Season 2 finals BibleThump
I'm guessing they will bring in WhoRU if he's been on the Doomfist and they feel conformable enough on it. Teams now have a clear blueprint on how to take these guys down.
This should be an interesting one since Runaway look so much better than last season but LH remains a wild card since they tend to take it to the limit when pushed against the wall.
Also looking forward to what Runaway pull out of their Role Musical Chairs this time around!
Guess I'll be going to bed early again next Monday, gotta see this one.
Reinhardt is getting more and more viable, and Kaiser is the best Rein in the game. So if Kaiser is put in with Miro mostly playing Rein, I expect a 3-2 for either side. But I want this to be an amazing match, with WhoRU replacing Gido/Lee and Kaiser and Runner for a true rematch, and a 3-2 for RunAway.
Really looking forward to this match. Runaway looked good against Meta Athena but it's hard to quantify since MEta has looked absolutely lost in both of their games this Season.
A win here guarantees them a top two finish but a loss makes the group hella interesting since they would then virtually have to beat MVP for a shot at the spot with the tier breaker either going to map scores or even extra matches if both this and the MVP games are close!
Personally I'm still rooting for LH even with their loss to MVP since I'd like to see them go out with a bang in their last APEX run, but I also wan to see Runaway make it out over MVP and make an epic run for the championship. Also note that if LH wins here, they also need to 3-0 Meta to match the other two team's results and give themselves the best possible chance to continue on, or at least an opportunity to fight for it.
For the 3rd season in a row the LH group is where all the action's at and I think it's probably a big part of why they're so resilient.
LUNATIC HAI FIGHTING!
These guys are just monsters when they have time to prepare properly, and tonight it was Runaway that looked really stubborn not changing things up after losing Numbani at least.
Now I'm really hoping that Runaway come up big and pretty much 3-0 MVP Space for them to make it through, because I think they might still have chance.
LH 3-0 Meta and Runaway 3-0 MVP Space:
LH / 2-1 / 8-3-1
Runaway / 2-1 / 6-3-0 *
MVP S / 2-1 / 6-5-1
MA / 0-3 / 0-9-0
LH 3-0 Meta and Runaway 3-1 MVP Space:
LH / 2-1 / 8-3-1
MVP S / 2-1 / 7-5-1
Runaway / 2-1 / 6-4-0 *
MA / 0-3 / 0-9-0
If LH win they get 8 map wins regardless so that pretty much guarantees them a top two finish with the three way tie breaker. Runaway pretty much needs to 3-0 MVP Space to make it through with how big the loss was today. Very difficult position to be in but not impossible to get out of if they can deal with Yaki and OneFact. Note that the only thing I'm unsure of is how MVP's draw is counted, it might end up giving them a better record than Runaway in the end but I can't say for certain.
Edit: Added a few scenarios.
Runaway looked really bad after map1. Terrible ult usage, no adjustments. I love Runner but I honestly think the team plays better when he plays the coach roll not the shot caller. Them overlapping support ults is 100% on him.
On that note I think LH proved why they are the best. They needed to wipe the floor with Runaway to take second in group so thats what they did.
It's very unfortunate. With WhoRU being too young and EscA having to do his military service they might be looking at only having Gido and LTJ. At that point I'm not sure who will flex on what but they need a top tier projectile player to replace WHoRU imo.
Though I'd hate breaking up the KDP team I'd still be very interested in seeing what kind of team and coordination LH might have been able to pull off with a DPS duo like Birdring/Rascal that would allow them to flex onto what ever they want while having the stronger Tank/Support quartet out there.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate their current core, but they really need more flexibility in their hero pools once they lose some of their key pieces and in my opinion this version of LH would be the uncontested best team in the world.
Wow, LTJ stepped up big time. If he can continue playing like this, LH might win APEX three times in a row!
And yeah, it's really sad that LH will have to play without WhoRU for the first season of OWL. If they cannot bring Birdring/Rascal, Haksal might also be a viable choice as he plays similar role as WhoRU at similar level. Wait, is Haksal old enough though? Probably not. The age restriction sucks as so many great players are under-aged. Especially great genji players in Korea. Libero would also be great, but he's too young as well.
EDIT: Actually, Libero just turned 18 on July! So he would be a great pick for any OWL teams. His incredibly flexible hero pool (known to play all heroes except Reinhardt) would allow him to adapt well for any meta changes. WhoRU on the other hand, would not be turning 18 until August 23rd of 2019. This really sucks for him. I guess he will remain as the top DPS player on APEX (if APEX manages to continue). Haksal is turning 18 on October of 2018, so he needs some more time as well. Flow3r needs to wait until May, which is only about a month after the regular season begins (April 5th). So I guess LW will just wait until he turns 18 and sign him.
#30
I don't think draws are counted at all, only the tiebreaker result matters.
So basically any MVP Space victory obviously guarantees them #1, but it also means since RunAway could at best go 2-3 in that match (5-6 total) LH also advances (worst case 0-3 vs MA, 5-6 total, won head-to-head against RA).
Now for the more interesting stuff:
RA 3-0 or 3-1 vs MVP.S mean RA advances (with 3-1 it would be 6-4 vs 7-5 for MVP, so head-to-head decides).
What happens to LH in those cases? If they lose vs MA it's over because they'd have only 1 win. If they win then they're at worst at 8-5 and with RA at best at 6-3 it's LH #1, RA #2 due to h2h. A 3-1 RA win obviously doesn't change that.
So only a 3-2 RA win left. They're out in that case and MVP.S would be at 8-5. LH can only equal, but not beat that and lost the h2h. So MVP.S #1, LH #2 (unless they lose against MA).
tl;dr
MVP.S wins -> MVP #1, LH #2
MVP loses 2-3 -> MVP #1, LH #2 (unless they lose vs MA, then RA #2)
RA wins 3-1 or 3-0 -> LH #1, RA #2 if LH wins, RA #1 MVP #2 if LH loses.
The first map was a nail biter, but I expected it from Control. The other two, Numbani and Anubis, were clinical examples of how to outplay your opponent.
I'd say it's worth watching if you're a LH fanboy like me. Might be a bit painful if you prefer Runaway but otherwise it's a relatively short match so I'd watch anyways.
I think the match is definitely worth watching. Yeah, map 2 and 3 might look like a stomp, but I think it is good to see the teams switching comps (Doomfist, Tracer, Genji, PharMercy, McCree, Widow, Mei, Reaper, Sombra) to deal with different situations.
If you like Lunatic Hai, then you will definitely enjoy watching it. If you don't really know Lunatic Hai and RunAway, then it might not be super entertaining.