📝 Weibo Gaming vs. Al Qadsiah Full Match Recap

The second match of Day 2 brought us Al Qadsiah vs Weibo Gaming in Round 2 of the Upper Bracket. It was primed to be an exciting game with many questions for Weibo to answer going into it, but ultimately proved a decisive 3-0 victory for the EMEA team.

Off the back of a fairly textbook win against Geekay Esports yesterday, Al Qadsiah looked confident heading into this match. On the other hand, this was the first time we saw Weibo, as they placed first in the China Region playoffs to advance directly to the second round of the World Finals.

Last month, Al Qadsiah support Landon “Landon” McGee had some choice words when asked about Weibo, stating, “Weibo is so awful, that team is just not good at Overwatch,” and coach Choi "Junkbuck" Jae-won later confirmed, "I think we're way better than Weibo. On our side of the bracket, I'm worried about Weibo the least. I would think that Geekay would be better than Weibo, actually." These comments set the match up to be highly anticipated by both fanbases, with Landon specifically calling out Weibo Gaming DPS player Huang “Leave” Xin, who will undoubtedly have a bone to pick with the American.

The winner of this match will head to the upper bracket semifinals to play against Crazy Raccoon, with the loser sent to face Team CC in the lower bracket round one.

Map 1: Ilios (Weibo Gaming pick), Al Qadsiah ban Tracer, Weibo Gaming ban D.Va

To begin with, Weibo Gaming picked a map that suited their preferred composition— Winston dive. Zheng “shy” Yangjie rolled out on Ashe, with Leave on Echo. Xu “guxue” Qiulin, with no surprises, locked in Winston and Zhou “Mmonk” Xiang began the series on Kiriko with Li “Mew” Xianyao rounding out the support line on Wuyang.

Al Qadsiah played a comp we have seen more of in the tournament so far with ZIYAD on Zarya, Baek “Checkmate” Seung-hun on Echo and Abdulelah “LBBD7” Alfaifi on Freja. The support backline of Landon and Kristian “Kellex” Keller went Kiriko and Lucio, respectively.

The first map began on Lighthouse, with Al Qadsiah opting to take the point whilst Weibo are staging a dive. They captured the point, but not before Shy picked Checkmate’s Echo out of the sky and quickly followed up with a dive on Freja, securing Weibo the first substantial capture point progress.

Al Qadsiah came back with Checkmate, finding a kill onto the enemy Ashe. Mmonk used Kitsune Rush, but nothing came of it, with ZIYAD finding Mew to all but secure the fight win. A Primal Rage from Guxue stalled the point and forced out Kitsune Rush from Landon, a worthwhile trade for Weibo before they allowed the flip.

The DPS show is in full force as Weibo looked for their next engagement, while Guxue retreated to his supports. Leave duplicated the opposing Zarya and looked to pressure the point. In the neutral, Shy found LBBD7 again on Freja, and the lights turned green for Weibo to press the attack. Leave, still marching towards the enemy as a duplicated Zarya, took down Kellex with Shy and Mew tidied up the fight.

The final fight sees Weibo’s Ashe taken down early, but with a well-coordinated dive, Weibo took Lighthouse in a close bout.

Weibo opened strong on the next round, catching ZIYAD out with Echo’s beam to take the first fight, but the lead vanished immediately as Al Qad re-flipped off a clean pick onto Mmonk. The chaos continued when Kellex was picked just short of his Sound Barrier, allowing Weibo to collapse forward with Echo’s Duplicate and B.O.B. for another flip. LBBD7 then delivered a crucial kill onto Leave to stabilise the team once more, but Leave’s attempt to counter with a Duplicate completely fizzled, as he accidentally copied Kiriko instead of Zarya, failed to build an ultimate, and Weibo collapsed behind him.

On Well, after a B.O.B.-Kitsune Rush trade, Weibo briefly regained the point, only for Guxue to burn Primal Rage for a desperate 2k stall in a doomed 3v5. Shy was picked first in the final engagement, giving Al Qad all the space they needed to push aggressively into Weibo’s spawn and close out the map.

Map 2: Shambali Monastery (Weibo Gaming pick), Al Qadsiah ban Brigitte, Weibo Gaming ban Sojourn

Similarly to this map against Geekay yesterday, Al Qadsiah expertly played around Checkmate on Symettra to dominate Weibo.

Weibo attacked first, coming out on Zarya only to be greeted with five minutes of sheer brilliance from Al Qadsiah.

The map would begin with Shy’s Ashe getting caught on the flank, thanks to a teleporter from Checkmate, with ZIYAD on D.Va managing to then isolate Mew from the rest of the team. With Mew falling, Al Qadsiah easily cleaned up the remaining players to start their hold.

LBBD7 would really come alive on Cassidy this map, finding consistent picks and even coordinating a nice Teleporter-High Noon play with Checkmate, which would net him two eliminations.

Weibo would finish their attack, only pushing the cart 56.36 metres, barely around the first corner of the first point.

After the side switch, Al Qadsiah quickly flipped themselves behind their enemies, and Weibo suddenly found themselves stuck between the cart and their opponents’ spawn. However, Shy manages to get a crucial pick on LBBD7, and despite Landon trading one himself, Guxue pulls through and puts a stop to Al Qad’s gambit.

Al Qadsiah retaliate hard, and an aggressive teleport from Checkmate’s Symmetra sees Leave split up from the rest of his team and picked off. Guxue and Weibo attempted a last-ditch attempt with Tidal Blast, but a pinpoint Soundwave boop from Kellex put a stop to it, and Al Qadsiah made it 2-0 in dominant fashion.

Map 3: Blizzard World (Weibo Gaming pick), Weibo Gaming ban Symmetra, Al Qadsiah ban Winston

Weibo starts on the attack, running the Kiri/Lucio backline, Tracer, Ashe, and with Winston banned, Guxue goes on Zarya, into Al Qadsiah’s D.Va, Kiri/Lucio, with Tracer and Sojourn. They lost Mew early to LBBD7 before Leave traded right back, only for Weibo to collapse again under constant picks. Even after they burned nine ults in a desperate teamfight, they failed to convert on an opening kill on Sojourn, until Checkmate eventually arrived and shredded through the stalled push.

Their final attempt was a disaster. Leave was taken out instantly by Checkmate, and the rest of Weibo couldn’t even approach the point without getting melted. It was, in every sense, a horrific attack.

On defence, Weibo swapped to Ramattra, Sojourn, and Wuyang. The switch worked at first. Guxue opened with a clean pick onto LBBD7 and Landon, and the rest of Al Qad were kited out for a strong first hold. But the momentum didn’t last: LBBD7 found Shy, Mew inexplicably used Tidal Blast on himself and charged into a nearly full-HP D.Va, and Al Qad’s dive obliterated Weibo’s formation. A baffling collapse for Weibo, and a decisive, clinical map win for Al Qad.

By the end of the convincing 3-0 sweep, Al Qadsiah stuck to Landon’s words and delivered a convincing win over the Chinese champions. This victory pits the Saudi team against tournament favourites Crazy Raccoon, and Weibo Gaming drops to the first round of the lower bracket to face local rivals Team CC.