Fantasy preview: How to build without a budget at the World Cup

SkanGX••5 min read

Welcome back to the OWTV Fantasy preview. The OWWC Playoffs fantasy works a little bit differently from what we’re used to. There’s no cap on the budget! However, there are still plenty of dilemmas for you to figure out and for us to tackle in this preview article.

Fixture review

The OWWC Playoffs will be played over two days across September 12 and 13. Each day will feature four matches. The four teams that win on Day 1 will each play three matches over the weekend, and the losing teams from Day 1 will each play a single match. So, for this week’s fantasy, it’s imperative to target the teams that are most likely to beat their counterparts on Day 1.

Spain and Germany are expected to exit early. Spain will face off against reigning OWWC champions, Saudi Arabia, and Germany will face off against a Sweden side that looked very much on form during the group stages and also include much higher-ranked players overall compared to Germany. It’s highly likely that Saudi Arabia will make it all the way to the Grand Final, while Sweden looks like a strong contender for third place, should no surprises occur.

The other side of the bracket has a much higher upset potential. Either South Korea or the USA will miss out on a top-four finish and exit on Day 1. It’s important to avoid picking up a player from both teams simultaneously. If you pick up a player from each (and this goes for all four Day 1 fixtures), you will end up competing with at least a four-man, if not a three-man roster for the rest of the weekend. The winner of this match is expected to be the opponent in the Grand Final.

France and Australia will be battling it out in the contest of who was behind the bigger upset. Australia managed to beat Great Britain 3-1 in the group stage, while France reverse-swept South Korea in their own backyard!

France are the more likely team (full of momentum right now) to go through, which guarantees them three games this weekend, and if KroxZ’s D.Mon still poses problems for the other nations, France might even make it to the Grand Final.

Fantasy metawatch

After D.Mon’s mighty introduction to the competitive sphere, where France managed to reverse sweep Korea on their home turf, nations will be looking for ways to shut down the new hero. It’s still unclear to us, since the meta hasn’t developed properly at the top competitive level yet. There’s also a chance we get a repeat of the Cat/Bastion situation, where the only solution is for each team to adopt D.Mon into their own comps.

Roles discussion

Since there are no price tags, we will be diving into the nitty-gritty of each role:

Tank: 

Saudi and Korean tanks are the obvious picks, though they come with a risk, as both nations have two tanks, and if you pick the wrong one, you’ll be competing a player down. 

Eis, Santy, cuFFa, and Hawk (Infketed situation) are relatively safer picks, since their roster won’t benefit much by dropping them. 

With D.Mon unchanged, KroxZ is expected to pay dividends. The only concern is whether the other nations have adapted to play with and against D.Mon yet.

Willys is the safest pick. He is the only registered solo tank, finished the group stage as the highest-scoring player in Fantasy, and is expected to make the third-place decider match.

DPS:

Kevster; the man who can do it in any game, Stalk3r and Quartz are as must-haves as a must-have can be.

A double-up on USA’s DPS duo is also a valid approach. They have been carrying their nation, but be cautious of a potential early exit.

South Korea have two world-class flex-DPS players in HeeSang and SeonJung. While they're guaranteed to get you points, you'd still be gambling on which of the two will get the most playtime.

You could make a case for doubling up on Sweden's DPS. However, France’s DPS duo doesn’t offer as much value as their tanks and supports.

Many of us got fooled in the group stage by coach Youbi’s self-bench tactic. Perhaps this weekend they will pull out the Symmetra, or will they continue and stick with LBBD7?  Could Quartz’s DPS duo influence which tank player gets the nod? The interview we conducted with TVNT and the team’s official media accounts implies ZIYAD will be their frontliner.

Support: 

Off the bat, Admiral and Lukemino were 10+ points ahead of the other supports in the Fantasy leaderboard, followed by Galaa and FDGod. It seems like Jetpack Cat players are the go-to. Unless you have a Saudi or a Korean passport, in which case the flex Support would be the one outscoring the main Support, not by much, though; fewer than 5 points.

If USA ends up beating South Korea, Lukemino will go down as pick of the tournament. Admiral is the safer high-ceiling pick. If Simple finds his Twisted Minds form, he would also join this tier of must-have supports. Then you’re better off betting on CH0R0NG or a Saudi support if the home turf team doesn’t resonate with you.

OWTV Fantasy staff team

  • Tank - Willys
  • DPS - Quartz
  • DPS - Stalk3r
  • Support - Admiral
  • Support - zox

To avoid unexpected day-one exits and roster-roulette benchings, we went for safe assets. Technically, the only solo tank, Willys, is our tank. He finished as the highest-scoring player in the group stage, and we’re hoping for a repeat performance here again. 

We’re doubling up on cat players. Admiral outscored every other support, and while the Saudi backline wasn’t topping the leaderboard, this time we’re expecting them to have a match count advantage, so we went with zox.

Playoffs, LAN, and bright lights… How many more signs from god do you need to get Quartz on your roster? As of writing, 85.9% of the player base is convinced… And yeah, Stalk3r is also there. We could have doubled up on Korean players, but we want to avoid any surprises that could spark from their game against the USA.

A new winner in sight?

Is it time for a new nation to win the Overwatch World Cup? Probably not this year, but it will be the case with our brand new challenge! The rules:  

  1. If you participated in the Breakthrough Prospects challenge during the group stage, use your already existing account. Otherwise, make a new account and put the tag [owwc_chal] in your Fantasy Name*
  2. You’re only allowed to select players from nations that did not previously win the Overwatch World Cup. No players from Saudi Arabia, South Korea, or the United States of America.

* If you are a Gmail user, we suggest making a new fantasy account by using the email format YourEmailAddress+owwc_chal@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 - KroxZ
  • DPS - kevster
  • DPS - sgy
  • Support - Admiral
  • Support - FDGod