Target the top four as Korea’s seeding tournament arrives
Welcome back to the OWTV Fantasy preview! Just when we thought they were out… THEY PULL US BACK IN! The burgers cooked up a five-map banger against ZETA DIVISION, T1 extended their winning streak over Team Falcons, and the ZANSIDE vs. Poker Face game was well worth the watch, with Poker Face’s SoLa coming out with a whopping 80-point haul.
If you haven’t read any of our previews, here’s a quick reminder of our goals. We aim to offer thought-provoking options for your team, while keeping you up to date with any major developments that might impact OWCS Fantasy. We do this by breaking down the fixtures, highlighting players we think offer strong value, and sharing any other strategies we come up with. We’ll also play along each week with our own team, Fantasy Watchpoint, and explain the reasoning behind the roster we lock in.
Fixture review
Our approach is the same as always for Korea's seeding-decider tournaments: seeding tournament = target those teams. That means Crazy Raccoon, ZETA DIVISION, T1, and Cheeseburger. These teams are guaranteed three series, though the lack of stakes could lead some to take the games for granted. A first or second seed only guarantees a top-four finish in Korea, which by itself still doesn’t mean much.
A case could be made for punting on an LCQ team. Team Falcons are expected to snatch their regional playoffs spot from SEIJI ESPORTS, who then get one last chance against the winner of ZANSIDE GAMING vs. O2 Blast. We favour ZANSIDE to go through based on their regular-season result, and we expect both of their games to be dogfights, so don’t rule out a punt on IRONY (PCM: 1.07) or Taejong (PCM: 0.60).
Fantasy metawatch
In the series between ZETA DIVISION and Crazy Raccoon, Orisa was the most played tank, alongside some Winston/D.Va comfort picks, while D.Mon featured a lot less.
In other matches, however, D.Mon stayed popular, while Orisa got little playtime.
Sojourn made a strong comeback, Cassidy is still around, and Cat/Bastion is regaining popularity.
Cat/Doctrine was the go-to backline, Kiriko featured when either one of Cat or Doctrine was banned, and the LIP support experiment is sadly over.
Cost-effective players
As usual for the seeding tournament and the LCQ, we’re suggesting one player per team rather than one cost-effective player per role.
ZETA DIVISION: Bernar (cost: 24) (PCM: 1.15)
Bernar loves a competitive series, and luckily for him, WDG are putting three of those on his plate. He scored 87.5 points last week, and there’s a chance he breaks 100 this week.
Crazy Raccoon: HeeSang (cost: 23.5) (PCM: 0.88)
With LIP (PCM: 0.65) back on the bench, HeeSang is the perfect one-to-one replacement. Alongside ZEST, he’s the only DPS costing over 20 who has been consistent and “cost-effective.”
T1: ZEST (cost: 23) (PCM: 0.98)
ZEST’s stock has only been going up. Alongside the Cheeseburger double-up, he’s been the one other must-have this stage.
Cheeseburger: TenTen (cost: 20.5) (PCM: 1.20)
If you’re planning on cutting down on fast food for the seeding tournament, TenTen is the one you MUST keep. Supports score well even in defeat.
Team Falcons: SOMEONE (cost: 21) (PCM: 0.92)
If you want to play it safe, you can go for a “hit and run” against SEIJI ESPORTS. SOMEONE is likely to farm on D.Mon.
SEIJI ESPORTS: OFF (cost: 17) (PCM: 0.63)
If you want to go for a “hole strategy” or play against CH0R0NG's (PCM: 1.22) and TenTen's high ownership, you can go with OFF. He hasn’t gone negative once and has scored well in the bottom-four matchups.
ZANSIDE GAMING: Taejong (cost: 18) (PCM: 0.60)
Taejong has had full playtime for the last two weeks, and with ZANSIDE’s potential for dogfights, he could be the way to go.
O2 Blast: WuTian (cost: 18.5) (PCM: 0.71)
WuTian is 5.5 points short of K4ne (PCM: 0.73) and has outscored Profit (PCM: 0.67), even though his team have been nowhere to be seen this stage. Maybe he activates WuTian mode one last time?
OWTV Fantasy staff team
Tank - Belosrea (cost: 22) (PCM: 1.36)
DPS - Taejong (cost: 18) (PCM: 0.60)
DPS - ZEST (cost: 23) (PCM: 0.98)
Support - CH0R0NG (cost: 23.5) (PCM: 1.22)
Support - TenTen (cost: 20.5) (PCM: 1.20)
We climbed 10 spots and now sit 62nd overall. We’re 115 points behind first place, 63.5 points away from a top-10 finish, and 32.5 points away from a top-20 finish. The competition will be fierce.
Our original plan was to bring in Bernar (PCM: 1.15) or D0NGHAK (PCM: 0.91) and replace LIP (PCM: 0.65) with a Cheeseburger DPS. But after Belosrea’s 74-point haul put him at the top of the scoreboard with 228 total points, transferring him out would feel like throwing the season away.
ZEST, TenTen, and CH0R0NG are not going anywhere. We pondered three solutions to the LIP dilemma.
First, we thought about splashing all our cash on the most expensive DPS we could afford: KNIFE (PCM: 0.57). He has three guaranteed series to grab a decent amount of points, but DPS players, especially hitscans, have had an underwhelming stage, so that was an easy no. The second option was WuTian (PCM: 0.71) and betting on an upset, but that felt too risky and too similar to keeping LIP, i.e. there’s a chance we get no points from the move.
Lastly, we considered Taejong. His team have the potential to maximise map count, and two series from him could yield as many points as, or more than, any other affordable asset playing three series. So we went for him!
We haven’t done the maths yet, but we hope to squeeze HeeSang (PCM: 0.88) and Bernar into our playoffs roster. Otherwise, we might look at a Crazy Raccoon tank and Shu (PCM: 0.84), or reconsider D0NGHAK, depending on how the bracket shapes up.
The Cat of WDG Arena
As of writing, before this week’s price changes, there’s a two-way tie between two identical portfolios. The upcoming price change will be the last of Stage 3.
We’ll reveal the winner in next week’s article. For the playoffs, we encourage you to use whatever budget you’ve accumulated to build some funny-looking rosters, whether that’s a retro roster (e.g. Atlanta Reign), a personal dream team, or a team where every player’s name starts with the same letter.