This is a tale of South Korea and the other guys. Who ever makes it out of Canada, Russia or the Netherlands gets to face either the US or Taiwan in the Blizzcon QF.

The 2nd team in group F gets to die a horrible death getting bodied by Fl0w3r on Hanzo or Junkrat.

Here's hoping Canada gobbles up the competition and makes them all look like a bunch of angry Turkeys, and because I know they're not afraid to Put-in the work they need to succeed you can be sure that our victories will force our opponents to Sing A Poor song of defeat.

Kappa.

Rooting for Turkey to come out big and steal a map from the Russians. They might pay for it with their lives but it's for the greater good of mankind.

I hear Shadowburn's gift to Putin will be roasted Turkey...

Hockey, pretty often actually. Though in this case, after seeing each team in action, I'm not convinced we'll be able to overcome the Russian squad. They looked much more coordinated even though they had two new members join extremely recently.

I'm still holding out hope that my meese riding, maple syrup (only) eating and igloo living brethren can pull through and get the win.

I don't know what you mean....cough cough...

I made popcorn for this.

Edit: I ran out, but it was too good a read to leave and make more...

That Hollywood defence was brutal. Good to see the Fins playing extremely well.

So many times where Singapore looked like they could take a couple of fights but their focus fire is almost non existent. Russia has a considerable edge on 1v1s so that's the one area where it seemed they might be able to make a dent.

Solid execution by Russia though, they're looking more in sync than Canada imo.

Hard to gauge what kind of form they were in since by the time they faced their first real top tier teams there was a lot of tape on them and LH just out strategized/played the shit of them.

Their group has 3 newcomers to APEX so that phase might be more of the same and realistically it's very possible that they could just slide right into the QF or maybe even the SF.

I think another top 4 finish is very possible for them this season as well.

I don't remember if we had this for the OWC last year but we also have Youtube streaming this time around. I don't know if your numbers include these but I saw a peak of around 15k viewer, didn't keep an eye on it all the time so I don't know if it went any higher.

Welp, we managed to pull off the true meaning of C9...Canada9.

Yeah that's a definite dip, 34k fewer viewers (w/o Chinese numbers) is a big one. We'll have to see if Western interest just shifted away from this particular tournament or if it just diminished as a whole.

As for Season 4 the comparisons will no longer be as relevant since because of the lack of Western representation. At that point looking mostly at Asian numbers might make for a better comparison.

He also looked pretty good in the match I saw him play but the real test will be the top dogs of APEX. Hopefully he's able to maintain that level of play at that point as well.

Brutal.

The stupidity is palpable. I'm not sure why he'd want to one up Blizz by streaming his immaturity in action. Hopefully the Pros and the scene in general grow up sooner rather than later.

The final WC games starts an hour and a half earlier, Russia vs Singapore. It might clip the end but that depends on how quickly Russia can roll through the game or if Singapore comes out with some surprise buttseks.

No thanks given for the chick puns huh?......YYYEEEEEAAAAHHHHH!!!

Pure. Evil.

I think Miro's Winston is better but Mano is said to have a much better Rein making him more Meta proof. Other than the synergy factor of having all of your tank/support core be from the same team Mano is still a very solid choice imo.

I love this DPS duo, though i'd make a case for Birdring/Rascal being a better DPs duo. Still, this team is scary enough as-is.

"South Korea are a shit team" - Sideshow, 2017

Pay my student debts and I will!

I just want to see the new squad as often as I can. I WANT MUH FAN SERVICE!!!

inb4 S4 and Roolf get picked up by Toronto eSports in their bid to get an OWL spot in Canada <3...a man can dream right?

Totally agree with the first two swaps, but I like Roolf. He and Surefour make an insane combo so I'd keep him on. Heck I'd even rebuild around those two if needed.

I expect there will be a written exam on the wonderful contents of this piece? This was well worth the read, really nice insight on how their strat developed and evolved back then.

Holy shit. Runaway may just have gotten the boost they needed for APEX Season 4, but C9 is once again in total limbo. Wow.

Don't think it was any less with them, at the very least there was always one that made it out of groups so competition wise it was equivalent at least.

The one thing I think it will without a doubt improve is the KR lower tier scene since more spots gives more teams a taste of the highest level of competition this game currently has to offer.

Boom eSports with the miracle hold to realize the dream!

Looks like ENCE decided to put their boss pants on and make this a match!

Possibly, but none of the other teams in the group have looked like they'd be able to take them down as of recent results.

Unless they've found some secret sauce to drastically improve this initially looks like three sets of 3-0 for LH to me. Still, anything can and could happen, I'm just not convinced it actually will here.

Edit: With Kaiser back in Runway Group A is indeed looking like the best candidate for the group of death.

Welp, guess it's going on offline. Unfortunate that we won't get to see GO play once in this group.

Welp, they got back in through Season 3 Challengers and got lucky in Season 4 since they auto qualified on the count of so many teams disbanding.

I really hope their rebuild bears fruit this Season or else they'll be the worst team to have participated in all four APEX Seasons.

Oh hey, for once LH does't have another probable top 2-3 team with them. The group itself looks good but I think ranks 1-4 will be from one of each group.

Will be interesting to see how all these rebuilt teams deal with the two monsters from last season.

Some of the groups are a bit harder to figure out but here's my totally non final best guess:

Group A

1. LH
2. Runaway

Group B

1. KDP
2. KDU

Group C

1. AFB
2. LWR

Group D

1. LWB
2. X6

Group A and Group D are the ones I'm the least confident about but anything can and probably will happen since these teams work so hard on improving themselves.

Edits:

• Kaiser's back with Runaway and I think that's enough to put them over Meta Athena for now.
• I chose X6 based on last Season and because Conbox lost a couple of key pieces but you never if they'll shake up their group and take 2nd or better.
• I didn't consider Meta Bellum because they haven't seemed that solid during challengers on top of this being their first APEX run but the same "anything can happen" clause applies.

Guess you'll finally have to set up your Patreon...the memes must flourish. At any cost.

We don't often agree but this is one time where I absolutely must. The lack of memes/puns/jokes is grave and must be remedied.

That might depend on how comfortable Mangachu is on D.Va. If he can perform and the team gel well I don't see why they wouldn't be able to do well.

Individual talent doesn't necessarily equate to team chemistry but you can't "realize" that they won't do well until they actually play. You can take an educated guess though.

First place? That's a possibility. Easy? I beg to differ.

I feel like I've seen a post of this nature just a few moments earlier...

Jokes aside, really happy for the squad as they've been fighting real hard to improve themselves and the team. Hoping this will lead to greater things for them in general!

They've been working so hard to remake themselves into a versatile team, I hope this goes well for them.

Good news everyone!

Harsha's retweet:
https://twitter.com/TeamGigantti/status/892758095830581248

Reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/6r4n8v/team_gigantti_picks_up_rest_in_pyjamas/

Scary team, really hoping to see some high octane insanity between them and Canada. I think victory will come down to team synergy more than individual talent, but this is looking real good.

It's a shame one of them has a very high chance of being eliminated in the Round of 16 if they finish 2nd.

Ye, they should win just for having one of the most polarizing and passionate players I've ever seen. He also happens to literally come from the land of Maple Syrup.

Good news! We should soon get some more viewership numbers to more easily compare Season 2 vs Season 3:

https://twitter.com/KuroiRyuuGaming/status/892731859586691073

From the same source as the image you have previously posted. As always the grain of salt quote applies.

I used to have Abilities, but now I got Agilities.

Iceblock got dis, they just need to seal Naruto's secret weapon and jutsu their way to glory.

He mentioned scrims vs Korea, not the show match, because we all know they just decided to have fun at that point. And I'd argue that Mangachu isn't a stellar flex but a pretty good DPS. He's never looked as comfortable on the D.Va as let's say Soldier, or of course, Pharah.

He has starter to look better on Flex when he was forced off of his Rocket Queen but it remains to be seen how it measures up to the competition. Right now he is the weakest member of the squad at the position he's currently playing, but they can always go the way of Spain and try the triple DPS surprise if needed imo.

Yeah though, this was the original plan for the league. Regardless of orgs signing players the league itself always aimed to have players sign to organizations within so that they would be bound to the league itself.

I think the player agreement that was leaked is something else in and of itself but I'm not a lawyer so I can't quantify it's fairness or lack thereof, but they want to emulate traditional sports and that's how those leagues are set up.

I think the interference only somewhat comes into play if you were already contracted to a team that got into the league, since you'd have to resign. Otherwise if you want to be in the league you still need to be able to sign, just like if you would have wanted to go to a different team. Think Harbleu and how Shaq money got him into NRG.

So this isn't in group context, but if Canada finishes 2nd this is what we can expect:

Mangachu Tweet

I'm rooting for you boyz to finish first...MAKE IT HAPPEN! I BELIEVE!!

I think that was the plan all along, that players would sign into the lead by proxy of teams already in it. Just like the IMT squad had to resign their contracts.

That would also validate the long running rumors that free agency is much better for the league than whole teams. Note that to be able to join a team they still need to have no prior legal obligation, in other words they can't screw over their current team if they've signed a legally binding contract. They'd have to either be released or have their contract bought out.

Edit: What sideshow just said...DAMN YOU SIDESHOW!!