Besides the lost, I think both NYXL and Titans have the capability to come back as the top team in any meta. The ability of adaptation is the most incredible thing that kept them winning through a series of version changes. A team would not be able to dominate for years if they are struggling in accommodating meta. I am expecting them to come back as a top team again.

Though I am saying these, I think a lot of teams are growing a lot stronger through the season. I could tell there will be some other teams come to the top level with their constant improvement.

These are the most intense playoff ever. Seed 1-3 are all eliminated.DAANNNGGG

I guess Harb is going to be picked up in OWL?

The Hunters Zone:
According to Schrödinger's Panda, no one can predict a Hunter's game until it is finished.

Good game tho, Justice finally revealed the weakness of Hunters, and GIGACHAD Ameng.

But it is not necessarily a bad thing for Chengdu. TBH, I think there is no better timing for them to get denied in specific situation and to understand their comp's capability.

Hunters are still the funnest team to watch after all :"3

Cuz hunters' main tank is under visa issue. They can only play strange comp

I mean, compared to other matches, both teams are playing more experimentally. I would be more willing to watch games like this from SHANGHAI whatever wining or losing. It is overall better than merely mimicking of last season.

Left those who are under age (leave and shy) and those who are signed by other teams (Guxue and Krystal), they will only be able to sign three players from Team China in OWWC. You cannot expect a similar roster here. However, I believe RUI is a super talented coach. I think there lays the reason why he chose such a roster.

That was insane.

Such an unexpected game!

Good players will try to join whichever gives them better chance to get into OWL.

Great respect to Patiphan. Thailand is playing 100% better than yesterday. Finally, they have good execution on their strats.

But good job on China. Not an easy fight at all.

Sweden should make it into #2 seed. I would say Canada have better players than US, but they are not executing any plans and playing like random competitive games. The CA vs US game is a completely mess for Canada, whose players did not even practice enough before so.

If you know the notorious coach named U4, who is the head coach of SHD. U4 was taking charge of the 2016 and 2017 Team China.

I must add KRYSTAL for it. HE IS SO NUTS!!!

Yea, they are performing great. It is way better than my expectation. Executions and counter strats are impressive. TBH, I really want good Chinese players got recognized and make it into OWL.

GUXUE, LEAVE and YVELTAL are definitely of OWL level. This match is a great showcase of what Chinese players are capable of!

Well, I've heard that leave has been back to OW from PUBG for only a short time. Chinese OW scene is terrible now. I cannot hold a positive attitude towards this match.
(shame on Shanghai again, not even giving trials to Chinese players)

U S A

W I L L

B E

D E S T R O Y E D

N PogChamp IL should make it into the OWL

Damn Logix is super good. RIP

It's only about money tho. The ones backed by Chinese company are really rich and seeking to expand their impact on US.

TBH, a team supported by Bilibili is a tremendous move. I have never expected this.

Bilibili is one of the most popular, if not the most, video website among teenagers in China. The website formed a huge community with very rich subcultures associated with them. The company just submitted IPO on the NASDAQ in March, 2018 and this will be the best chance to expand their culture and market abroad.

While for Overwatch, this is the best chance to refocus the sight of Chinese gamers back to the game. In China, people are mostly playing LOL and PUBG, both of which are somehow experiencing recessions. On the meantime, OWL started when OW was having the hardest time in China; thus, there are few people in China actually watch OWL, especially with an extremely limited access to the live games (the viewers count on Chinese streaming websites are generally few times of the actual number, which they named after 'popularity' than 'viewers count'). Back then, there is no major streaming or video site in china have access to the game other than the one powered by NetEase. So most people will watch the game on twitch via setting up VPN. I hope the joining of Bilibili will solve this (shame on NetEase for the worst team and management of OWL).

I will say, this is a huge chance for re-popularizing Chinese OW. I highly doubt that it is Blizzard China who supported Bilibili with the team.

Maybe Outlaws?

Wait, so Jake will still be the main projectile DPS in Outlaws?

First, to bring in another team from China should not be a disgrace. It might be one of the greatest chance for talented Chinese players. I'd say none of Shanghai's players is the best one in China, if you learnt about teams like Miraculous Youngster. The Chinese players might finally see the chance to compete in a greater stage, other than OC in China. I could tell lots of players who quit will return to competitive gaming of OW because of the opportunity. SHG is not providing positions for good players in China, while I believe Guangzhou could be the one! (SHG is messed up with management problem and choosing players not even through the trials, which is the problem I hope they could solve in next season)

Secondly, your math is really bad since it is impossible to have 0-80 combined with any two teams. However, it may take some time for you to figure it out. Work harder with math bro!

Patch 1.25? New sym rework? PogChamp

Why is the playoff going #1 vs #2 and #3 vs #4. This is unfair, TBH. Getting #1 seed during stage only to have the toughest fight in playoff???

KYKY LUL

Striker carried so hard PogChamp

TBH, Tviq lost the game. I wonder why they don't put into Logix.

MENDO?????

But the problem for the widow v widow in this game is that Carpe was well protected but surefour was not getting help from his teammates. At the same time winston, DVA and tracer in PHL is harassing and diving surefour while GLA failed to do the same.

If a widow was constantly under 3 man dive, it is almost impossible to find picks on the enemy widow. This is the problem surefour has faced. If you checked the widow duel, surefour was killed by Carpe when forced out of his position by winston/DVA or by wall hack advantage. It is not preferable to say Carpe is unrivaled; he is just having easy time to focus on sniping without any harassment.

I would say the wining is not decided by individual play in this game. PHL gets better game plan to dive Surefour's widow and pocket Carpe while GLA seldom plays around widow (either protection, counter dive or diving Carpe). For example, Bischu failed to protect S4 from diving winston in the last fight of map 3 while Carpe under no pressure from GLA's winston, DVA and tracer. This is the reason they lost last fight.

GLA is losing on game plan or coaching stuff but not on these individual plays.

The commentators are favoring Carpe over S4 too much such that they did not even see why S4 is losing to Carpe. (Or is it true?) They are completely biased on the judgement over widow duel. S4 is not losing widow duel. He killed Carpe many times too, and usually died from Carpe under wall hack or pressure from diving. From my counting, S4's widow is 3-3 in map 3 and 2-3 in map 4 against Carpe, but the commentators are claiming Carpe is winning the game through widow duel.

In map 3 and map 4, S4 was terribly focused by diving from Fragi, Poko and Snillo. There is almost no protection for S4 thus he easily get picked; however, it is not widow duel but instead tank diving. On the contrary, Carpe has almost no pressure from GLA tanks and always get pocketed. He was well protected and unfocused by GLA. So he can easily play better than S4 who does not have so much space to play with.

Actually S4 is very good at hero duel (one of the best), but he is not as good in killing other heroes with widow (So he is not a top level widow player). That S4 is good at dueling is also the reason why GLA chose S4 instead of Asher to play widow against Carpe.

LAG 3-1

Well, MY actually announced it "unofficially" weeks before. The scene now in China is quite complicated, since Chinese players are competing in a different environment than players of other regions. I would say NetEase, the company running Battle.net in China, is not working well to keep the teams alive. They are not able to organize sufficient and good matches to develop Chinese OW, and they are not communicating with Blizzard to deal with disaster on gaming franchises brought by OWL, while Chinese player are not competing with players in other region and earn from games other than local tournaments (It is true China get a large population base, but it does not necessarily mean an ample amount of tournaments to keep eSports going).