📝The road to the Road to World Finals: OWCS Korea Stage 3, Last Chance Qualifier and Regional Playoffs preview

The multistage Overwatch Championship Series Korea has many steps before teams qualify for the World Finals at Stockholm later this year. We’re aiming to explain the format, clear up any confusion, and outline the best matches to watch this week.

The Last Chance Qualifier

The games this week are part of the Last Chance Qualifier tournament. This involves the 7th- to 5th-place teams of the regular season: Cheeseburger, Old Ocean, ONSIDE GAMING, and WAE.

WAE and ONSIDE will face off in the upper bracket match, the winner of which will immediately qualify for the Regional Playoffs. The loser will face the winner of the lower bracket match between Old Ocean and Cheeseburger for the last slot in the playoffs.The stakes are high for these teams, as failing to qualify here means the end of their season - no other chances to make it to the World Finals in Stockholm.

Keep an eye out for WAE vs. ONSIDE GAMING — it was a banger the last time they played, and the higher stakes will only add to the drama. Regardless of who wins, both teams will likely advance to the Regional Playoffs, as the loser will face the winner of Old Ocean and Cheeseburger for the their last chance to qualify.

The Regional Playoffs

The Korean Regional Playoffs are known as the seeding deciders, as all six teams that participate will make it to the Road To World Finals tournament. The Road to World Finals tournament is the one that qualifies teams to the OWCS World Finals itself, in Stockholm. The regional playoffs happening across this weekend and next will serve to determine the seeding for that crucial Road to World Finals tournament.

The top 3 teams from the regional playoffs go directly to the playoff stage of the Road to World Finals. While the 4th, 5th, and 6th place teams from regional playoffs enter a single elimination Play-ins tournament, in which one will emerge to join the 3 teams already in the playoffs stage of the Road to World Finals.

Now that might seem a little convoluted and a lot to wrap your head around. The simplified version is the top 8 teams in Korea play each other over the two weeks to determine who the top 6 of those 8 are, and their seeding going into the next phase. Then those victorious top 6 will play each other again in 3 weeks to determine which 3 teams go to Stockholm. Which means a litany of high-level Korea Overwatch this month is coming your way.

Focusing now on the matches happening over the next two weeks. The two teams that advance through the Last Chance Qualifier will play against either Team Falcons or ZETA DIVISION this week, the losers of which will place 5th and 6th seeds going into the Road to World Finals. If ONSIDE GAMING and WAE qualify as expected, another ZETA DIVISION banger is in order. Both of these teams took ZETA to five maps in the regular season, and this trend is likely to continue here.

ZETA may struggle compared to the last stage due to the departure of the Seeding Deciders, Grim Reaper, Flora. However, they have looked strong for most of the stage, and hopefully, for fans, their form will persist here.

Regardless of the opponent, Team Falcons is unlikely to struggle. They defeated T1 in their last regular-season match, and both ONSIDE and WAE like to play similar compositions, so Falcons should be able to deal with whatever either team can throw at them.

The Korea playoffs are only just beginning, but this week is still hosting some high-stakes, high-level Overwatch to set the tone for what will be an October filled with top-level Korean Overwatch.