📝 OWCS Fantasy Korea Stage 1 Regional Playoffs preview

Welcome back to the OWTV Fantasy preview! We're heading into the playoffs to decide who takes the crown. And contrary to CommanderX’s opinion, the Jetpack Cat tie fighter comps are very much meta in Korea right now, as the entire region has scrambled to copycat ZETA DIVISION’s blueprint.

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

For this week, the Korea playoff bracket makes fixture planning much more important than usual. Every match is first to four, map volume is significantly higher, meaning teams that play more series have a huge advantage in fantasy scoring.

Based on our bracket expectations, Team Falcons and T1 look like the best teams to target, as they are projected to play three series each. Falcons open against ZAN Esports, while T1 face RØDE ONSIDE GAMING, then ZETA DIVISION will choose their opponent for the semis, and Crazy Raccoon will face the remaining team. With both Falcons and T1 expected to play the most series, their players offer the best value and ceiling, especially T1 players who weren’t considered last week because they played a single series in the LCQ.

ZETA DIVISION and Crazy Raccoon are harder to evaluate. Both teams will play exactly two series (single-elimination bracket), which caps their Fantasy ceiling compared to Falcons and T1. However, ZETA’s roster proved to be a team of efficient scorers last week by placing four of their six-man roster in the top five highest scorers. The concern is simply whether two fixtures are enough to keep pace with teams playing three. Crazy Raccoon’s situation is slightly awkward to say the least, as they could face ZETA in one of their only guaranteed matches. Based on recent results, Crazy Raccoon players do not score well in that matchup, although with an FT4 format, it is always possible to stretch out the series and score more points than usual

Finally, we suggest avoiding ZAN Esports and RØDE ONSIDE GAMING this week. Both teams are expected to exit early after a single match, and with everyone receiving an extra free transfer and a +4 budget increase, there is far less need to hunt for risky budget enablers. This week is all about maximizing series count, and that means prioritising the teams most likely to survive multiple rounds.

Fantasy metawatch

Despite us saying last week that Hazard is on the rise, it doesn’t look like that trend is holding. Instead, tanks have reverted to comfort picks, with players largely sticking to what they are best at. Main tank players, like D0NGHAK (0.62 PCM) (41.17 xP), Mealgaru (0.65 PCM) (27.27 xP), and Junbin (0.30 PCM) (13.27 xP), are mostly locking in Winston and Wrecking Ball. Off-tanks, like MAX (0.89 PCM) (39.36 xP) and Bernar (0.81 PCM) (35.82 xP), continue to roll on D.Va and Zarya. Ramattra and Mauga also made regular appearances depending on the situation. We also had an unexpected Someone (0.32 PCM) (20.18 xP) cameo on Zarya, but overall, the tank pool looks much more player-dependent than meta-dependent heading into the playoffs.

Flex DPS is mostly centred around Pharah and Tracer, perfectly suited for HeeSang (0.86 PCM) (37.82 xP). While hitscan players are leaning into Bastion paired with the infamous Ana/Jetpack Cat backline, setting up side-angle 2v2s where the cat drives the Bastion around all game. If the Cat/Bastion combo gets banned out, most teams fall back onto Emre, or opt into Cassidy to give Jetpack Cat a harder time in case of a Bastion ban. Excluding Proper, the top three scoring DPS last week were Bastion players. They seem to be more consistent scorers than their Flex DPS counterparts, though with bans that target the flying bastion and the first-to-four format, we could see scores distribute more evenly across DPS players this week. Suffice to say, all DPS players seem to be valid options in the playoffs.

At this point, it’s fair to say Korea is living in the world of Jetpack Cat. ZETA DIVISION unleashed it, and the rest of the region has followed suit. As they say: if you can’t beat them, join them. Jetpack Cat proved to be a decent stats farmer during the OWCS Pre-Season Bootcamp tournament. However, its playstyle has changed since, and currently it is mostly used to drive and pocket Bastion. It’s still decent at farming stats, and Ana acts as the team’s main caretaker, where she keeps a constant eye on the tank and the other DPS. Ana also heals the flying Bastion from a distance. Despite this difference in playstyles, both Jetpack Cat and Ana players accrued similar scores (with the exception of ZETA anomaly, Viol2t).

Cost-effective players

For playoffs, we’re doing things a little differently, similar to how we approached the NA/EMEA playoffs. Instead of highlighting one cost-effective player per role, we’ll suggest one standout player from each team still in contention.

• ZETA DIVISION, Viol2t, Support (Cost: 22) (1.28 PCM) (56.45 xP)

Viol2t is the easiest lock imaginable. He’s the highest scoring player in the game and topped the charts last week. When ZETA DIVISION are playing matches that matter, Viol2t always delivers.

• Crazy Raccoon, Stalk3r, DPS (Cost: 23) (1.04 PCM) (47.64 xP)

Stalk3r was the third-highest scorer last week and the only non-ZETA player to break into the top five. He’s been an absolute machine, especially on Bastion comps, and offers massive upside in an FT4 environment.

• Team Falcons, MER1T, DPS (Cost: 22) (1.00 PCM) (65.86 xP) or Checkmate, DPS (Cost: 20) (0.68 PCM) (40.64 xP)

MER1T is known for showing up when the stakes are highest, and Team Falcons have a critical weekend ahead. We’re also giving a shout to Checkmate, who dropped one of the most confident quotes of the year last week.

• T1, skewed, Support (Cost: 23) (1.30 PCM) (89.50 xP)

Do not sleep on the king of Korean OWCS Fantasy. skewed is already the fifth-highest scorer overall despite playing two fewer games than everyone else in the top ten. With T1 projected to play the most series this week, this feels like the perfect setup for him to remind everyone who runs the leaderboard.

• RØDE ONSIDE GAMING, Attack, Tank (Cost: 22) (1.15 PCM) (25.23 xP)

Normally, Attack is a must-have, but this is the week when you can justify moving away from him. ONSIDE are projected to play only one series. That said, the top four contenders all have some level of tank rotation risk, so Attack still has value if you want a stable option. Worth noting that signing Attack means you’re betting ONSIDE beating T1. A risky gambit, however, if they pull it off, you’re guaranteed a decent-scoring weekend that goes against the grain.

• ZAN Esports, HEISER, Tank (Cost: 19) (0.81 PCM) (15.35 xP)

HEISER is our ZAN shout for this week. Tank is the role where surprises and rotations can still swing Fantasy outcomes, and if you can’t fully stack the top four teams, HEISER is a reasonable fallback. If you can field a full roster from the top four, feel free to disregard this part entirely.

Honourable mentions: here is a list of the top 10 players with the highest expected points that didn't make the cut

OWTV Fantasy staff team

• Hanbin - Tank (cost:23) (0.84 PCM) (57.68 xP)
• MER1T - DPS (cost:22) (1.00 PCM) (65.86 xP)
• Proud - DPS (cost: 23) (1.19 PCM) (82.00 xP)
• CH0R0NG - Support (cost: 21) (1.02 PCM) (42.91 xP)
• skewed - Support (cost: 23) (1.30 PCM) (89.50 xP)

For the final week of Korea Fantasy, we’re doubling up on T1 and Team Falcons to maximize games played, as both teams are projected to play the most first-to-four series. That also means it’s finally time to say goodbye to Attack, who has been the best tank asset all season, but is simply not in the best position for the playoffs. Hanbin takes his place as our tank pick for the week.

We’re keeping MER1T. High-stakes MER1T is a different breed. We’re hoping he’s aware that not only do playoffs qualify him for the Asia LAN, but he also gets a bigger share of the prize pool the higher they finish.

We’re also selling Proper to bring back Proud. We believe in the T1 boys’ ability to farm points, and we’re confident that despite their loss to RØDE ONSIDE GAMING back in Week 1, a first-to-four format gives T1 the edge to pull through and secure the top four.

It’s the return of the king! On support, skewed replaces iRONY, and CH0R0NG stays in the roster, meaning no full backline overhaul this week. The more optimal play on paper might be to bring in Viol2t, especially considering how much rank we lost earlier in the season by picking Shu over him, but we’ve gone the entire stage without owning Viol2t. At this point, we’re sticking to our principles and hoping to salvage the season without his help.

Last week, we placed 155th in the weekly standings, climbed from 449th to 309th overall, and finished 3rd in the VIP standings with 1031 points. We’re aiming for a top 100 finish overall, and maybe even a late push for the Korea VIP crown, although Tommathan may have gotten the better of us this time.

This is the final sprint of Stage 1. We hope you can all find that second wind, push through the last stretch, and finish strong on the leaderboard.