperBad was only able to amass 63.5% while the Falcons fully capped the map with forty-one seconds left on the clock.

O2 Blast 1 - 3 Crazy Raccoon

O2 Blast looked to avoid going 0-2 for a second week in a row, while Crazy Raccoon was on its way to a perfect stage, undefeated after beating Falcons and T1. 

The match started perfectly for O2, they went with the reliable Shion/Reaper/Mauga. This new brawl composition was met with a poke comp from Crazy Raccoon, with HeeSang on Pharah while Max played Sigma, with Lee "LIP" Jae-won on Shion. O2 Blast utterly dominated this lineup, taking Gardens 100-0, and forcing a mirror on City Center, which they also took in a closer 100-99. 

With one map down, Crazy Raccoon chose to lock in, First playing the Catstion on Circuit Royale, which they won easily, and then mirroring the Mauga brawl on New Junk City - this time with LIP on his tried and true Sojourn. O2 Blast started to turn around on New Queen Street, taking a commanding 56-meter lead, only to give up the entire map to CR as they finished the map with three minutes left on the clock. 

ZETA DIVISION 3 - 0 Poker Face

If you thought ZETA Division being taken to five maps against ROZE meant they would quickly establish a habit of it, think again. Poker Face was severely outclassed in this matchup, in every single position. Proper went 69-11 throughout this game, dealing out 26.7k damage and putting up 24 fantasy points. This match was the first time we’ve seen Kim "HYEON" Seong-hyeon since the 2023 Contenders, where he played in Asia-Pacific and Thailand. He, unfortunately, was dominated, going 6-8 and struggled to put up 4.7k damage in his appearance on Runasapi, mostly playing Mauga. For players who were in for all three maps, Poker Face averaged 20 deaths, while ZETA averaged only 13 (Violet skewed the numbers with 17 deaths himself). 

Next week will determine the four teams qualified for the playoffs, the four teams that will play through the Last Chance Qualifiers (two of whom will qualify for the playoffs), and the two losers will join the ninth team in the competition in the Stage 2 Promotion/Relegation tournament.