Unexpected result but let's also note that AFB has a new tanking core and Mano was a beast, but I think they can bounce back to win their group. What happens after that is up in the air as they'll have to step it up to make it to the SF and beyond.

As for Meta it's good to see them be able to adjust their play to this meta. They should be able to challenge if not overcome Runaway but it's unlikely to be easy. Great matches ahead!

If you mean overrated because they dismantled their opposition, one of which is a Blizzcon qualifier and an established successful team then I guess you'd be correct.

The reason I believe Brazil isn't given that same treatment is because the SA scene is believed to be weaker with what appears to be large gaps in skill between the top teams. This is similar to the BLANK situation back in Australia but they were able to prove their legitimacy in the OPC, just before Flash Wolves lost one match them, proceeded to figure them out and easily took care of them by going 6-1 in matches with an 18-5 map record throughout Groups and the Grand Finals.

In my opinion they deserve the hype around them and as far as this group is concerned Team USA and Team Brazil are the ones that need to prove their skills.

Yes, I believe that was mentioned by the LH coach, that most teams don't have proper sponsors thus can barely pay their players part time salaries.

That has more to do with the sponsor situation than Orgs not paying players. Supposedly LH is the only team that can afford decent numbers because of their backing.

GC Busan dominated the first leg of the challengers series but started to falter in the 2nd leg. Luckily for them all they had to do to qualify was not be last but we'll be looking to see if they can regain some of the luster and polish they seemed to had while initially trying to qualify for APEX Season 4.

They do have their work cut out for them as they face off against LWR, their main obstacle in finishing 2nd in the group as AFB is more then likely going to finish 1st. Them making it out of this group might very well come down to how they perform in their first APEX match ever.

lol, nice fix.

"Luna further apologized for the handling of the removal", I'm guessing that was a typo.

I do hope he finds something soon, too much talent not to be playing in that league even if he isn't what LWB needed.

This is another team I'm really excited to see play. They were dominant in the OPC and from the results Australia got it looks like they could be a strong contender.

Their biggest challenge should be the USA, though Brazil is also another relatively unknown quantity, but I believe they should be able to handle both and take the group on their way to Blizzcon.

Just so looking forward to seeing them play and how they compare to the other teams in their group to have a better idea of what we might expect from them and if they could go deep.

It's obvious that poi98 was behind the scenes making this team happen. Good work friend, good work.

I'm seeing a ton of videos from creators about this already talking about the numbers but most of them fail to mention that the numbers don't differentiate between Platform, Region or Rank. Low effort content doesn't help the community's perception of apparent issues.

Same issue as with "Your Overwatch" calling Esca the worst (Pro) DPS in Korea, need to have context to be somewhat meaningful and even then, it's a slippery slope.

I like the US team and I do think they're probably more balanced than Canada, but I think you're under estimating the fact that Brazil is a full team and the long term success they've been enjoying.

It's really hard to quantify how strong they are compared to the US because of small and unfavourable samples but I'm under the impression that they should, at the very least, be able to compete with them.

I'm looking forward to this one almost as much as the Russia vs Canada match.

They also don't differentiate by rank. Jeff said it himself, these are just numbers with no other information and you'd be prudent not to make conclusions entirely out of them.

The Mercy numbers are more than likely driven by lower ranks where she is MASSIVELY over represented. Not saying that she isn't used a lot at high ranks but a breakdown of usage by skill rating would probably show that. On top of most of the player base being sub diamond.

The problem I have with these types of responses is that they will be taken out of context and you'll see threads pop up everywhere saying things like "Blizz admits Mercy is most played/broken but does nothing". Note that the numbers he posted were in a Blizz Forum thread about Hanzo/Widow being in every QP game according to the OP.

Insert comment about grains of salt.

The report was that they were gathering backers and money in a bid to get the spot but nothing that confirmed they finalized things.

I'm assuming it may just take some time.

Thought so, pretty sure we NA plebs are the only ones who call it soccer because another sport that...sometimes...kicks the ball already has the name.

Maybe it should have been named Fieldball or something

Do they even call it soccer in Brazil? Nice pun though!

On a serious note, I think Brazil is the biggest threat to team USA for what I believe will be the 2nd seed spot in their group. It's hard to gauge how good they are because I've only ever seen them on high ping but them being a full team and mostly dominating the SA scene makes them a contender imo.

If they do get a top two finish in their group i think their chances of going to Blizzcon are high.

I think OMG, LF and ViCi are interchangeable with LGE and FTD. Wouldn't be surprised to see any of three of those 5 make it with LGD, 1246 and MY.

Though it's not guaranteed that the latter three teams make the cut.

I finally did it. Now I can quit my job and not get paid to live on over.gg!

THIS IS HAPPENING.

Oh yeah for sure, I wasn't defending him for complaining about it, I think that's childish and unprofessional no matter the circumstances, I just wanted to point out why he could have lost it and that their roster situations more than likely didn't have anything to do with it.

• Oh shit! Thanks Bro, I can die happy now!

I think they might need a miracle PR campaign and for Pine to be Kariv v2.0 and kill it on the supports.

It's not, endemic or not the main qualifier that's been laid out is capital and financing, if he saw OWL as a good investment then power to him, but another entity beat them to the punch so while i understand why he'd be upset it's just business.

Also note that them dropping the squad shouldn't have bee much of a surprise with the results they were getting, or lack thereof, for the past several tournaments.

Having a roster has absolutely nothing to do with it if you look at most of the investors that bought in. I'm pretty sure this is entirely a money thing and C9 either negotiated more or just had the funds available. Having a team in any way shape or form was never a requirement and they'd need to resign their players even if they did.

Orgs pulling out of OW just made sense if their squads weren't performing and that OWL was somewhere in the future, not a good investment if they can't get the notoriety from winning or even performing well.

He was more inconsistent than Season 2 Esca while the latter was forced to play Tracer.

Yeah, this article shows juts how pissed off he was:
http://www.esports-news.co.uk/2017/08/10/fnatics-owner-not-happy-cloud9/

Yeah, Gambler chimed in to say that the coach's comments were vague and clarified that it was maps/rounds and not matches.

Wow, I didn't know about the ilbe Blue controversy! It's unfortunate, because they managed to get Mano and this whole thing could mess it up for him.

Right but it's still interesting that a Group I so strongly see with Arsenal and one that I mainly identify as being NA kinda swapped spot. I realize that's not the case but from an outside view it was slightly puzzling.

Without knowing anything I'm actually thinking the C9 spot was just cheaper because of the location's scene not being prominent and hoping that they can tap into the potential of such an urban area. The roster implications is what I'm really interested in, and seeing what they decide to do with what they have and what they need.

Taejun is back. Now the question is what do they do with him, Gido and WhoRU? Their hero pools somewhat overlap with Tracer and neither are great Genjis like WhoRU.

Very flexible roster but somewhat redundant right now.

Even worst is that they didn't lose 15 matches in a row. They lost 15 maps, still not good, but worlds apart from what most people would take away from that comment.

Looking at the official team roster they look to have recruited another support, possibly for the bench. On top of that he also mentioned that another reason they couldn't tell him was that they were busy with the OWC and the new team house.

I understand that they are on hard time right now, but it's no reason to not give Luna proper notice for something of this magnitude.

The LA spot makes sense and was only mildly surprising since I would have expected unique locations in more regions before doubling up an NA location.

As for C9 it's an interesting prospect and I wonder how much of it was for financial reasons since..well London. I don't know it to be a big eSport market in the EU, if at all. The main question then being if they plan on moving the current squad and adding missing pieces, doing a partial rebuild with both NA and EU players or doing a full rebuild with an EU centric roster. Obviously there are other options but those were the most interesting to me.

In any case more teams can only be a good thing since it adds more spots for the see of available talent that deserve to be in this league.

This will be interesting. They met twice in Challengers and ended up with a 1-1 record. GCB won 3-2 in their first match and LWR won 3-0 in their 2nd match.

LWR has changed since then so we'll get to see if they're able to build on that last victory or if GCB gets their revenge for the beat down they got in that previous loss.

LWR roster was confirmed and is:

Roar
Ark
Nenne
Hotba
Wekeed
Wonjalee

As per inven.co.kr

I think you'd be incorrect in saying you can only judge him by what's been said about him. At the very least according to Selfless management he's come a long way and anecdotal evidence bears little weight in the grand scheme of things, specially if you're using another player as a stand-in for the one you're critiquing..

The main reason why I don't see him with NRG is IDDQD and my belief that Seagull may be coming back. The former isn't a game breaking Tracer but given the proper support he can get the job done.

In any case I think this weekend will only serve to put him on the spot so if he does well there's no doubt interest in him will only grow. He's obviously extremely young and has a lot of growing to do so hopefully he goes up from there.

ViCi Gaming getting the job done. Might just be first game jitters but 1246 looked less like their Spring Season playoff run and more like their Group Stage selves. Hope they find their game again before they miss out on making the playoffs this time around.

LGD had a slow start and LF were quick to take advantage of it! Though in the end they had a timely return to form looking like their dominant selves on Hollywood and then absolutely destroying on Horizon, full holding the first point and taking the 2nd in about 45 seconds.

LF look like they have a lot of potential if they can keep up the intensity they had on this set's first map.

I'm expecting great things out of LGD, 1246 and MY with the latter's recent showings. LF, and LGE look like they could make a splash while the newly formed Team CC is an interesting prospect and I'd like to see them go far in this.

Finally, this is when I do my best Ned Stark expression..."APAC is comin"

Agreed, there are some pretty scary DPS players that would make him a liability for his team if he can't perform at a high enough level, specially considering how much resources Pharah tends to require to be effective.

Numlocked isn't returning, and I'm not sure why you'd want him to. He was in no way the sole reason for the team not doing well but he unfortunately was still one of them.

As for Xepher it's possible but C9 bought the London, (UK, not Canada lol) OWL spot so I'm not convinced they'd let such a good off tank go.

That DPS trio could be a thing but that's a lot of talent to leave on the bench at any moment and I don't think a player of their caliber would want that position.

I'm looking forward to seeing what both C9 and NRG end up doing with their rosters.

Yeah for now it's definitely a 2nd team in LA and one team in London:
https://overwatchleague.com/en-us/news/20948588

The Overwatch League official announcement is easier to understand. And while I think a 2nd team in London could be possible it hasn't been mentioned so as far as I'm concerned it doesn't exist.

Wonder if they'll try to bring in Gamsu or if they'll go of a western tank...that and as much as I love the squad they need to figure out their DPS roles and make sure their DPS duo is strong.

Other than LH I haven't seen team successfully build around their tanks so something needs to give.

The "OWPS NetEase CC" stream has been the best performer for me. Little to no freezing.

A Korean tank might be interesting but if they need one that shares shotcalling duties a fluent English speaker might be required. Of course, I don't know what Gamsu's level of proficiency in English is but I'm assuming that it may not be at that particular level.

I'd love the idea though. And maybe Carpe if Seagull doesn't come back?

Where be the grand finals match?

Need some paragraphs, this is difficult to read.

I've never been convinced with his Pharah play tbh, but if it's good enough to not get destroyed then power to them.

It's doable, since they could run Genji/Tracer or Tracer/Soldier or Zarya/Tracer if they wanted to. That would leave them without a solid Pharah though.

The KongDoo coach mentioned that they were giving Luna a trial after the events that happened with LWB, note that this is after the roster deadline so I don't know what it would mean for him but at the very least it's good news considering what he just went through.

They're the only full team in their group but I'm not sure if it will be enough to beat the UK. I do think that 2nd place in the group is up for grab though. In either case the qualifying match will be the biggest challenge they'd have to face.

Agreed, my heart's been broken too many times so I'm tentative, but my candle of hope is still lit.

Oh hey, those are the teams I voted for. Realistically it was this was the match I thought would have the highest level of play.

Hopefully Meta Athena can make it happen and really bring it to AFB and their new tank core.

Now the question is...does the TSM guy still work there? Might not make much of a factor but I really want this team to do great after the horrors we saw in every tournament they played in after Seagull stepped down.

I don't know what his plans are but I'd like to see him come back to NRG since he brings a willingness to do what the team needs and he's a pretty bad ass player/person in general.

EZ for mum...mwu...MUFASA.

But will they keep that TSM guy? Lord knows he did an awesome job with that squad! Oh wait.

Also, that almost sounds like they're looking to import.