T1 break the curse in this week’s top 10 OWCS stories

Korea and China crowned their Stage 3 champions this weekend, OWCS Pacific raced through its entire season in six days, and a Doctrine bug shook up the meta right before the biggest matches of the stage. With OWCS Asia getting underway in Busan, the World Finals field is almost complete.

So, here are the top 10 things that went down across OWCS this week.

Doctrine bug shakes up the meta

Just four hours before OWCS Korea kicked off their semifinals and OWCS China started their playoff push, T1’s head coach Yun “Rush” Hee-won put out an ominous post. It revealed that OWCS teams had been advised to avoid playing Doctrine for the time being because of an unspecified bug. Doctrine was later disabled in custom games over the weekend, and the bug has since been patched.

Doctrine’s quick removal opened up a lot of flexibility for backlines, with teams running a myriad of combinations of Ana, Brigitte, Juno, Kiriko, Lúcio, and, of course, Jetpack Cat. The meta shake-up certainly altered the results, but it also led to more creative compositions and generally better quality matches.

Korean partner teams qualify for OWCS Asia

Going into the final weekend of OWCS Korea, two OWCS Asia spots were still up for grabs. The winners of T1 vs. RODE ZANSIDE GAMING and Cheeseburger vs. Team Falcons would fly to Busan alongside Crazy Raccoon and ZETA DIVISION.

T1 started the weekend with a swift 4-1 victory over ROZE, with Hong “Proud” Suk-jin earning player of the match for his incredibly strong Sojourn performance. Cheeseburger then looked to continue their underdog run onto an international LAN, but the LANimals themselves stopped them in their tracks.

Team Falcons swept Cheeseburger out of contention, giving up only one point in the entire match on Eichenwalde. With that, all four Korean partner teams have qualified for OWCS Asia.

T1 stun Crazy Raccoon to reach their first Korea grand final

The semifinals opened with reigning champions ZETA DIVISION facing the Falcons, who put up little resistance. Despite edging out a win on Suravasa, the Falcons were swiftly sent to the third-place match. Park “Viol2t” Min-ki earned a well-deserved player of the match for his Jetpack Cat, and ZETA seemed unbothered by Doctrine’s absence.

The second semifinal was an instant classic. Crazy Raccoon had beaten T1 3-1 in both the regular season and the seeding decider, but T1 came out firing on all cylinders and won 4-3 to reach their first-ever Korea grand final.

T1 dominated on Flashpoint, winning Aatlis 3-0 and New Junk City 3-1 to close out the series. Kim “DONGHAK” Min-sung looked electric on Mauga, Junker Queen, Hazard, and even Winston.

T1 break the curse to win OWCS Korea

After Crazy Raccoon beat Team Falcons 4-1 for third place, the real prize was back-to-back Korean champions ZETA DIVISION against T1, an organisation with many good results but no trophies to show for it. T1 looked possessed, with Kim “ZEST” Hyun-woo winning clutch Tracer duels against Kim “Proper” Dong-hyun.

After trading the first two maps, T1 took a prompt 3-0 on their speciality map, Aatlis, then put their foot on the gas. They fully captured Esperança in just four and a half minutes without conceding a single metre to seal the title.

As T1 erupted in tears of joy, the casters linked the win to the legacy of the Philadelphia Fusion: “At the root of it all, the legend, father Carpe, are you watching!” ZEST, first signed in 2020 when the organisation ran the Fusion’s academy team, was named player of the match.

RODE ZANSIDE GAMING start their rebuild

As T1 and ZETA DIVISION battled for the OWCS Korea trophy, RODE ZANSIDE GAMING posted an announcement on their socials. The post opened simply, announcing that ROZE “has mutually agreed with all members of the roster and coaching staff to terminate their contracts.”

The announcement is the first big domino of Korean rostermania, leaving many great players without a team heading into 2027. Keep an eye out for up-and-coming tank Cho “HEISER” Yu-hyun, veteran hitscan Jung “Kilo” Jin-woo, and Lúcio specialist and solid main support An “OPENER” Gi-beom next season.

OWCS Pacific squeeze their entire season into six days

After months of delays, OWCS Pacific finally got underway, with the entire season squeezed into a six-day marathon. The regular season ran from Wednesday, November 4, to Sunday, November 8, before the playoffs and grand final on Monday, November 9.

After the Esports World Cup in Stage 2, plenty of Pacific organisations left the region, and none came in to take their place. The Gatos Guapos were the only recognisable organisation left, still built around former Boston Uprising DPS Kelsey “Colourhex” Birse.

SeijiKING were by far the most interesting new roster, adding star Thai hitscan Nathawit “HyVision” Prajong and Korean flex support Lee “Sp1nel” Chang-sub to the Trap12 core. A sponsorship from SEIJI ESPORTS, the same organisation that played in OWCS Korea, is a really good look for the region.

The Gatos Guapos obliterate their competition

The Gatos Guapos, winners of Stage 2 in 2025 and Stage 1 in 2026, breezed through the regular season undefeated, dropping only three maps. They often played off-meta compositions, seemingly focusing on fun over function, but when they locked in, no team stood in their way.

TGG crushed Stronghold 3-0 in the quarterfinals to reach their fourth grand final, having never missed a Pacific final. In the final, they met SeijiKING, who went 4-1 in the regular season and fought past Team Benxxn in the quarterfinals.

With an OWCS Asia spot on the line, TGG locked in and crushed SeijiKING, letting up only two points on the final map. They play on Wednesday for a shot at Guangzhou, an uphill battle for sure, but TGG are by far the strongest team in the Pacific.

OU Gaming’s Cinderella run comes to an end

OU Gaming, a team that barely scraped through OWCS China’s Swiss stage, suddenly became a powerhouse in the regular season. Led by Huang-Li “800” Hongding’s outstanding D.Mon, OU Gaming went 5-0 and entered the playoffs as the top seed.

The magic disappeared when a new patch nerfed the Doctrine/D.Mon composition they excelled in. OU Gaming bowed out of the playoffs without a single match win, with All Gamers ending their run in the lower bracket.

All Gamers book their ticket to Guangzhou

After the topsy-turvy whirlwind that was OWCS China’s regular season, All Gamers’ playoff run felt like definitive proof that things had settled down. All Gamers lost 3-0 to Weibo Gaming in the semifinals, then swiftly dispatched OU Gaming and Huneng Gaming in the lower bracket.

That run secured China’s second spot at the World Finals in Guangzhou. In the grand final, All Gamers once again lost to Weibo without taking a map, and the OWCS China pecking order returned to normal.

Weibo Gaming go undefeated in the playoffs

Earlier this stage, Weibo Gaming lost two consecutive OWCS China matches for the first time ever. Like Virtus.pro in EMEA, Weibo looked shaky in the regular season and were slow to adapt to the Doctrine and D.Mon meta. Unlike Virtus.pro, Weibo had the chance to clean up their act in the playoffs.

Hours before the playoffs started, teams learned that Doctrine would be unavailable. Weibo made the last-minute decision to put Chen “Sunzo” Cheng on Junker Queen after seeing other teams run Queen compositions in OWCS Korea earlier that day.

Thanks to standout performances from Sunzo’s Junker Queen and Lee “LeeSooMin” Soo-min’s Brigitte, Weibo sailed through the playoffs, dropping only a single map. They ended Stage 3 with their sixth regional championship.