3rd time this season... Go LH!!
Just 25 days till the finals fam! Thanks Blizz.
This is a battle of titans, one of the strongest tank/support cores vs one of the strongest dps/offensive units.
I think victory in this match will depend on how well Void can protect his supports vs how well LH deals with the KDP dps. If Void gets taken out like Meko and DongHyun did LH has a very good chance of winning this but if KDP is able to take down Jehong consistently before they take too many casualties they could pull away with it.
I do feel like the longer series format does favor LH, because of their iron mental nuts you can never fully count them out, but I think KDP will go up first still with the possibility of LH bringing it back.
My current attempt at map score though things could very well change because...25 DAYS MAN:
LH 3-4 KDP
Who do I want to win? LH for sure.
Not OGN's decision. It's been moved for the Overwatch World Cup. I'm guessing they originally would have played the final on Friday July 14th (instead of Tuesday July 11th) or else I don't quite understand why they would have needed to move it.
The World Cup Shanghai groups play from July 14th to July 16th. I'm assuming the Friday slot because it's a better time to play the grand finals than a Tuesday.
Apparently the South korean World cup team has found the ultimate,perfect anti-dive comp and they used said strat to destroy KDU yesterday and might i add,it was also the same comp the Miraculous Youngsters used to defeat Runaway and KDU and they might plan to use that against KDP and LH still has their sombra strats that they have been using to demolish teams
Agreed, and KDP's dive is very different from AFB's. I do think LH have a clear path to victory if they can take advantage of KDP's weaker backline, but that's assuming a few things:
I'm biased towards LH, but I think they can do it. I'm just hoping for a high octane, almost, heart attack inducing game that goes all the way...with a win by LH in the end, cause bias.
Think the time has come for hype! I'm expecting a good match though with the lack of Korean T1 play in the past month or so anything could really happen here. I'll give the edge to Lunatic-Hai solely based on the fact that they have more experience on the big stage and have shown consistency in the past. Could easily see this one going to the last match possible, 4-3 either way. GL to both sides!
One thing I did realize is if something different is brought out, KDP can't seem to react to it. They have to be prepared and did their homework to actually win their opponent(vs mighty Aod they didnt do that). so if lunatic hai brings out a crazy strat right out of their asses, then i can potentially seeing this being 4-0 LH. so many what ifs, start already.
Some insight from a few Koreans Pros:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/6ptclr/pro_players_analysis_of_lh_vs_kdp/
Copy Paste from OP's (hyeons) translation:
Some highlights: (Gambler, Arhan, DNCE)
(Gambler, you just talked about LH breaking your guys' spirits and composure. What was the reason for this?)
G: LH's Sombra. (EscA) He completely left us ablaze. I'm not sad, though, because I'm not a pro anymore!
(What style would you say KDP?)
G: A typical DPS-Tank carry team. Like us (LW), or rather what used to be us (ㅠㅠ)
(Arhan, in the finals there are Birdring, Rascal, and Gido who have shown Genjis. Are you better than them?)
A: Yes. I'm better. I somewhat respect Birdring's Genji.
(Do you feel like KDP stole Birdring?)
D: Not really. We knew beforehand, and it was all agreed on.
(A survey of the teams' strengths)
Host: We have created a composite report from pro players, coaches, and staff on the comparison between LH and KDP's strengths. We have found that KDP has been rated higher in terms of mechanics, and much higher in terms of hero pool. LH is higher in terms of strategy, teamwork, crisis aversion, and composure.
LH's DPS have been rated SIGNIFICANTLY lower than KDP's (one point lower than KDP on an out of a five point scale) However, the heal+tank have similar disparities in LH's favor.
Overall, the survey has shown that 58% of relevant individuals in the field expect LH to win. The reasons:
Teamwork that negates any difference in mechanical ability, crisis aversion ability that can deal with KDP's large hero pool, the world's best healers, previous experience, and huge skill in maps other than control, and team protection and strategy.
For those that expect KDP to win:
Best DPS in the world, they have the ability to make unexpected plays, they beat LW Blue in a more convincing manner than LH, they break strategy through their superior mechanics, and they can abuse Gido's lack of experience.
In closing, Arhan and Gambler expected LH to win, while DNCE expected KDP to win.
Great piece about birdring and KDP's journey to where they are now: http://es.pn/2v6y3hl
I believe in the panthera boys!
Pretty sure nV cared about winning up until they lost to KDP in the Semis, I can believe that they didn't afterwards though.
And yeah, Rogue did get surprised, LH and KDP pretty much just prepared for them and delt with them pretty effectively. I think they might have been able to get passed KDP if they have played them first.
On another note, OGN production is God Like. LET THE BLOOD BATH BEGIN!
LUNATIC HAI FIGHTING!! KONGDOO PANTHERA FIGHTING!!
I remember his tweets, but I associated them with him feeling the burn out more than him not caring about winning. They bounced back against X6 and the first two maps against KDP were close. The last two maps not su much so at that point I would believe it if you told me they had somewhat given up.
I know that he mentioned not having wanted to go back to Korea at all for Season 3 but agreeing to go for the rest of the team. though situation to be in for sure.
One can be burnt out and still have the desire to win though. I guess it depends on the person and their level of fatigue tolerance. It's too bad foreign teams couldn't have better accommodations, like a team house or such. Costly, but probably much much better than being stuck in a hotel for months on end.
At least they'll always have the bragging rights of winning the first one.
Looks fine to me http://owcdn.net/img/597c8f8e5f5bf.png
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I feel like they also could have won both assault maps but in each of the final rounds they got picked off early and were never able to recover.
Yeah, imagine what woud've happened had KDP barely gotten a draw on Numbani as well. I mean being slightly worse on 2cp and somehow getting a draw both times and then barely getting a draw on 1 out of 4 payload maps, but winning the whole thing through tiebreakers does not mean you're the better team. It just means you're a slightly worse team that's really good on control. I really couddn't have taken this seriously had they won they finals simply by going 4-0 in control maps, 5-0 in rounds on control.
Yes, KDP are definitely the team closest to LH, but you shouldn't be able to abuse the tournament system so hard that you can win the finals by being really good on 2 maps (Nepal & Lijiang Tower), drawing on 2cp and being almost as good as the other team on 1 map.
Abusing the tournament system ?! They said it themselves, LH was better on payload/hybrid so they won the title.
If they got the draw twice in a row in 2cp, it simply means they're both playing at a really high and equal level. Breaking tied maps is biased towards the better control team for sure, but this ain't no tax office, I don't know about abusing the system...
All in all great game. Gido stepped up huge and Esca, even the meme he is, is probably one of the best team players out there. Tank and support play outshining KDP was the decider, LH got the best core 4 in those slots.
And Tobi is a nut.
I'm not saying they did it on purpose, they definitely practiced payload/hybrid, it's just one of the weirder parts of the APEX system that you could in theory win a match by only winning a single type of map.
I could imagine the memes had KDP won this by "only winning control".
I mean they have won payload/hybrid against LH before, it just seems that in the final LH consistently outplayed them (pls nerf sombra) and the only reason that it's a 4-3 (deserved imho, considering how close all maps were) instead of 4-1 were 2cp draws on top of KDP being that much better on control.
So what I meant was it would've been really weird had KDP won by being 97% as good as LH on escort, but never winning those maps, 98% as good on hybrid, but only drawing one of them and 99% as good on assault, always drawing on those, with the actual wins being a result of some really good control play afterwards.
I'm glad it worked out the way it did, fair scoreline, but it really started looking absurd. "Oh another draw, free win for KDP I guess". Because I'm willing to take any bet had they not made that positioning mistake on Numbani and held then the decider would've gone their way.
I agree 100% on the fact that they need to change how tie breakers work, and it's not just APEX, every tournament has BO1 control as their TB game mode nowadays.
And I'm not saying it is in this case, but this might actually be a legitimate strategy for any team:
We're better on control and assault, let's go for 1 win on payload or hybrid and we take the series. Crazier things happened in sports/esports. It's part of the game, a less 'fair' and enjoyable game but it is.
On a side note, I would love seeing sudden death for payload and assault instead. One offense for each, if both teams cap, faster time wins; if noone caps, progress bar or they go again.
And finally, yes Sombra's ult charge is busted. But even though EscA isn't as mechanically gifted as other players, he runs it like clockwork, broke so many teams this season.
Exactly, now you get it. KDP didn't run that strategy, but someone might try. Depending on the tournament it might be possible to force a pick of one of two hybrid/payload maps that you're either really good at or able to draw on.
Honestly any tiebreaker that uses a different map just invalidates the map pick. Sudden death like you propose it would essentially be just another round. The other options would be simply keeping the draw as is (after all the teams have played on the same level for quite a while, awarding the win based on the performance during a much shorter time seems unfair) and either adding another map to the match or counting it as a win for both teams to keep the match time roughly the same (draws are rarely double full holds, mostly rather long matches).
And yes, either change the health pack respawn time (x4 is ridiculous, even x2 would still be quite strong) or adjust the ult charge/heal ratio like for all other healers or both.
I can't remember who said it but the quote was roughly "they managed to turn EMP into a cooldown".
Interestingly enough the reason LH picked KDU in APEX season 1 was that they had a strategy built around Sombra to counter triple tank, which was the only thing KDU ran (and were quite good at it). Then Sombra got banned two days before the match and LH got 3-0'd. They really like using Sombra.
Keeping the draw wouldn't work for elimination rounds, and the only issue with adding a map is time, cause the organisers need to consider worst case scenario.
But it was just my take on it, I'm sure there are other alternatives that would fit the bill quite well.
And yes EMP in fact is a cooldown, scientifically proven by almost every team in the BEAT Invitational earlier this month.
Do you mean bo1 with "elimination rounds"?
Keeping the draw works. Bo1 control deciders also take time. Games can in theory and have gone to 6-7 or even 8-9. 3-3 or 4-4 + another map might be shorter than that.
Counting a draw as a win doesn't add time. It leads to weird things in the 4 map matches Blizzard loves, but otherwise it works fine for anything except for a bo1 and in that case you'd have to play a second map as decider anyway.
BO1 control takes at most 4 minutes from start to finish, that's way less (half at best) than what another map would mean time wise.
You say 3-3 or 4-4 + another map but logically the extra map will either be control or pure payload, since they'll want to avoid another draw (which is what I meant by considering worst case scenario). This ends up restricting the map pool again.
The BO4 you speak of are group stage games where draws are fine, I was talking about round of 16th, 8th, quarterfinals and so on, if any, where you need a winner.
I guess we have different views on the matter, but we do agree that BO1 decider is not the fairest of options as it stands now.