The APAC Premier is beginning this week, a global tournament featuring Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Western teams competing for 1,650,000 CNY. If you're not a master of current conversion rates or can't be bothered to google it, that's almost $250,000 up for grabs. The APAC Premier is also our first insight into how the Asian and Western scenes compare, and reputations are on the line.

With the conclusion of the Chinese regional qualifiers, the final teams and groups have been announced for the tournament. If, like myself, you’re familiar with the Western teams but could do with a glance at the Asian storylines then read on! We’ll take a look at the teams, the groups, tournament format, and other details - I am not an expert on the Asian teams by any means but I have done the research so you don’t have to!

The teams from the West were announced in the middle of September. One European and one North American team were invited to compete, with Rogue chosen to represent Europe and NRG chosen to represent North America. EnVyUs were originally approached as the European representative but could not attend due to visa issues.

Two teams from Korea and two from Japan were also invited: Afreeca Freecs Blue and Lunatic-hai from Korea, with DeToNator and Unsold Stuff Gaming Iridata from Japan.

As the event is based in China, six places in the APAC Premier were reserved for the home talent. A large qualification tournament recently concluded to whittle down the home competition to the country’s finest, which in order of seed is: Skadi’s Gift, VICI Gaming, All Strike Gaming, iG.Fire, NGA Club, and Snake eSports.

Tournament Format

The groups will be run GSL-style, with the top two advancing from each group. To fill the last two spots in the eight-team single-elimination playoff, all three teams who finish 3rd in their group will play a round-robin qualifier. This means that only the last place teams in each group will be automatically eliminated, along with one team that is the worst of the third-place finishers.

The single-elimination playoff will use seeding from the group stage, and matches teams up in best-of-five games with a best-of-seven final to determine the overall champion of the APAC Premier. Games are scheduled from the 6th to the 16th of October, live in Shanghai.

Unlike other tournaments, if a map ends in a draw (as per Season 2 Timebank rules) then the map will be replayed in its entirety.

The teams will share the prizepot as:

• 1st: ¥500,000
• 2nd: ¥200,000
• 3rd-4th: ¥150,000
• 5th-8th: ¥50,000
• 9th-12th: ¥20,000

ESL casting talents Jason Kaplan and Mitch “Uber” Leslie are covering the tournament for English viewers, and all games will be on the overgg match ticker for you to follow.

APAC Premier Groups

Group A

• VICI Gaming
• Snake eSports
• Unsold Stuff Gaming Iridata
• NRG eSports

Group B

• Skadi’s Gift
• iG.Fire
• Lunatic-hai
• Rogue

Group C

• All Strike Gaming
• NGA Club
• Afreeca Freecs Blue
• DeToNator

Group C is a real battle of the Asian teams. DeToNator appears to be one of the best Japanese sides, taking 1st in both the Shimada Cup and the JCG Master, while Afreeca Freecs Blue are contending the title of the top Korean side. AF.Blue have some excellent results in international competitions - 1st in both Bamboo Cups, 1st in the Nexus Cup: Recall #1, 2nd in the China-Korea Megagame to their sister team, and 2nd in the Nexus Cup: Recall #2. Their only losses to Chinese teams have been to the NGA Club side that joins them in the group.

NGA have been around for a long time in Overwatch and were a powerhouse of the Chinese scene. They appear to have dropped off a little recently, possibly due to meta changes, and find themselves in 5th/6th seed for this tournament despite obviously containing a ton of talent. They are joined by All Strike Gaming, who despite their third seed from the qualifiers are realistically the second best team in China based on recent form. They were beaten in the Semi-Finals of the seeding qualifiers by eventual winners Skadi’s Gift, but it was the closest game that SKG had been given throughout the bracket and their previous form had been excellent. This group should be incredibly competitive and highly skilled.

Group B may have it beaten on the skill ceiling however. Rogue are the better of the two Western teams invited and have a strong case for being the best team in the West after their 1st and 2nd place at the Atlantic Showdown and Overwatch Open EU. They are in Group B next to top seed Chinese side Skadi’s Gift, which should give us an immediate idea of how the West and China compare. The final two teams are iG.Fire, the third seed Chinese roster, and Lunatic-hai, a top team from Korea who placed 2nd in the Overwatch Power League behind LW.Red and came 1st in the DANAWA X Battle.

Group A appears to be the easiest of the three; the Chinese teams are second seed VICI Gaming and 5th/6th seed Snake eSports, with good North American side NRG added in to represent the West and an unknown quantity in Japanese side Unsold Stuff Gaming Iridata. I say unknown, but perhaps only unknown to me - I could find very little info on this side and have no information on how they might compare to the other teams.

There are notably absent teams from this tournament, but there are top talents represented from each region. Whilst the APAC Premier will not be enough to crown a team the “world champion”, it should give a very good idea of how the regions stack up and how the talent is spread.

Schedule

October 6th

The group stage matches will take place from Thursday to Saturday, with six best-of-three games occuring each day. The groups will begin at 15:00 local time (GMT+8) and are scheduled to last for six hours, one game per hour.

• 15:00 - Unsold Stuff Gaming vs. Snake eSports
• 16:00 - VICI Gaming vs. NRG
• 17:00 - Group game 3
• 18:00 - Group game 4
• 19:00 - Group game 5
• 20:00 - Group game 6

October 7th

• 15:00 - iG.Fire vs. Skadi's Gift
• 16:00 - Rogue vs. Lunatic-hai
• 17:00 - Group game 3
• 18:00 - Group game 4
• 19:00 - Group game 5
• 20:00 - Group game 6

October 8th

• 15:00 - DeToNator vs. Afreeca Freecs Blue
• 16:00 - NGA Club vs. All Strike Gaming
• 17:00 - Group game 3
• 18:00 - Group game 4
• 19:00 - Group game 5
• 20:00 - Group game 6

October 9th

On Sunday, the three teams who finished 3rd in their group will compete in a round robin qualifier to progress. There will be three best-of-three matches, beginning at 16:00 local time (GMT+8) and lasting for three hours, one hour per game.

• 16:00 - Qualifier game 1
• 17:00 - Qualifier game 2
• 18:00 - Qualifier game 3

October 13th-14th

After a break in the tournament, APAC Premier will resume with the Quarter Final games of the playoff bracket. On Thursday and Friday, two best-of-five matches will be played each day, beginning at 17:00 local time (GMT+8) and lasting for four hours, two hours per game.

• 17:00 - Quarter final 1
• 19:00 - Quarter final 2

October 15th

The best-of-five Semi-Finals will be played on Saturday, beginning at 17:00 local time (GMT+8) and lasting for four hours, two hours per game.

• 17:00 - Semi final 1
• 19:00 - Semi final 2

October 16th

The Final of the APAC Premier will be played at 19:00 local time (GMT+8) on Sunday. The best-of-seven fixture will crown the champion of the event.

• 19:00 - Final