Fantasy preview: Building a World Cup roster for the Group Stage
Welcome back to the OWTV Fantasy preview. It’s time to cheer for your nation, or the team closest to your heart!
If you haven’t read one of our earlier previews, here’s a quick reminder of our goals: We try to offer thought-provoking options for your team, and help keep you up to date with any major developments that might affect OWCS Fantasy. We will do this by looking at the fixtures for the week, players we think offer notably good value, and any other clever ideas we cook up! We also play along with our own team, Fantasy Watchpoint, and share the rationale behind the team we put together each week.
Fixture review
Group one
Starting off with group one, the group of death, it feels like there are no favourites. Any two teams can make it out of this group, and we’re as likely to see close games as we are to see stomps. Proceed with caution if you’re willing to make some Fantasy bets in this group.
Group two
Barring the unexpected, Saudi Arabia and Great Britain are the realistic top two in this group. The Saudi players are quite expensive, so backing the British is the much easier path forward.
Group three
This group will most likely be determined by the outcome of the Spain vs Germany match. There is a considerable gap between the aforementioned two teams and Canada/Thailand.
Group four
The real question for group four is who would be sharing South Korea’s plane to Blizzcon. We’re expecting a dogfight between France and Denmark, which means a bulk of Fantasy points are awaiting collection!
Fantasy metawatch
With the introduction of D.Mon and the buffs and nerfs that accompanied the recent patch, we’re not quite sure about the meta. Anything can happen. Teams could stick to what they know and play the usual Mauga comps, Sigma/Mizuki comps, and the Cat/Bastion.
D.Mon got a couple of hotfix buffs, and one could argue that teams will try to adapt the new hero to their comp. It’s also possible that during the World Cup, where your roster consists of players from different teams coming together, teams are more likely to play to their strengths and lean on what they are comfortable with.
Eyebrow raisers
Normally, this section would be dedicated to cheap, cost-effective picks. This time, we’re highlighting the players who caught our attention specifically because of their pricing.
Sunzo (cost: 21.5)
Sunzo is arguably the highest quality tank player who won’t be sharing any maps. But it’s worth mentioning that China’s roster isn’t the strongest they could have fielded, and they are playing in the group of death. Neon Junction is still part of the map pool, and during the EWC, we saw how Sunzo can always come in on that map and shift the tide.
GoldenPants (cost: 21)
Those who took part in the NA/EMEA fantasy last stage need no further arguments for why you should go for the Wrecking Ball menace. GoldenPants already sits at 25.6% ownership as of writing, making him the most-owned tank. The only concern is his lack of LAN experience.
xzodyal (cost: 21)
A couple of weeks ago, xzodyal led Team Peps back to OWCS. Having not played in OWCS across both Stages 1 and 2 this year, xzodyal must be thirsty to perform on the big stage and remind everyone what he is capable of.
Rav (cost: 19)
Another Peps player makes our shortlist. Denmark have managed to make it out of the EMEA group of death during qualifiers, upsetting Finland on their way to the OWWC Group Stage.
crispy (cost: 19)
Great Britain is comprised mostly of 1234 players, the OWCS EMEA team who’ve been playing together since Stage 1 of this year. crispy has been with the team since the start and, as such, has ample synergy with three other players from team Great Britain. It’s likely that 1234 opt to retain as much synergy as possible and keep crispy in the starting roster over FunnyAstro for the upcoming Group Stage, if not Blizzcon.
AkkuFastLeer (cost:19)
With only Spain as their competition, German players are likely to farm a lot of points this weekend. Akku is the most cost-effective player on that roster, and if the Spain game goes wrong, supports are notoriously known for scoring high even in losses.
OWTV Fantasy staff team
- Tank - GoldenPants (cost: 21)
- DPS - xzodyal (cost: 21)
- DPS - Rav (cost: 19)
- Support - KiWii (cost: 19.5)
- Support - Galaa (cost: 19.5)
We went for a rounded team price-wise. We did not want to invest in any premium picks as it’s a one-and-done tournament where all teams play the same amount of games.
We’re also experimenting with owning the Peps DPS line alongside the OWCS and Fantasy-proven GoldenPants, KiWii, and Galaa. Alternatively, we could have gone with the 1234 backline in crispy and Khenail, but since we have no heavy investments on our roster, there is no need to save up the 0.5 by opting for crispy instead of KiWii.
Breakthrough Prospects challenge
Historically, the Overwatch World Cup has been an opportunity for lesser-known, talented players to make their mark, display their quality, and ink contracts with Tier 1 teams. The rules are:
- Put the tag [OWWCBP] in your Fantasy Name*
- You’re only allowed to select players priced 20 and below
* If you are a Gmail user, we suggest making a new fantasy account by using the email format YourEmailAddress+OWWCBP@gmail.com. Gmail ignores everything after the + and routes it to your normal email address, and that way you don't have to juggle multiple emails
Here is our team for this challenge:
- Tank - cuFFa (cost: 20)
- DPS - Youbi (cost: 20)
- DPS - Dip (cost: 19.5)
- Support - Yoham (cost: 20)
- Support - Khenail (cost: 20)