Actually I started watching APEX since season 2, so I am not sure how LTJ was before. But I heard he has been practicing really hard in competitive matches and has improved a lot since then. And I think we saw a glimpse of how good he can be in the match against RunAway this season. If he can consistently play at that level, I think he can be as good as Saya, maybe even better. LTJ did play poorly against MVP though, so I cannot tell how consistent he will be at this point. I guess we will have better idea towards the end of this season.

Korean OGN casters said that Jehong had personal reasons that he could not play today, and LH has been practicing to play without him in preparation of the match. They did not specify what kind of personal reason though. Miro, Zunba, and Tobi were again just amazing today. I really want them to beef up the DPS and show how scary of a team they can be (especially since Whoru will not be able to play for the OWL due to age restriction).
LH + KDP DPS duo will be insanely good, but I feel like KDP will get a OWL spot themselves. LH + MA DPS duo would also be a significant upgrade of the team. Or just simply adding Libero to the team would be sufficient if LTJ can continue to play more consistently.

I don't agree to the ones blaming envy as the reason for Immortals' failure this season. I don't think the reason Rogue, eUnited, and Immortals are failing is due to the teams getting any worse. Well, at least I don't think that is the main reason. These teams are all known for their aggressive play style, and that play style just isn't working anymore. Teams have learned to be more disciplined and organized to bring the other teams toward them to counter the dive. While other teams learned from their failures and improved, these three teams just sticked to their original style because that's what brought them the great success just couple months ago.

Because of this, we have been seeing Fate getting picked early so often in their first 2-3 games this season. And then it seemed like they were starting to learn not to be too aggressive by the third and the forth game (against FaZe and Rogue). But then now, it seems like they are completely lost. They seemed so desperate to try all kinds of things, and this time KariV seemed to be getting picked way too often. He probably was frustrated and wanted to carry the team himself, but as a support, he really shouldn't be getting picked that often. Also, KariV's sombra just isn't good imo. I still had hopes for Immortals before I saw this match, but I think they need some major reconstruction. I don't think anyone in this team is bad, but none of them are great.

I think Rogue is slowly figuring things out, but their narrow hero pool is still limiting them. They need to learn to play other heroes, and do it well. Again, their excellence made them too hesitant to try other things.

For eUnited, they need better tanks for sure. uNFixed on D.Va isn't good. sharyk's Winston gets picked too often. Vallutaja also isn't one of the best. At this point, it might be better for Kruise and Boombox to find a different team that can perform better.

LGE is too dependent on PharMercy comp with Timon. Their PharMercy comp has worked great against the team that did not know how to deal with it, which is what made them prefer this comp too often. I've always thought PharMercy isn't great against top teams since it can be dealt with by fast dive with good focus (especially now with Doomfist), and I wasn't sure why it is so prevalent in this region. It seems like now Chinese teams are learning to deal with PharMercy as well, so LGE must learn to do well without it. Or maybe the new Mercy patch will save them as I think the new Mercy certainly would work better for PharMercy comp as it is so common to just solo-res Pharah with this comp.

Not sure what you mean by the last line there, but if you are saying LW Red's Tracer is a problem, I think I have to disagree. Nenne is one of the best Tracers and has been carrying LW Red all the way to the top in the Challengers last season.
To be fair, I have not watched this match yet, so it might be true that he did not perform well in this match. I only watched the Nepal map for the match, and it seems like LW's main problem for that map was sticking to PharMercy comp when it clearly was not working out. ROX rushed into the LW ground units with full force, and since PharMercy was up in the sky not able to fully participate in those team fights, LW was simply out-numbered every time.

LF seemed stronger with GodV and BUG. I wonder why they keep trying PharMercy with beike and 177 when it just doesn't work.

Yeah, Runner is the reason I began to love RunAway. He is so passionate about the team and has sacrificed so much for the team. It would have been very sad to see them eliminated when the team just got a team house prepared by Runner. I hope they show us the miracle from season 2 and get to the final again.
It's sad that the future of this team is not clear when the OWL begins. I do not think they are one of the teams that will be picked up by the OWL teams. Maybe a few of them? But they just will not be the same unless they are together.

Kuroi, I agree with you 100%. LH should win this.
But I think the reason LH was able to stomp RunAway was partly due to TiZi's absence due to personal reason and Stitch's poor condition that day. According to Runner on his stream, JJanu had to substitute TiZi for Winston and Runner had to come in because TiZi had personal issues that restricted him from playing the match. Also, Stitch was feeling dizzy 20 minutes prior to the match, which was not resolved even after taking a headache pill. Seeing how important TiZi and Stitch was today, LH was very fortunate they did not face RunAway in current form. In the end, I think top 2 from the group went to the ones who deserve it the most. Although MVP did extremely well, I am not sure whether they will be able to continue to perform at current level with Doomfist's nerf. Also, it seems like LH and RunAway's performance will only continue to get better based on how much they have been improving lately.
On the side of Meta, Libero and Saya, use this opportunity to show how sick of a DPS duo you are and be picked up by team Seoul please. I want to see these two in the OWL.

Immortals 1:3 FaZe
I think this match can go either way. If Immortals have learned from their past two matches, they might actually take this 3-1. But most likely, I think FaZe will take the victory.

Renegades 0:4 EnVision
EnVision should take this match. Renegades might take a map, but probably 0:4 by EnVision.

FNRGFE 1:3 Rogue
Although Rogue lost to EnVision and looked even a bit shaky against Renegades, I think they showed their still dominant mechanical skills when fights were taken properly with 6v6. Hopefully, Rogue would've learned that the teams are improving and that they shouldn't just dive in all the time like before. Aggressive dive worked when they were absolutely dominant in the past, but that is no longer the case.

Kungarna 0:4 EnVyUs
I think EnVyUs is the top team in NA right now. Probably 4:0 by EnVy.

Immortals 1:3 Rogue (could go either way)
This will depend on how Rogue looks in the match against FNRGFE. If Rogue starts to learn to play more conservatively when they are out in numbers, then they should take a win. If not, it will be 3-1 by Immortals.

Renegades 0:4 FaZe
FaZe should win this. Might lose a map, but they will still take the match.

LGD 2:0. MY might take it to 2-1 if they pull out surprise tactics.

Yep, that's what I was referring to when I said LoL World Championship. But LoL World Champ is more like UEFA Champions League in that they have multiple leagues ran by different organizations with different league structures. They even invite "Wild cards" for the teams that are not part of the leagues that normally participate in LoL World Champ I think. So I think that is quite different from what I was getting at with OWL.
But yeah, I think this certainly is a confusing topic that probably deserves a separate thread. At this point, who knows how Blizzard will run it, but I certainly hope they do it well because future of Overwatch eSport certainly seems to be dependent on its success.

But does it? We still perceive NBA as one league. Same goes with MLS and MLB. If OWL function like those leagues, not like European football leagues (with UEFA Champions League) or LoL World Championship in that they have separate independent leagues, I think people will still see OWL as one league.
I really don't know how OWL will turn out. I am not trying to guess what they are going to do or anything like that. I am so lost that I just want to see if there is any reasonable way to carry out truly international league successfully.

To elaborate on what I meant by dividing the league into separate regions,

Let's say we get Beijing and Sydney as additional two teams, then we have:
LA#1, LA#2, SF, Austin-Dallas, Miami-Orlando, NY, Boston, London, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Sydney.

So if you divide them into 3 regions:
Region A:
LA#1
LA#2
SF
Austin-Dallas

Region B:
Miami-Orlando
NY
Boston
London

Region C:
Beijing
Shanghai
Seoul
Sydney

Then, I think it will become much more feasible to carry out home and away matches. Regional matches followed by playoffs with top 1 or 2 teams from each region maybe?
I feel like OWL will most likely be just one league in one location for at least first two seasons, and if they get more teams later (at least 16?), they might separate into regional leagues like this.

You're probably right in that it will just be one league. I just don't see how they are going to function as one league with the cities being so far away though. I know they are going to play all of the matches in LA for the first season, but playing home and away matches for the later seasons, I just don't see it being feasible. That's the only reason I thought they might divide it into two leagues with playoffs like most American sports leagues. Is it going to be like Olympic event with first season being played in LA, second season in NY, third season in London, etc.? Then, teams would have to look for temporary team house every season...

I was more surprised to see this than the AF's loss. To me, NC Foxes never looked to be a strong team. They have decent DPS, but not that strong tanks or supports. But today, Ria's D.Va did extremely well to cover DDing's Pharah. Other than the control maps, Pharah was almost deleted by Ria. Kongdoo Uncia probably would've won if they had Butcher. Butcher and Daemin tank duo is better than Changsik and FR3E imo, at least when Winston needs to be played.

Probably?? But who knows with so many upsets lately. I think introduction of Doomfist has changed so many things around. Unless nerf of Doomfist gets applied quickly to APEX, teams with good Doomfists (MVP, LWR, GCB) might pull out another upset. I still agree with you in that we would most likely see KDP and LH in the finals as they are far more experienced in big matches.

Probably because Brek wasn't doing that good in last two matches. Brek and Kalios are the two changes AF had this season, and I think Kalios did pretty well to cover Donghyun's absence in past two matches. So I guess they wanted to change things around in hopes of getting back to their last season's form.. But yeah... Tydolla clearly did not seem comfortable playing Winston. Maybe they played most of the scrims with Tydolla in preparation for this match? Otherwise, I do not see why they did not try switching him back for Brek. Honestly, I think this loss was more than just Tydolla's fault. AF did not seem coordinated at all.

EDIT based on how teams have been performing up to now. I will list the location AND the roaster I want to see together as I think for some of the teams, it would be better to see in certain location.

Team Seoul - Lunatic Hai + MA DPS Duo

• EscA
  Gido
  Miro
  Zunba
  Tobi
  Ryujehong
  LEETAEJUN
  Libero

*Addition of Libero is a must imo since Whoru wont be able to join for awhile due to age restriction. Saya has similar hero pool with most of LH DPS, so probably not as needed as Libero.

Team Boston - Kongdoo Panthera

• Birdring
  Rascal
  Fissure
  Void
  Bdosin
  Wakawaka

Team New York - LW Blue

• Saebyeolbe
  Pine
  Mano
  Janus
  MekO
  JJoNak
  Arhan
  Fuze
  *Flow3r (to join in May, 2018)

*Arhan is a great player with similar expansive hero pool as Flow3r. As Sylph retired, they would need another Lucio player, which I think Fuze would do a great job of.

Team Dallas-Austin - EnVy Us

• Taimou
  EFFECT
  cocco
  Mickie
  HarryHook
  chipshajen

Team LA - Immortals

• Grimreality
  Agilities
  Fate
  envy
  hyped
  Verbo
  KariV
  Recry
  Gamsu
  Donghyun

*Immortals is a decent team with decent players. They would do okay in the OWL, but to be a good team, they need addition of some great players. As immortals is a team with lot of Korean connections, adding a few Korean players probably would not disrupt the team synergy that much.

Team LA2 - FaZe Clan

• ShaDowBurn
  Carpe
  FCTCFTN
  SPREE
  Joemeister
  Rawkus
  coolmatt69
  Custa

*I think flex-tank and flex-support are FaZe's weaker positions, and adding coolmatt and Custa would certainly benefit them. Roolf and bani instead of Custa might also work. Also, Carpe tends to be inconsistent in his form, so adding another tracer player might be necessary.

Team San Francisco - NRG + EnVision

• sinartraa
  iddqd
  xQc
  Jaru
  McGravy
  Tseini
  numlocked
  Fire
  Fahzix

*EnVision is the team that really surprised me, and I think they certainly deserve to be in the OWL. To maintain their team synergy, I think they should be picked up as a team, so I think San Francisco would be a good option. sinatraa and Jaru DPS duo would also be great to see.

Team Miami-Orlando - Misfits

• TviQ
  Logix
  CWoosH
  Manneten
  Zebbosai
  Zuppehw

Team London - C9 + eUnited

• Kruise
  vallutaja
  Surefour
  mowzassa
  SPACE
  neptuNo
  Boombox
  Greyy

*eUnited is not playing as well as I expected, but I still think eUnited has some great players. C9 and eUnited roasters seem to complement each other pretty well.

Team Shanghai - LGD

• uNdeAD
  Eileen
  guxue
  KaPkAn
  mg
  130
  shy

Team Hong Kong - MY + OPC Players

• leave
  Yangx1aoLg
  jiqiren
  lateyoung
  creed
  zhufanjun
  baconjack
  timon
  ErsTer
  anamo

*Hong Kong is a unique city that although it is in China, it is free from many Chinese regulations. For that reason, I think it is the perfect location to bring additional Chinese talent along with great players from Pacific Championship.

Team Las Vegas - Rogue

• aKm
  SoOn
  NiCOgdh
  KnOxXx
  winz
  uNKOE

*Yes, I know they have not been performing in the contenders, but I believe they are still great players. They are beginning to show that they can learn to coordinate team plays. I think they can rise to be great team again once they adjust their coordination.

Up to here is where I hope to see in the first season. When we get more teams, I want to see the following:

Team Toronto: Canada deserves a team as there are many great Canadian players.

Team Paris: Gamers Origin (Team for great French players to join)

Team Stockholm-Katowice: Gigantti + 123 (Team for players from Sweden, Poland, Finland, Norway, etc.)

Team Sydney: Team for great Australian players

Team Beijing: I believe China has enough talent and fan base to form another team. For example,

• Diya
  Krystal
  Yakumo
  YaoYao
  Tian
  Time
  5King
  BUG

Team Berlin-Frankfurt: Team for great players from Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, etc.

Team Busan: There is more than enough talents not included in LH, KDP, and LWB to form another great team in Korea. For example,

• Haksal
  Stitch
  OneFact
  Recry
  Sayaplayer
  Kaiser
  Gamsu
  Butcher
  Donghyun
  Kalios
  ChoiHyoBin
  Bumper
  JJanu
  iDK
  Undine
  KoX

Team Chicago: Team for great FA players in NA

Team Madrid: Team for great players from Spain and Portugal

The cities I hope to see in the OWL depends on how Blizzard plans to operate OWL. If it is going to be just one large global league, I think having most of the team in NA would make most sense, but if they want to have separate regional leagues followed by global championship league like League of Legend, I want to see more cities in China, Korea, Europe, and Australia. But I think having separate regional league is not realistic for the amount of investments necessary for each team. At most, I guess they might divide the league into two region, kind of like NBA, MLB, and MLS, followed by playoff matches.

If it's just going to be one giant league:
Seattle, Chicago, Toronto, San Antonio-Houston, D.C., Las Vegas, Denver, Atlanta, Vancouver,
Seoul #2, Beijing, Paris, Sydney

If it is going to be two regional leagues followed by playoffs (like MLB, NBA, MLS):
Beijing, Seoul #2, Busan, Tokyo, Sydney/Melbourne,
Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Cologne, Frankfurt, Katowice,
Rio, Mexico City,
Seattle, Chicago, Toronto, San Antonio-Houston

In a press conference that was held in Korea a few months ago, Nate Nanzer stated that he aims to have 12~16 teams for the OWL. Also, "Blizzard has set a goal of 12 teams" could just mean that they want at least 12 teams. So I think we might end up seeing more than 12 cities. But most likely, we will see 12 teams as you said for the first season, as most of the recent articles seem to state that Blizzard is aiming to have 12 cities for the first season.

Link to the captured image of the slide with hypothetical 16 city spots shown during the conference:
https://twitter.com/slasher/status/844627269494689792

Seoul Owls? I think it's a proper name for the OWL team for the city that never sleeps

Well, he played both Sub-tank and Tank, but I was never really impressed with his D.Va. His Winston seemed to be quite better actually. Currently, he is contacting Western teams for trial.

For NA and EU, there are players that I am somewhat familiar with, but not to the degree to even try to rank them. So I will just list the players I am familiar with.

in North America:
DPS:
Taimou
aKm
ShaDowBurn
Carpe
Surefour
EFFECT
SoOn
NiCOgdh
Jake
GrimReality
Agilities
Jaru
McGravy
Mangachu

Tank:
cocco
Fate
ChrisTFer
KnOxXx
Kolsti
FCTFCTN

Sub-Tank:
Mickie
SPREE
envy

Heal:
HarryHook
winz
Joemeister
Verbo

Sub-Heal:
chipshajen
KariV
uNKOE
Rawkus

in Europe:
DPS:
TviQ
Kruise
Logix
sinatraa
vallutaja
fischer
Nevix
snillo
LiNkzr
Davin
Kyb

Tank:
sharyk
mowzassa
fragi

Sub-Tank:
Manneten
uNFixed
SPACE
crems

Heal:
neptuNo
Zebbosai
Morte
CrusaDe

Sub-Heal:
Boombox
Zuppehw
Greyy
zappis

For China and Pacific region, there are only a handful of players that I am even somewhat familiar with...

in China:
uNdeAD
Eileen
diya
Timon
Samsara

in Pacific region:
Baconjack
ieatuup
diem
ErsTer
anamo

For Oceanic and SA region, I never actually got a chance to look at their matches. Anyone know good players from that region? Also, Japan seemed to have a few decent players seeing the World Cup matches, but I don't really know them.

Yeah, I agree. Also, some players look great not necessarily because of their individual skiils, but because of synergy with the team. But the reason I wanted to start this discussion is because as many roaster changes were being posted for the Western teams, I couldn't really follow what would be considered as impactful change to the roaster and what not. I thought sharing thoughts on notable players might help people follow the potential impact of roaster changes a little better? Like I didn't really know Jaru until he joined EnVision and totally upgraded the team. Also, I didn't know ChrisTFer was such a beast.

I have been trying to keep track of the best teams in each region, but it's getting so complicated now that so many changes in roasters are happening. So I thought it probably makes more sense to keep track of good players until roasters somewhat stabilize. But right now, I am not super familiar with the players outside South Korea region. Who are the players to keep an eye on?
Please pick top 5 in each role (top 10 for DPS since there are usually two DPS in standard comp) for the region you are familiar with. I will start with mine!

Region South Korea (APEX)

DPS

1. Birdring
2. Flow3r
3. Rascal
4. Arhan
5. Libero
6. Whoru
7. Saebyeolbe
8. Nenne
9. Haksal
10. OneFact

Honorable mentions:
Sayaplayer, Recry, LEETAEJUN, DDing, Pine, Gido, Esca

Tank

1. Mano
2. Miro
3. Janus
4. Fissure
5. Kaiser

Honorable mentions:
Butcher, Panker

Sub-Tank

1. Zunba
2. Void
3. Donghyun
4. Kalios
5. MekO

Honorable mentions:
ChoiHyoBin, Hoon, Bumper, JJanu

Heal

1. Tobi
2. Wakawaka
3. iDK
4. Fuze
5. Sylph

Sub-Heal

1. ryujehong
2. Undine
3. Bidosin
4. Lucid
5. KoX

Honorable mentions:
Pine, WonJaeLee, DNCE, Hyeonu, Luna, Luffy, JJonak

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.

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.

MVP Space will be a real horrific team if they had better tanks. QoQ and KuKi are pretty good too, but OneFact, Yaki, Undine, and Fuze are looking crazy right now. I am not sure how severely they will be affected by Doomfist nerf though. OneFact and Yaki seemed to be a weaker DPS duo than Saya&Libero without Doomfist in play.
Meta on the other hand, Saya and Libero were the only ones really showing up in this match yet again. Maybe Hyeonu did well from time to time but mostly got dominated by Undine.
I always thought APEX would be better with 12 teams now that there are no Western teams participating in it. With 16 teams participating in APEX, good players are all spread out in different teams, which decreases the overall level. Also, because they promoted pretty much every team in the Challengers, now most of the teams in Challengers are just going to look like amateurs. Saya and Libero really deserve to be in a better team.

Group D was already pretty easy group. Getting 2nd place in Group D would be so much easier than other groups now. I wish they could add qualifier matches between 3rd place Group A,B,C, and 2nd place Group D. Conbox getting the top 8 spot while two of Lunatic Hai, RunAway, MVP Space, and Meta Athena having to drop just doesn't seem right.

LW Blue will not be participating in APEX 4 to prepare for OWL season 1. I don't get why they need to do this since OWL does not start until December, but official source has confirmed that they have already given up their spot in APEX. This might be one of the things Luna was mentioning when he got kicked out of LWB.

texthttps://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/6v87nx/lw_blue_abstained_from_apex_season_4_in_order_to/

AFB on 3rd place? If this is just based on performance in recent tournaments, I can see why they are there. But in strength of current team wise, I would probably put 3rd: Rogue, 4th: LW Blue, 5th: EnvyUs, 6th or maybe even 7th for AFB. AFB without Mano and Donghyun are just not same as before. I think Kalios seems to be filling Donghyun's spot pretty well, but Brek needs to step up to keep AFB at the level they were last season.

Why not make one team use skin of one color while the other team use skin of different color? Kind of like using uniforms with different colors in real sport.
Also, in spectator view, showing who used ults might be useful as well. In spectator view, sometimes it's difficult to tell who used what ult without looking at the ult gauge.

I think the main reason they did not replace LTJ was because they didn't want LTJ to be a scapegoat. Yeah, it is true that they might have won the game if WhoRU or Gido subbed in for him. But if they were able to win by replacing LTJ, people would have blamed him and it would've just started the case of Esca #2 again. I think LH wanted to believe in him and show that they can recover from early losses of the maps like they always do, which unfortunately, did not turn out to be the case this time.
This might sound like a stupid decision to most people, but this is how Lunatic Hai operates. They seem to value positive team atmosphere more than short-term good results. It would have been ideal if LH was able to take the match with LTJ since that would have allowed second chance for him to improve in the next match. But because of this loss, people will blame him for any failure of LH from now on. But being Lunatic Hai, I think they might try giving him another chance yet again. We will see whether that decision will cost them further or not.

Probably. But without Gamsu and Twilight, I am not 100% sure. This is the first official match of CONBOX after the departure of the two key players, so we will see how well CONBOX will play without them.

After reading a few posts on Inven.co.kr, it seems like C9 is aiming to have two full roasters: one with Koreans and one with non-Koreans. This is not from any official source. It's just what many people including some Korean pros are speculating. Since OWL allows maximum of 12 players per team (and C9 stated that they will be recruiting 6 Korean players), I think this might actually be what they are trying to do.

Whatever C9 is trying to do, I have to agree with what most people are saying above. For OWL to flourish to the extent that Blizzard seems to be aiming, teams should have some degree of locality. Boston team with the USA national team roaster will probably attract stronger fan base than the Kongdoo Panthera roaster, although I think KDP is probably a stronger team.

From what I have seen on Overwatch World Cup, I hoped to see one of the NA teams signing the players on the USA national team. Although they probably will not be the top team in the league, I think they have what it takes to be a decent team. Also, based on how well UK performed, I wished to see the London team sign eUnited and add a few more UK players.

It's so sad. Libero has so much talent. At this point, it might be just better for him to join a different team.

Ooops, my bad. It's Volkskaya Industries.
I first went to gosugamers to check the scores, but they did not have how much time was remaining, so instead, I checked the match myself. For some reason, it is shown as Gibralter for the third map on gosugamers.

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjk2MTU0ODQ1Mg==.html?spm=a2hzp.8244740.0.0
Third map ends at 82:43.

Skadi's Gift vs. LGE

Map1 Ilios
Round 1
Team progress: 30% Team progress: 100%
Round 2
Team progress: 99% Team progress: 100%
Round 3
Team progress: 100% Team progress: 99%
Round 4
Team progress: 66% Team progress: 100%

Map3 Watchpoint: Gibralter
Check points:3 Check points:3

Capture progress: 0% Capture progress: 33%

Time remaining: 0.00s Time remaining: 148.0s

This match page seems to lack map 1 and map 3 scores. So I included it here.

LGD, 1246, MY, LF, OMG, and ViCi for top 6 imo.

I am kinda confused of how map 4 went. How did ViCi Gaming win if 1246 had 240 seconds still left to go?

Really? It was 15 maps? Not matches?

Some are now making fun of LW Blue as ilbe Blue. Ilbe is an online community with extreme right political view. It is so extreme and often involve violent language, especially toward certain political figures, regions, and women.
Jjonak, the player recruited in place of Luna, is a controversial player as he is known to be part of ilbe community. Flow3r and Pine were also associated with ilbe in the past, but they publicly apologized for it and said that they would never be part of it anymore. But with Jjonak joining by kicking out two players who are from Gwangju (which is the region despised by ilbe), this controversy is being raised again.
Although I do not think this had anything to do with Luna and Who being released, but Jjonak joining the LW will further damage the reputation of LW for sure.

Below is the link to the OGN website for the roasters:
http://program.tving.com/ogn/apex/43/Board/View?b_seq=56

And below is a link to reddit thread talking about it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/6ssj8z/apex_season_4_all_rosters_announced/

Official announcement from Team LW's manager:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/6ss8iu/team_lw_official_announcement_re_luna_who/

In short, he is stating that the main reason for the release was their performance. LW Blue apparently suffered 15 straight losses in scrims with Luna, and they seemed to perform better with Pine in Luna's place. The manager wanted to give them some money in gratitude for their hard work, but since the team is supported by his personal funds, he had to wait for extra funds to become handy. And he seems to be saying this is part of why the release got delayed.

I think he is just making up excuses. He could've told them earlier at least, so that they would have had enough time to look for other teams.

Yeah, but I'm not sure whether these teams will really show all they have on them since they have their APEX matches coming up real soon (Meta on 14th and AFB on 16th). Nevertheless, it should be a good practice match for them, so I am excited to see how the new lineups will play out.

Is this the case for Black Ananas and Skadi's Gift? I was confused to see Skadi's Gift in place of Black Ananas.

I am really sad to see Butcher and Panker leave Kongdoo Uncia. This probably led Changsik to leave Meta and join Kongdoo, which I think is also bad for Meta Athena.
Kongdoo Panthera seems interesting. Bdosin seemed to play quite aggressively. With Panthera being already really aggressive, I wonder addition of Bdosin will help them wipe out the enemy team with their aggressive style or whether it will just make their team too unorganized.

Kongdoo Panthera
Rascal - Flex (DPS)
Birdring - Flex (DPS)
Void - Flex (Tanker)
Fissure - Tanker
Bdosin - Flex (Support)
Wakawaka - Flex (Support)
Curious - DPS
Daily - Sub Tanker

IN: Bdosin and Curious used to play for wNv.KR, and they have been playing with Kongdoo Uncia as trial players in the Nexus Cup. Daily played for MVP Space until July 15th, and then played for DeToNator.KOREA after then.
OUT: Luffy moved to Kongdoo Uncia

Kongdoo Uncia
Daemin - Flex (Tanker)
Decay - Flex (DPS)
DDing - Flex (DPS)
Luffy - Support
Fr3e - Flex (Tanker)
Changsik - Tanker
Quatermain - Support
DNCE - Support
*Butcher and Panker is under trial for another Overwatch Team outside Korea

IN: DDing is from wNv.KR (played in the Nexus Cup as a trial player). Luffy is from Kongdoo Panthera. Fr3e used to play for LW Red. Changsik used to play for Meta Athena. Quatermain is from Afreeca Freecs Red.
OUT: Bubbly is serving as a coach for team Kongdoo now.

Meta Athena
Rio - Main Tank
Hoon - Sub Tank
Libero - Flex (DPS)
Sayaplayer - DPS
Hyeonu - Support
Kris - Support

IN: Rio used to play for Afreeca Freecs Red. Hyeonu used to be a playing coach for wNv.KR
OUT: Nus is out of contract. Changsik moved to Kongdoo Uncia

Meta Bellum
Marve1 - Main Tank
Sansam - Sub Tank
CCJ - Flex
Dahim - DPS
Hexa - Support
Chara - Support

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/20664096_329437550833536_3622017340074624323_n.png?oh=65a13bf30775797f8fc746da25551eb1&oe=59EB8862

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGjk_ibUQAAlqAJ.jpg

This is what I thought it would be, but how come the Blizzard page showing South Korea vs. Canada for the round of 8?
https://worldcup.playoverwatch.com/en-us#group-stage

I agree with you. I think having USA vs. Canada match would be interesting. I don't know whether what's on Blizzard page now is just an error or what because previous qualifiers from same group were placed on the opposite side (like China & France and Sweden & Australia).

I think LGD and 1246 are probably stronger than MY, but I could be wrong as MY seemed to have improved a lot after last season ended. Lucky Future and Oh My God are good enough teams to compete against MY as well imo.

At the moment, I think LH, KDP, AFB, and LWB are way ahead of the other teams, but I hope the other teams can surprise me. Maybe meta will change with recent updates, and that will allow unexpected teams to rise. I think RunAway, Meta Athena, LW Red, and Kongdoo Uncia certainly have what it takes to bring upsets.