Not going to flame c9, they did the best they could and lost to a quality opponent in Kungarna. All I'm going to say is big ups and GRATS to DOGMAN! Dude was lights out on map 3 (especially closing out the tiebreaker) and I've been rooting for him ever since Citizen7 disbanded. Guy is a positive player, funny guy and I'm happy to see him get onto a quality team. Much deserved.

"The focus at Ninjas in Pyjamas going forward will be on returning to the top of the rankings with our Counter-Strike team"

Sorry but I chuckled at this since NiP's CSGO team has been utter garbage for over 2 years now. NiP as an org is only a shadow of what it once was.

ez4foxes

ez4foxes

EZ4ROGUE

Rogue truly owns any non-KR competition currently.

Waited nearly a month for this match, stayed up till fuck'o'clock AM my time only to watch the EZPZ 3-0 sweep. FeelsBadMan.

I'm not posting this to hate or anything even remotely close to that, but being in the advertising/marketing business for a living, you should try to make this segment a little less vague. What I mean by that is people see this post, they read the title and look at the youtube image and it literally says nothing about what the video is about or what content they can expect to see/hear.

Who is Sami, what is the combine, why do I even care? If people ask any of these questions the segment has more or less failed. I say failed because if people question what the content is, there is a good chance they'll never view it to begin with.

12 O'clock News: OWL rumors, Korean/NA roster shuffles feat. Sami/Sideshow/Harsha would make it so people could identify with what is being talked about and tune in because it interested them. Once you get to Thorin/Monte level fame you can start throwing obscure shit out there and people will view just because they like the personalities involved.

But what if it isn't? I'm not trying to be a pessimist here because quite frankly, I don't watch anything Overwatch except the OGN Apex league. I just have a lot of difficulty becoming comfortable with the idea that Blizzard/Activision are going to take all the right steps to deliver a league that doesn't flop harder than the CGS Counter Strike league.

We have absolutely no way of knowing what Blizzard is truly up to, what they're investing their time and assets into or what the ETA on anything e-sports or OWL related will be. We're all just crossing out fingers through this prolonged LAN drought that is suffocating both NA and EU Overwatch organizations.

Competitive Overwatch could have been so much more, it SHOULD have been so much more and it really sucks that we have to wait well over a year to see the game forcefully taken to the next step, rather than let it naturally arrive there which I firmly believe would have been possible by this stage already.

I believe in Rogue, only non-KR team that can hang with the overlords in this dive-heavy meta.

Interested to see if Decay and Daemin live up to the hype.

Surprised by Vonethil getting benched considering he is the team's IGL, maybe he will move to some sort of coaching role within the team? Hafficool being benched doesn't surprise me because in all the APEX matches I saw fnatic play he was utterly non-existent.

Not exactly sure if Talespin is the answer they are looking for, unless his Genji play has improved tenfold since he left NV. No idea who realzx is.

Rascal and birdring is going to be pretty insane ... Korean teams just getting stronger and stronger as many predicted. Moving birdring to Panthera and DNCE going from DPS to support tells me Uncia's new pickups are villainous DPS ... we shall see.

Lol @ Hafficool, why exactly is he talking shit after getting steamrolled in APEX? Love Custa and Vonethil but Fnatic hasn't exactly been considered a top-tier team ever since Columbus traveled overseas and discovered the Koreans.

Maybe if he was iddqd but he clearly is not that brilliant Swede now stuck in NRG rebuilding limbo.

NRG may want to gracefully decline the invite ... really kind of disappointing that there isn't a notable EU or NA team that could replace them either. Everyone is either reforming, trying to discover/rediscover their identity or not at the level of the top tier Korean teams.

This was a very smart move personally and professionally by Seagull. I, too, have been suffering from burnout from Overwatch. The game is stale as ever and competition is at a standstill.

For him to take this step back, play the game on a more casual level with his viewers or perhaps dabbling in other games for a few months is a good idea. Keep the head clear, keep the fanbase growing and come back as devoted as ever when the time deems it necessary.

Smart guy Seagull and best of luck to both the bird & NRG.

So happy Runaway became the Cinderella story of this season of APEX, been a huge fan of Haksal & co. when they were a "mid-tier" Korean team. Interested to see if they continue to make roster moves or keep with what has been working.

Really hoping the OW league pans out because the community is starting to form nicely.

I haven't been playing much OW last couple of months but watching Misfits I can't identify if they are struggling or if the competitive in general has just gotten better/closed the gap in skill.

On attack they always look pretty solid with their individual talent shining through. But their defense always worries me, especially against well coordinated dive comps.

Months after the player/team swap, Misfits still just doesn't impress me. Not going to lie, pretty disappointed in their progress.

Pine/Noname hype!

In Haksal, I believe. Runaway 4-2*

edit - forgot finals were Bo7

Let's go COOLLER!!

Joe Montana ...?

Meta and Runaway have honestly just impressed me more and more each time I see them. Seems like every other week the power shifts from one team to another. Just goes to show how immensely deep and talented the competition is in Korea right now. That's not even to mention the superb players/teams in the Challenger's league right now.

Last match I predicted 3-2 LWB cause nanohana things, but this week I'm going with the "underdog" and saying Meta will win 3-2. Either way it's hard to predict against LH but Meta has been on a tear and their creativity/hero diversity is something I don't think LH has. HYPED EITHER WAY THOUGH, FINALLY GETTING SOME GOOD MATCHES IN APEX AFTER WEEKS OF 3-0 STOMPJOBS!

Haksal vs. nanohana hype! I think LWB will win 3-1/3-2 but Runaway has been surprising people recently!

KDP 3-1

Best of luck to NRG & friends, there will be a lot of pressure and expectations to come with this huge opportunity.

I'm still skeptical as ever of the OWL but this move gives me hope that maybe things could potentially pan out for the best.

Haksal with 200+ ping is going to be impossible to hit on Genji lol

RL's video on OWL is pretty enlightening and depressing. It always felt way too good to be true considering how unpopular OW's "e-sports" scene has panned out after the amazingly successful World Cup Expo @ Blizzcon.

2.5-15million for a OW organization? What are those guys @ Activision/Blizzard thinking.

LTJ was worse than EscA ... and what hero pool are you talking about? His average Tracer and Roadhog? Jehong and Dean had to change roles around to accommodate LTJ's lack of a hero pool.

I check Over.gg everyday even though I don't really play OW actively anymore. The tank meta, Bastion 2.0 and Orisa coming ... game just doesn't appeal to me the way it used to. Still love following the competitive scene and this is the only site that offers any information/opinions that I care about.

Let's see if Monte roasts EscA for the entire duration of the match again. Though if LH loses this match (I predict KDU winning 3-1), I wouldn't be surprised if EscA was removed from the active roster and put into some kind of coaching position or something. He is very obviously a level below that of all his teammates.

3-0 meta

Haksal!! Love this kid more and more every time I see him.

As for people getting on Monte for getting on EscA, that's just how it is in sports and now e-sports. If you struggle as a polarizing figure on an even more polarizing team, there are consequences. This is the nature of life and competition, the weak are thinned out for the strong. EscA is weak. He has no depth, his Mei sucks, his McCree is decent and his S76 is average at best.

And to be fair, Monte had a similar outlook on the removal of LTJ after his scandal. He did not shy away from the fact that the bans on LH actually helped them greatly in the skill department. Either way it wouldn't surprise me at all if EscA was cut, despite being a fangirl favorite amongst K-grills.

Not like this match really mattered, Uncia is going to 3-0 c9 regardless. This season of APEX has been extremely boring to watch.

Another boring, fairly easy 3-0 sweep. I expected LWB to win handily but this match just seemed like a match of a T1 team vs. a borderline T2 team. I'm not going to lie, this entire season has been pretty boring so far, especially in comparison to last season.

ez 3-0 for birdring and co.

C9 on that very first map when they had back2back mental lapses and lost by not even contesting the point ... come on guys ...

I just genuinely hate Roadhog so much at this point. Hate his core design, hate his impact on matches, hate how easy he is to play and how much players/teams crutch on his existence to compete/win games.

I was never particularly impressed by his Tracer or his Genji play but no one can deny Tale's Pharah was world-class, if not arguably the very best.

Surprised he hasn't found a team yet, especially with how commonly picked Pharah is in the current meta.

iddqd and Seagull make sense. One of the best hitscanners in OW + one of the most versatile projectile/off-tank players in OW. I think Harb will join at some point as well and the roster right away will have more firepower than any of its predecessors. GL NRG + idd!

Misfits definitely looked better but I'm still not totally sold on their new roster until they play someone like NV/LH or either of the KD teams.

AFR on the other hand was extremely disappointing. You can't have no versatility in this game and expect to get by.

nv 3-0

Evermore pretty much shut haksal down the entire match, was a pretty boring/disappointing match tbh.

Nice, stuff to read/watch while I'm at work tomorrow

Still waiting for the day a pine and flower(nanohana) play together full-time

The amount of female fans LH has is literally crazy. I definitely would get banned too at some point.

I agree, TyDolla has such a nice ring to it lol. I really liked nanohana too before he swapped his name back to flow3r.

OT - always been a fan of the name Sherlockey in the NA scene.

-dean +zunba ... can you really even complain if you're LH? Either way ... HYPE!

Wish the NGE computers had the nametags like APEX and the E-League CSGO major. I had no idea who anyone was on Immortals or Ghost.