📝 Flexibility galore: OWCS Japan Stage 1 Week 2 review

With week one over and out, we are officially halfway through the regular season, and the picture for the playoffs is shaping up. This week was host to a wide variety of competitions and ever-entertaining gameplay out of Japan. These teams are all aiming for one thing: a chance to represent their nation at the OWCS Champions Clash in Tokyo.

Game of the week: TOKYO TAIYOs vs. Please Not Hero Bans

For the second week in a row, the TAKYO TAIYOs have made it to the game of the week. TT came into this game 0-3, but after playing three of the five best teams in the region. They desperately need a win to have the best chance to make the region playoffs. On the other side of the battlefield, Please Not Hero Bans entered the fray at 2-1, with their only loss coming to VARREL. They look to prove their skill and work on their synergy as they prepare for a tougher end-of-season schedule.

Map one opened up on Oasis, with TT banning Mizuki to stop Sakume, and PNHB banning Kim “PEPPI” Noah’s signature Sigma. Kim “homerunball” Jae-woo ran rampant on D.Va and Zarya, being almost uncontested the entire map. Sean “Ta1yo" Henderson was outclassed by Lee “Soae” Chae-woo on the Symmetra, and overall, PNHB looked better on every role. This map did not inspire confidence that this game would be a banger.

After that performance, TAKYO TAIYOs knew something needed to change. They sent the game to Suravasa (the first time it was played in Japan this year), and took away Soae’s Symmetra. This forced Soae onto their second-best hero: Torbjörn (really niche hero pool), and made PNHB run a much slower, pokier composition. This change in the pace gave TT the advantage, as they put Ta1yo onto his Mei (made famous in OWL 2021), and put PEPPI on Ramattra, out-brawling the composition. PNHB spent the entire map on the back foot, and the series tied 1-1.

Please Not Hero Ban selected Blizzard World, and took away ans’s best hero in Cassidy. Being a dive-favored map, homerunball could return to his D.Va, but Blizzard World also gives ans a lot of good sightlines. ans pulled out Emre, consistently getting first picks to win fights. Once they arrived at the third point, PEPPI swapped to Ramattra, and the brawl comp allowed them to push the payload to its final destination. PNHB started strong on their attack, entering the final point with a four-minute timebank. TT responded with PEPPI to Ramattra and put up a staunch defense to win the map and take the series lead.

PNHB had an interesting idea for map four, sending it to Rialto - a known hitscan-dominant map. In order to prevent ans from getting too comfortable, they banned Widowmaker, and hoped he wouldn’t come alive on another hitscan. PEPPI couldn’t resist running his signature Sigma for a map, and it may have been their downfall. homerunball brought out Orisa, and Ky0n looked like OWL-era ans on Emre, and Please Not Hero Ban dominated their attack, finishing with a three-minute timebank. The defense was another episode of the Ky0n and homerunball show, as multiple fights were decided by those two clutching out multiple eliminations. TT was unable to finish the map, and the game officially became the first five-mapper in Japan this year.

TOKYO TAIYOs knew that their brawl comp was better, as it was the key to them winning Suravasa and Blizzard World. They also knew that homerunball’s Orisa was a problem and needed to be dealt with. For map five, TT banned Orisa and sent the game to Esperança, forcing a brawl composition without the horse. The game started as a nearly perfect mirror, the only difference being ans starting as Sojourn compared to Ky0n’s Cassidy. When the two teams met for the first fight, Please Not Hero Ban dominated, wiping them off the face of their earth before the Push Bot even unlocked. This early lead allowed them to get to the checkpoint first, and they wouldn’t give up that lead for the entire map. TT did make it close, getting up to 85 meters, but PNHB was able to outbrawl them in the clutch and took the map and the series. Player of the Match honors went deservingly to homerunball, whose flexibility allowed PNHB to change strategies in real time (a new thing for the team formerly composed of four one tricks).

Player of the week: Ky0n

Ky0n is this week’s player of the week, due to his incredibly strong hitscan gameplay in both of his matches this week, mostly on Cassidy. He originally joined Please Not Hero Ban as their starting hitscan in OWCS Stage 3 of last year, so he was able to spend this entire offseason practicing with this new core. That hard work has clearly paid off, as he was able to flex his raw talent game after game. His ability to control the lobby with his aim and damage is a rarity, but it deserves to be highlighted and honored.

During his first match against Lazuli, he spent the entire game showing off his mechanical talent on multiple hitscan heroes, specifically Cassidy, Emre, and even Widowmaker. He earned Player of the Match honors for the incredible performance, making him the first player in all of OWCS 2026 to earn multiple Player of the Match honors.

His performance in his second match against TOKYO TAIYOs has been highlighted above, but it goes without saying that his clutch kills and raw aim allowed PNHB to edge out tough maps and go 3-1 so far. An underrated highlight would be this clutch High Noon play that allowed PNHB to extend their lead on Esperança, eventually leading to them winning the final map and series. Keep an eye out for Ky0n as he continues to dominate, especially as he leads his team into the regional playoffs.

Hero bans and map picks

Data sourced from: OWCS 2026 Hero Bans / Metas

As of the end of week two of OWCS Japan, we have 42 total map picks. With the full two weeks of data, there are some trends that start to form, and some overall takeaways we can parse.

• First, it's important to note a rule in OWCS Asia, that states: “Push and Flashpoint will be treated as a single map group, meaning maps from either mode may be selected from that group.”
  • Despite this rule, Push is tied for second-most common gamemode, showing just how much it is loved in pro play
  • Flashpoint suffered the most harm, being played only once this week, when TOKYO TAIYO picked it against Please Not Hero Ban.
• In the five times Gibraltar has been played, three attacks have resulted in full hold, twice of which were fuller holds (where both teams are unable to finish the first point). So far, Japan as a region is clearly having difficulties attacking Gibraltar.
• Blizzard World is still the most popular hybrid map, a rarity for the map. Possibly, teams wanted a last look at the NieR: Automata collab before the map change disappeared Tuesday.

With 82 hero bans being made this season, 42 of them from this week, there are some new trends that can be stopped. Here are some key takeaways from Week 2’s hero bans in OWCS Japan:

• Lúcio and Wuyang have run away with bans in the support role, each getting five bans this week.
• Jetpack Cat bans continue to be targeted against Supreme of 99DIVINE
• Damage has taken the reins as the highest-banned role, with 35 total bans - meaning damage is banned 42% of the time
• Symetra has overtaken Vendetta as the most banned DPS, gaining five bans this week to Vendetta’s two.
• Cassidy and Emre have spiked, gaining three bans each.
• Shoutout to ans for being the reason for the only Bastion ban.
• D.Va and Zarya continue to lead tanks with five and four bans, respectively, but I want to bring attention to Winston, who is tied with Zarya with four. His bans come on Watchpoint: Gibraltar and Numbani, often to force the opposing tank on D.Va
• Both of the Sigma bans have come against TOKYO TAIYOs’ PEPPI.

Week 2 match summaries:

Please Not Hero Ban 3 - 0 Lazuli

Lazuli entered this game looking for both their first win of the season, and to stabilize their roster. Throughout this entire match, they kept Yuto "NHZ" Yagami and the rookie “umi” on support, although they still couldn’t figure out whether to side with Ogawa "Yot1y" Yo or Wolf on DPS. They did keep Kim "DOX" Jun-seo off of the Doomfist, making him run Ramattra and Orisa instead. While these changes could be a step in the right direction, they still failed to overcome Please Not Hero Bans.

Outside of Esperança, PNHB rolled. Ky0n was taking over fights and showing off his mechanical talent on Cassidy, Emre, and even Widowmaker. I would be remiss if I did not show off the final fight of Busan, which - while chaotic - showed just how well PNHB outclasses Lazuli. All in all, this match was a fun watch to start the week, even if it wasn’t super close.

TOKYO TAIYOs 1 - 3 99DIVINE

99DIVINE had one win condition this entire game: SORI. Time after time, Lee "SORI" Jin-uk would take over the lobby and win team fights with his incredible Cassidy and Emre play. Case in point, his Emre 4k on Esperança shows how dominant his play can be, and the team fully supports this style of play. Mitsutoshi "Supreme" Sato would play Jetpack Cat whenever she was unbanned, and tethered to SORI whenever high noon was active. This Sky Noon combo was especially effective, earning a 4k on Blizzard World and consistently guaranteeing a pick.

TOKYO TAIYOs put in a solid effort and kept the match close. As talked about above, this team does not deserve its 0-4 record, as they have faced some of the toughest teams and kept most of their matches close. It seems that as the year goes on, ans and Ta1yo are getting more comfortable with their hero pool and their abilities, and they’re consistently improving match after match.

VARREL 3 - 1 ENTER FORCE.36

It's been said before, but VARREL is VARREL. Tomoharu "KSG" Inoue showed another dominant tank performance, this time on Zarya, taking Player of the Match honors. Daisuke "Nico" Fujikawa was doing damage on Emre, and this team feels impossible to ban out. That being said, this match showed that they can bleed.

ENTER FORCE.36 was able to give VARREL their first map loss of the season on Esperança (peak map to watch), and overall played them incredibly close. Each subpoint on Lijiang Tower was one fight away from going to the other team, and Numbani went into Overtime rounds. This match is probably a preview of the grand finals, and when E36 has more time to gel, they could end up as a real major threat at the top.

Telomere 0 - 3 Lazuli

A hunt between two teams fighting for their first win this season in Japan. Telomere changed up the starting lineup from their first game, running Vosa1q on tank over Keisuke "Leonopteryx" Yamamoto. Lazuli has finally seemed to solidify their composition and roster, permanently running Yuto "NHZ" Yagami and the rookie “umi” on support. They ran - whenever able - Rammatra, Brigitte, and Juno, with Kim "Setsuna" Ye-chan running the show on the Cassidy.

This composition allowed Lazuli to obliterate Telomere, running over Lijiang Tower 2-0 and fully capping Numbani with four minutes left on the timebank. This game gave Lazuli their first win of the stage, and sent Telomere to the bottom of the standings with TOKYO TAIYOs. Keep an eye out for the last game of the regular season when these two play each other.

99DIVINE 0 - 3 ENTER FORCE.36

In last week's review, I noted: “There are still questions about how 99DIVINE can perform against high-quality opponents, but this was a great start to the season.” This was exactly the game the people were looking for. Do not let the score line of this game delude you; this was one of the closest 3-0 in OWCS history.

SORI and Supreme opened Oasis, attempting to recreate their sky noon combo that helped them earlier in the stage, but ENTER FORCE.36 came prepared. Unlike their previous opponents, E36 was clearly aware of the play and had backup plans ready when that combo came online. Lee "HEESUNG" Hee-sung showed off his flexibility as he ran five different tanks in only three maps; in fact, the entire team played at least three different heroes each, making it hard for 99DIVINE to figure out an approach. E36’s win is a sign of what's to come; expect this team to go far.

As a reminder, only the top four teams will make it to the regional playoffs, where the top three will qualify for OWCS Asia. No team has mathematically clinched or been eliminated from the playoffs, but the general order of teams is coming into focus.

VARREL is steady in first, and they have already beaten the teams in second and third, so unless a generational collapse is in order, they will easily qualify for the playoffs. TOKYO TAIYOs is in the opposite situation, where they will almost certainly need to win out to get a chance at the playoffs. That being said, they only have E36, Lazuli, and Telomere left on the docket, so they have a chance to go 3-4 overall. The largest wildcard left is Nyam Gaming, which did not play this week. They are currently on the cusp of being eliminated, but they still have five games left to play, so they will shift in the standings.

All in all, we still have a lot of gaming left to go in Japan, and this stage is shaping up to be one of the most competitive yet. Tune in to OWCS Monday and Tuesday of this upcoming week to see how the drama unfolds!