Anything that breaths more life of into the EU scene is good in my eyes. They look like a cool bunch of dudes too!

Good effort by Ardeont but AFB showed that they're distinctively a cut above the Korean tier 2 teams. I'd be interested in seeing if either LH or KDP will participate after APEX, since I doubt they'd go before.

Yeah, didn't know you guys had my Haiti flag!

Interesting, Inyoung is in for Recry.

Wooo! Good news!!

Runaway looking good and hella flexible, maybe they can pull an upset and get their revenge in the next one!

Unfortunate that they couldn't make it past but. pretty good run for a practically new team.

Happy to see Kalios finally getting a chance though. They looked a bit shaky on the first map but got it together pretty quick.

Unfortunate, wish him a complete recovery and to find a team that works for him.

If Ardeont do well here it could add some extra confidence for their run in the OPC. ARDEONT FIGHTING!!!

Rematch time! RUNAWAY FIGHTING!!!

Interesting that Kalios is in for DongHyun this match. It's early but their teamwork seems a bit off.

Possible Netherlands vs Denmark final? Make it happen boyz, national pride is on the line.

Just a bit over 4 days? It's happening ladies and gents. And you can bet your sexy buns that I'm waking up at 5:00 eastern for this.

Challenge accepted.

3-1 Canada.

LH used to play a slightly less aggressive style than the current AFB but I think they countered them because they adjusted that play style to pull back, catch the dive, kill the tanks, and kill everything else. More than anything they executed a strat to counter them and it worked very, very well. I think AFB didn't respond to it because they hadn't been properly challenged and they weren't used to playing from behind.

But yeah I agree that we may be selling AFB a bit short after just one game. KDU could end up surprising us (cause Overwatch) but I believe they might get two maps at the most, though I'm leaning more towards a 4-1 or maybe even a 4-0

His play style isn't the most flashy, and yes you can name some other Zarya's that might just look better, but one word come to mind when I think of his Zarya play: Consistency

He consistently put out high levels of play like keeping his Genji free of CC and creating space for him. Look no further than how often Ryujehong was able to shut opponents down while their own DPS we able to be more effective.

In my mind at least he's one of the top 5 Zarya players and if LH had put as much into him as Hoon got from his team I have no doubt that he would have been just as flashy.

One issue I see with your argument is that your taking Sideshow's comment, dismissing it, and then proceeding to apply that very same argument to EU/Russia (etc) numbers.

If you just go off each regions number of internet connections and Asia's relatively high rate of consumption of those games his suggestion doesn't seem that far fetched to me.

You can't apply a certain logic to one argument but not do the same for another.

Can't say I don't fully agree with you on some points there, considering that at the moment Rogue, LH and Envy aren't even in the league which is odd to me.

One thing to note is that teams like Rogue have shown that they're mortal if you look at their close calls against Arc6 and IMT, not to forget their latest trip to Korea. I take the last bit with a grain of salt because of the general condition they had to compete in, but in the end results do speak for themselves. Same thing with LH and Envy losing to KDP. Teams that can challenge them can be made and the gap does seem to be closing as team skill, instead of just individual, increases.

I do agree that the org situation isn't the best but other than a few outliers most of them were teams that wouldn't have been able to compete with the best so it was likely to happen. That or the org itself didn't have the backing to afford an OWL spot.

Obviously there's not much i can say about Blizzard's way of approaching the league, it's way out of the realm of what I understand enough to theorize about so any claims I make would be nothing more than hot air. As i've said before, the esports scene could very well be dead on it's feet because of how they've decided to go about it but it also could be part of their plan, I truly dunno.

Note sure about TwoEasy, I haven't been following hims so the only information i usually get about him as more to do with his notoriety and the negative connotations associated to him. Not enough for me to form an actual opinion but regardless, I'd rather more talented players get their chance if they can do well enough to earn it.

On that note the Bingo Card, while being good fodder for naysayers or jokesters in general isn't something I take at face value or am offended with. It's a reminder of the souls (teams) we've lost in battle...WHAT IS DEAD MAY NEVER DIE...uh herm. I'm not doe eyed and full of hope, nor am I panicking and expecting it to fail, but that's how I prefer to frame things.

Your mileage may vary.

Fresh faces for a fresh team. Hopefully they do better than their Nexus Cup showing. Teams like Foxes, Meta Bellum and Rox Orcas looks like they're in for a rough ride if they maintain the status quo so let's hope they manage to find the next gear up.

KDU looking good, seemed like X6 seem just couldn't react to the disengage + counter dive.

Let's see if they can make it to Runaway for a shot at a spot in the Grand Finals.

I'd say most of these are closer to tier 3 Korean teams tbh. X6 made it the furthest into APEX but they seem to not have been able to show that here for some reason.

But yeah, this looks good for Chinese teams as it seems like they may be catching up a bit. Maybe we might see them do much better than they did at APAC 2016!

This should be a nice little preview to see how each team currently compares. Runaway's waiting in the lower bracket finals but will one of these teams make it there to give Korean a guaranteed spot in the grand finals?

One event closer to APAC, the Summer Pres-Season is about to begin!

Very interesting that MY prefers the slower comps with Rein/Zarya and either McCree or Reaper with a Tracer. Worked pretty well against Runaway since their Winston just couldn't do anything for most of the match. Bit weird seeing Haksal on Lucio and Bumper on Zen though.

MY looked much better than the last time I saw them play in the Premier Series. Runaway on the other hand looked like they were never able to figure out an effective way to deal with the opponent's comp but I'm still hopeful they can learn from this and come back with a possible solution.

Honestly I think we'll have to hold our breaths until the OWL launches to be able to truly pronounce this a dead or dying eSport. Note that I'm not claiming that the league will "save us all", but since this seems to be a case of "eggs almost all in one basket" I think it would be prudent to make the assessment after said basket has been put on the table. Broken or rotten eggs will be much easier to see at that point.

I don't think I'm being blindly optimistic here, I prefer to exerciser caution when ringing the victory or doomsday bells, specially with the lack of concrete information we've been plagued with for a while now.

Agreed, that and CS:GO's just been around for longer. We'll have to see how Blizzard handles the league and how the community, along with current non fans, respond to it.

I think it's still too early for truly meaningful comparisons, but I'm hoping it grows and develops into a successful eSport regardless.

When Overwatch is so meta it breaks the fourth wall.

In all seriousness though, it's unfortunate that they couldn't make it happen. Best of luck to all those looking for a new home.

:candle:

I believe, RUNAWAY FIGHTING!!!

:candle:

Going from that we could have the following match ups at Blizzcon if we assume the teams I prefer go through:

(China vs Sweden) vs (Korea vs Taiwan)
vs
(France vs Australia) vs (Canada vs USA)

This is assuming that Korea and Canada finish top of their groups and win their qualifiers. It also includes Taiwan and USA coming 1st and 2nd of their groups respectively with both winning their qualifier matches.

Purely for fantasy sake as these are the teams I'm generally biased towards but I'm interested to see what the final 4 spots actually end up being and if this was even remotely close to reality.

With the completion of the Sydney group it looks like this is the format for the Qualifiers into the Blizzcon Playoffs:

((A1 vs B2) vs (C1 vs D2)) vs ((E1 vs F2) vs (G1 vs H2))
vs
((B1 vs A2) vs (D1 vs C2)) vs ((F1 vs E2) vs (H1 vs G2))

No surprise here, both squads struggled in Seasons 2 and 3. I thought Space may have been able to make some waves this last season but that didn't happen.

Maybe with this they'll be able to get the tools they need to succeed.

Fleta just needs a solid cast of supporting characters that will allow his manhwa style super powers to shine through. I believe in the Fleta.

There are too many good free agents for them to fuck this up right now...right? Please tell me they can't figure out a way to mess up with all the talent available!

Welp, Chips just gave Harry the hook. The match was much closer than the score indicates, solid win by the Swedes!

Just like alot of matches in these groups it could really go either way. But I'm still rooting for Japan to come out on top in this one! NIHON GANBATTE! NIHON FIGHTING!!

Harry took out Taimou...will he also do Chips in? This is gon' be gud.

Because of the result Japan is guaranteed first place in the group and will face Australia.

As for Vietnam, any win will allow Finland to go through because of their better match score (1-1-1 vs 1-2-0), a tie or worst sees Spain go through in 2nd. Things look bleak at best for the Fins right now.

I might be wrong but I believe that's how the rules are currently set. It may depend on hoe much weight the match vs maps vs head to head tiebreakers have.

I see, thanks for the explanation, makes a lot of sense. And I think that you're right, MM is never really going to promote the full team play experience, specially not with the solo meta so prevalent because of individually driven SR rewards.

I believe Guild/Clans is something that was talked about and that could very well be in the works with an unknown ETA. As for Blizz putting in an interface, other than Clans, to help people search for an organize scrims i'm not sure I see that happening anytime soon.

I remember using OpenRaid in WoW for several things that the game itself didn't facilitate for us. This is a question better asked on the Blizz Forums imo, getting feedback from users here doesn't make this any closer to happening and is at risk of falling pray to the echo chamber syndrome if they're not taken to the proper channels.

I do think it's a feature they will implement, but fixing MM might be a bigger priority right now, I'm assuming.

Wouldn't be a tie. Sweden wins the tiebreaker by having a 2-0-1 map record vs Australia's 2-1-0, on top of having won the head to head.

"DPS star Fl0w3R sat out for most of the group stage due to a wrist injury", he explained in an interview that it was actually his fingers that were injured.

On another note, quite the streak of bad luck for the LWB squad, hopefully they can get back to their prime form, mostly looking at Fl0w3r and Luna.

LWB Fighting!

It's a show match, it's for the fans, PR stunt, so yeah.

Spain just needs a win to secure their qualifier spot, or a loss by Finland. In the case of a Finland win their final spot in the rankings would be dependent on each team's final map score after both matches.

Anything could happen, but I'm confident that our favorite Lucio squad can keep it together since they currently control their own destinies.

Anything other than a 4-0 for Portugal sees them go home, even then they need Sweden to also get 4-0'd by Australia to force the Oasis Bo3 tiebreaker.

Their fates are no longer exclusively in their own hands. I'm thinking we might see team Portugal giving Australia the biggest pep talk of their lives, possibly along with some bribes of the alcoholic beverage kind, just to boost their spirits even more.

I think they'll be going lights out to give themselves the best chance and just hope for the best afterwards.

Yeah, on that note Sweden just need to win one map to guarantee a top two finish and a shot at the qualifier, but if they do end up getting 4-0'd AND Portugal 4-0 Italy we're looking at a Bo3 tiebreaker, on Oasis I believe.

I don't really know how to quantify Sweden's strength relative to the hometown Aussies right now, but here's my stab at it:

3-1 for BLANKstralia

This is an absolute must win for Finland. If Spain wins against Vietnam, Finland will need to 4-0 Japan to finish 2nd. This is what things would look like:

1. If Spain wins then regardless of score they will be guaranteed a top two spot with a 2-1-0 match record and either a 9-3-0 or 8-4-0 map score.

Finland will need to win 4-0 to finish 2-1-0 with a 8-4-0 map score, Japan will finish 2-1-0 with a 7-5-0 map score and lose the three way tie. Any other result and Japan will beat them in maps.

2. If Spain ties, a 4-0 by Finland puts them in first and a 3-1 puts them in 2nd.

3. If Spain loses, a tie or a 3-1 victory puts them in 2nd and a 4-0 puts them in first.

I'm going to assume that Spain will get the win against Vietnam, so this game is pretty much going to decide who else joins them. They'll pretty much need to be perfect to have a real chance at this. Now, I'm firmly in camp Japan, so I'm gonna be rootin' fo ma boyz tomorrow.

Anything can happen. I've thoroughly learnt that lesson with these groups but I'm still gonna throw one out there:

3-1 for Japan, and yes I'm biased. The weeb corruption runs deep.

This loss really throws this Group into flux. Japan is a expected to win against Vietnam and Spain is pretty much expected to win against them tomorrow as well.

That means Finland MUST beat Japan and hope that they enter a three way tie in both match victories and map scores.

Considering how crazy this group has been anything could happen. But man, they're going to need some luck in their side now.

These Australia groups are freakin' awesome. So entertaining!