📝 Tough at the top: OWCS Korea Week 3 review

OWCS Korea had the usual array of 3-0 sweeps, but mixed in with that were two of the most exciting games of the season so far, giving fans a lot to look forward to come playoff time. The top teams that went toe-to-toe pushed each other to the limit and created a spectacle that made up for the more one-sided affairs scattered throughout this week.

Game of the Week: Crazy Raccoon vs. T1

This match told plenty of stories. For starters, Crazy Raccoon looked as good as they have all year, with Park “JunBin” Jun-bin leading the charge and winning the first map playing the Hazard. Oasis was a very close contest, with T1 taking the first round. From then on, Jeong "Jasm1ne" Jong-min struggled on the Zarya into the faster Hazard composition from Crazy Raccoon. They found Jasm1ne early in round two and stayed in control for the rest of the round, maintaining their advantage. Through dominating the high ground positions on Garden in round 3, Crazy Raccoon came back to secure the map 2-1.

Choi “MAX” Su-min followed JunBin’s lead, with a strong performance on Havana to give Crazy Raccoon a 2-0 lead in the series. His Zarya, in combination with Chae “HeeSang” Hee-sang’s Vendetta, gave T1 real problems all throughout the map. They broke T1’s spawn hold attempt with ease and passed through the first checkpoint thanks to an Orbital Ray advantage. The rest of the map is more of the same; despite a brief period of stabilisation from T1 on the third point, Crazy Raccoon complete the full push in overtime.

T1’s attack wouldn’t go their way either. They took a very slow approach, but once Jasm1ne was taken out during CR’s Orbital Ray, they began a brutal spawn hold. It takes all of their ultimates to make it out, but after their first meaningful payload progress of the game, Jeong “Stalk3r” Hak-yong comes back stronger and wins the duel against Hong “Proud” Suk-jin, completing the full hold for Crazy Raccoon.

Map 3, Suravasa. JunBin back in, and Kim “D0NGHAK” Min-sung makes his first appearance of the year for T1, in the hopes that they can shake things up and unsettle Crazy Raccoon. And unsettle them he did.

This map can only be described as a chaotic team deathmatch, with D0NGHAK playing Doomfist for most of it, and Junbin playing tank roulette. Mauga to start, Orisa on the second point, Hazard halfway through and even a cameo from the Wrecking Ball for the last fight. There was so much going on in this map, with Sung “CH0R0NG” Yoo-min flying HeeSang around on Cassidy, D0NGHAK’s Doomfist wreaking havoc with the help of Kim “Skewed” Min-seok’s Nano Boosts, and every fight almost coming down to the wire. The game was eventually won by T1, when Kim “ZEST” Hyun-woo’s EMP cancels out HeeSang’s two opening picks, and Proud with a Nano Boost cleaned up what’s left. T1 took the map in stunning fashion.

Blizzard World was another close map. Crazy Raccoon struggled until an absolute miracle clutch from Stalk3r gave them the advantage they needed to capture the first point. The second point started, but CH0R0NG’s Sound Barrier isn’t delivered in time to save Junbin, and Crazy Raccoon lost an expensive fight. This is where things ground to a halt, and T1 held strong on the second point.

T1 started their attack strongly, outpositioning Crazy Raccoon and taking the first point with ease. Viewers were subjected to a puzzling D.Va mirror with both teams’ D.Va players on the bench. Ultimately, D0NGHAK took the lead, with Proud and ZEST cleaning up Crazy Raccoon, and T1 tied the series at 2-2, threatening the ever-difficult reverse sweep.

Aatlis was the final map in this nail-biting series, and it started off very well for T1. MAX came back in on Zarya and Stalk3r on Reaper. However, the Hazard from D0NGHAK is enough to shut that down very quickly. A beat push for CR later on first goes sideways thanks to a great defensive Hazard wall from D0NGHAK, and Crazy Raccoon concede the first point. 

The second point is more back-and-forth, but ultimately the Sound Barrier trade favours T1, and they pull ahead 2-0.

Third point got a bit chaotic, with Crazy Raccoon’s series on the line, a CH0R0NG Ajax gave T1 some early capture progress. After Crazy Raccoon took back control, D0NGHAK whipped out the emergency Mauga and got three members of the opposing team with a single stomp. This forced MAX to use the Graviton Surge in a 1v1 just to secure the point, allowing T1 to come into the final point of the series with a significant ultimate advantage.

This ultimate advantage was enough for T1 to close out an improbable, but undeniably impressive reverse sweep. D0NGHAK’s class shone through once again, despite him not seeing a lot of playtime so far. It’s fair to say that Crazy Raccoon didn’t play their best, but it led to an absolute banger of a series filled with insane moments from both sides.

Player of the week: Proper

ZETA DIVISION found themselves in a five-map series as well this week, with RØDE ONSIDE GAMING forcing them down to the wire. Throughout the series, Proper took over exactly when the team needed him most. An absolutely vintage Tracer performance, with solo kills in abundance on the ONSIDE backline, and miracle clutches at the most opportune times. It was clear once ZETA got to Map 5 that Proper was looking like the best player in the world this week, and ONSIDE could find no answers to shut him down.

Match summaries

RØDE ONSIDE GAMING 3 - 0 Cheeseburger

Cheeseburger showed many signs of life during this series, but they were definitely outclassed by ONSIDE in the end. Kim “FARMER” Yea-han made the Winston work on occasion, and ONSIDE were certainly not playing particularly well. The quality difference at the individual level became apparent, and ONSIDE won 3-0. Despite the scoreline, each map was still very close and could have gone either way.

New Era 0 - 3 ZAN Esports

In a surprising twist before the game, New Era’s tank player, SoLA, was suspended indefinitely “in accordance with the team’s internal policies, due to confirmed breaches of contractual obligations and violations of team regulations”.

In short, this forced Lee “MCD” Jeong-ho to play the tank role. After an electrifying two minutes of domination on Orisa at the start of Map 1, things quickly unravelled for MCD and New Era. ZAN capitalised on the mismatch with a swift 3-0.

ZETA DIVISION 3 - 2 RØDE ONSIDE GAMING

The second five-map banger of the week was between the top dogs of Korea and RØDE ONSIDE GAMING, who have been holding their own against a couple of the top teams so far.

ZETA DIVISION came out of the gates with similar antics to their last week’s performances. Lee “Mealgaru” Jeong-hwan picked Wrecking Ball, and Park “Viol2t” Min-ki was trying (and failing) to get value out of the Jetpack Cat. ONSIDE played patient and disciplined, and were able to punish Viol2t repeatedly whenever he went for an ambitious dive on the airborne feline.

ZETA took things a bit more seriously on Map 2, easily cruising through ONSIDE’s defence on Blizzard World’s first and second points. However, Kim “Attack” Jun-hwa squared up with Mealgaru the Iceman in the Winston mirror and did a fantastic job of delaying ZETA’s push towards the end of the map. However, on ZETA’s defence, the Player Of The Week did what he does best, blinking around the map, finding picks at will. A Proper masterclass gave ZETA the full hold and levelled the series.

Runasapi saw Shin “Bernar” Se-won come in for the first time in the series, and it resulted in one of the most nail-biting maps in recent memory. ONSIDE took a very early lead, but an expensive fight loss near the ZETA DIVISION spawn room gave them the chance to mount an epic comeback. It came down to the final meter, but An “OPENER” Gi-beom’s Sound Barrier and Attack’s Graviton Surge were too much for ZETA to deal with, and their immense comeback came to a stop.

Proper fully came into his own on maps four and five. On Gibraltar, ZETA attacked first and were able to full-push in overtime. However, the true statement came from the full hold that followed. Spearheaded by some signature Tracer/Illari play from Proper and Viol2t.

Busan Meka Base was a dogfight, but Kim “Shu” Jin-seo, who was having a quiet series so far, found crucial kills to give his team the lead towards the end. Downtown was more one-sided, as Proper continued finding three picks per team fight. ONSIDE looked completely overwhelmed, and ZETA took home a hard-earned win.

Team Falcons 3-0 ZAN Esports

Falcons encountered minimal resistance in their 3-0 win over ZAN Esports. A series that can fully be attributed to individual quality differences across every role.

Crazy Raccoon 3-0 Poker Face 

Similarly, Crazy Raccoon dispatched Poker Face 3-0, but Poker Face set themselves a cut above some of the other teams at the bottom of the standings by taking Crazy Raccoon all the way on Aatlis, losing 3-2 in the end on that map.

ZETA DIVISION 3-0 New Era

In the final sweep of the week, ZETA made short work of New Era, who were still scrambling with MCD on tank. Lee “KNIFE” Seon-woo had a particularly good performance in this otherwise quite one-sided series.