📝 Falcons are back… again: OWCS Korea Stage 3, Week 4 summary
The final week of the Overwatch Champions Series Korea regular season was a real treat: upsets, comebacks, and high stakes ensured that there was rarely a dull moment.
T1 finally had their near-perfect stage broken after dropping a map to ZETA DIVISION, and were subsequently 3-0’d in shocking fashion by Kim “D0NGHAK” Min-sung’s kryptonite, Team Falcons.
With several amazing games this week up and down the table, it was the best week of OWCS Korea this stage.
Game of the week: ZETA DIVISION 1 - 3 WAE
While T1 and Falcons may have stolen the headlines, the Game of the Week Merchants, ZETA DIVISION, have produced another banger. This time, though, they were on the receiving end of a difficult 3-1 loss where WAE put in their best performance of the stage.
The match started as many expected - ZETA looked very strong in the Wrecking Ball mirror, even whipping out a slightly more experimental Symmetra and Torbjörn composition that proved to be too strong for WAE to handle.
When WAE then took ZETA to King’s Row - a map where ZETA had been able to defeat even the best teams in the region - most of the community assumed that the series was already over. However, WAE banned Zarya and put Lee “Mealgaru” Jeon-hwang onto the Ramattra, making life as difficult as possible for Shin “BERNAR” Se-won and the DPS of ZETA. Their lack of hitscan was potentially holding them back, as Mealgaru was able to survive so effectively on Ramattra. WAE were able to take the map win in a convincing fashion, tying the series 1-1.
WAE then came back from a near 80-metre deficit on New Queen Street, with Mealgaru swapping away from the Wrecking Ball mirror to play Winston instead. This proved to be a genius play, and paired with some excellent Tracer and Sombra play from Seonjun and Ade, respectively, allowed WAE to complete an improbable comeback.
The match ended with a monster Roadhog performance on Suravasa from Mealgaru. The hooks were landing, and ZETA were struggling. Ade’s Symmetra meant that Mealgaru could teleport all over the map, being incredibly active and landing hooks from unexpected angles. ZETA fell apart completely this map, and WAE got an impressive upset in convincing fashion to secure the game of the week.
Player of the week: Hanbin
We considered Mealgaru for his game-winning performance against ZETA, but the senior tank of Team Falcons orchestrating a 3-0 against T1 this stage is too impressive a feat to overlook.
Falcons have been struggling to find their feet against top competition this stage, trying various compositions and tank/DPS lineups. However, the answer appeared to be an MVP performance from Hanbin on D.Va. He was finding incredible value with D.Va’s entire kit: Every shift into the backline was finding a kill, any projectile fired in his vicinity was being eaten, and he was even exerting massive amounts of pressure onto the Wrecking Ball of D0NGHAK.
Then, perhaps even more impressively, Hanbin flexed onto the Wrecking Ball and Winston himself, neither of which are heroes that he is known for. It was enough to get Falcons over the line on New Queen Street, finalising their 3-0 victory, and proving that they are an absolutely impossible team to keep down for long.
Meta summary:
The midseason patch didn’t bring too many meaningful changes - some thought that Roadhog would be a much more viable pick after the buff that he got, but he isn’t seeing any more play than he was at the start of the stage. He’s still a fairly effective niche counterpick, but he isn’t meta-defining by any means.
There haven’t been many significant changes from last week - the backline of Kiriko + Lucio/Wuyang is still dominant, with Ana still being an occasional pairing with Wuyang on specific maps, or when Kiriko is banned.
In the DPS department, there have been some minor departures from last week’s meta of Reaper + Genji or Tracer. Reaper has fallen off the face of the earth for the most part and has been replaced, usually with Sombra or Freja. Sombra has been an effective counter to the Wrecking Ball, as demonstrated by Choi “MER1T” Tae-min of Team Falcons against the usually dominant D0NGHAK. Freja is the only main DPS being played in Korea due to the amount of pressure she can apply to tanks like Winston and Wrecking Ball. Symmetra has also been seeing more play in Korea, usually in conjunction with D.Va or Roadhog, but she has also seen some play with and against Wrecking Ball, to good degrees of success.
As mentioned, Wrecking Ball is still the premier tank on maps where he is strong, but Winston has seen a rise in popularity for some teams. On the off-tank-favoured maps like King’s Row, the Zarya and D.Va are still very popular, but some teams like T1 have turned back the clock and played Ramattra on the flatter areas of these maps, as he has a good matchup against the previously mentioned off tanks.
Results summary:
Day 1
T1 3 - 1 ZETA DIVISION
ZETA DIVISION did what many teams couldn’t this stage, and were the first to take a map off of T1. They clutched out extra rounds on King’s Row thanks to a monster performance from BERNAR and the squad, showing incredible discipline. Unfortunately, they were outmatched on the other maps, not taking a single point. Kim “Mag” Tae-sung couldn’t hold up to D0NGHAK in the Wrecking Ball mirror, and the rest of the ZETA roster sadly followed suit.
WAE 2-3 ONSIDE GAMING
Another great shout for game of the week, this was a back-and-forth brawl. The dive mirror was extremely competitive, but ONSIDE’s new signings, Kim “Kellan” Min-jae and Lee “KNIFE” Seon-woo, made the difference in the maps that they were able to win. Almost every map went down to the wire, trading wins back and forth, but in the end, ONSIDE were able to clutch it out with a comeback on Esperança.
Team Falcons 3 - 0 Cheeseburger
The first match this week that went entirely to plan, Team Falcons took several bites out of Cheeseburger, looking very strong in the process. MER1T playing more Symmetra seemed to be a solution to the Falcons' struggles to play hitscan thus far. Cheeseburger gave it their best on King’s Row, but weren’t able to complete the full cap despite winning a couple of fights.
Day 2
Crazy Raccoon 3-0 Mir Gaming
Lee “LIP” Jae-won made his long-awaited return to the Crazy Raccoon lineup and made an immediate impact with an MVP performance. Mir Gaming never looked like they had much of a chance, and this was a bit of a mismatch, as expected.
ONSIDE GAMING 3-1 Old Ocean
Despite strong showings from Old Ocean at various points during this match, the class of ONSIDE’s roster shone through. It was the Kellan and KNIFE show once again, with KNIFE giving an especially strong performance on the ever-impactful Tracer. He also flexed onto the Symmetra, which has become a very popular pick on King’s Row, especially. It was a close one, but the ONSIDE boys got it done in 3-1 fashion.
Day 3
Cheeseburger 3-1 Mir Gaming
This was the all-important matchup between the two 0-7 teams to decide which would have the opportunity of playing in the last-chance qualifier to the playoffs. It was a predictably close affair on almost every map, but eventually Cheeseburger came away with the win thanks to Hyeon “D0D0” Jae-woong’s heroics - ever the bright spark on the Cheeseburger roster.
T1 0 - 3 Team Falcons
The shock of the week, Team Falcons stunned T1 with a 3-0 win. Previously unbeaten, T1 were expected to dog-walk Falcons, who had struggled in dive mirrors against the teams at the top of the Korea table this stage.
Instead, the inverse was true. Ham “SOMEONE” was nowhere to be seen, as Choi “Hanbin” Han-been was subbed in for the whole match, mostly playing D.Va. This strategy was very successful for Hanbin, able to overcome D0NGHAK’s Winston on Lijiang Tower and Wrecking Ball on Suravasa.
New Queen Street would present its own challenges, though, as T1 opts to ban the D.Va. However, in possibly the most shocking turn of events of the week, the Hanbin Ball and even the fabled Hanbinston were enough to get Falcons over the line.
Apparently, Falcons have never been so back.
Old Ocean 0 - 3 Crazy Raccoon
Things were looking good for Old Ocean on the first point of Ilios. Crazy Raccoon were getting picked off early, and Old Ocean had control of the point for the majority of the round. However, a combination of clutch factor, plot armour, and An “SP1NT” Woo-jin getting multiple kills in the Old Ocean backline meant that Crazy Raccoon walked away from this sticky situation 1-0 up.
The rest of the match went as expected, and Crazy Raccoon dispatched Old Ocean with relative ease, securing their place at the top of the table.