The point is, in this group there's one team that's surely stronger (Korea) and one that is at least at the level of France, Sweden, China, UK, US and Canada, and Russia barely lost to Finnland.

Now imagine the Los Angeles group wit Russia instead of Canada: US might beat them, but might also lose to Russia, in any case they would be probably second at worst.

Immagine the Paris group Russia instead of the UK, same as above France could both win and lose to Russia, and again they could be second.

Same story for the Bangkok group, Russia instead of Sweden...

There's no way around it, this was the hardest group of them all, and after the Korea Vs Finnland match I'd also add, by far.

Damn close match, Linkzr popping off when it counts and great ulties from Zappis to seal it.
GG Finnland and gg also to Russia, a pity they are in the hardest group.

It was so close thou, you guys are amazing, less ppl in the whole country than Seoul and look the amount of raw talent you have! Such an envy as an Italian OW fan. >.<

Totally agree, a pity (so to speak) this group stage is so stacked, Russia and Japan could easily be 2nd spot in almost every other group imo (the Japan part is my faboyism for this team), here I see it difficult for both after this match.

Let's go CAG... erm Japan!

Man, outside of the bright lights of OWL, the life of orgs and players are really hard, and end up often being a mess. :(
I'm sorry for the guys who didn't get paid hopefully they'll get what's due sooner than later.

As always over.gg and Scrubasaurus thou try to bring some light also where there's not much, thanks mate great article as usual.

The snakes, really a great EU team, totally agree (again!) with poi. :)

It makes sense from an economical point of view of why those players were in the Huston roster to begin with.

Sort of what happened for example with Valiant picking up the Immortal team (as a core) and SF Shock picking up IDDQD.

Insane game, GG both teams!

Holy whatever that first map of Nepal!

Oh god yes, only 2 Rei give me these goosebumps (as a Rei main myself), him and Keiser.

A real damn pity, that had to happen during the best match...

Damn unlucky crash there for Finnland, right when they were spawn camping Korea. :(

Eh a "simple" restart, they should do it, with the remaining time thou, with full timebank (wasn'ìt a big difference but stil...) it's really unfair for Finnland.

Carpe THE definition of carry

Here we go mate! let's hope this match lives up to the hype!

Players can be traded and imo Uprising could use a different style of DPS player.
While I agree with you about being a pity Davin was the only Gigantti left out of OWL S1, I honestly don't see him going over to Huston.

On the other side, Clockwork was already part of the team (FNRGFE) same as Bani, Boink, Muma and Coollmatt.

Mendo was some sort of a bet, very talented young player, didn't really work out, mainly I think 'cause of all the non-game related issues he had for the first half of Season 1.

GG Russia! Now I just wish Japan was in an easier group stage. :/

P.S. sorry for the spam of comments guys btw.

Damn just throwing it there, a crazy idea I know but... what if Huston could pick up Mistakes? Dude has always been great on Tracer and now also learned to switch to some other heroes (still not at the same level).

Yes stick to yoru best hero, I still believe for him has been a pity ending up in a team with Striker, as he's (was maybe) def one of the top Tracers, at least in EU and NA.

Totally agree again, these last few patches have been amongst the best in years, make all those crazy flex players shine (SDB in this match is an example), while also allowing tank players to play more than "just" Winston+D.VA

Absolutely best match today so far, so balanced!

I'd honestly try Unfixed, Mistakes was literally destroyed by Dep

RU needs a 4-0 here or might be getting hard, Finnland looked way more dominating vs HK.

And Japan's looking great! Damn this is a hard one for me, rooting for Japan, but I'm such an SDB fanboy >.<

Also... Fragi, missed him playing on stage. <3

ZP (hell yes!) nicely "trimmed" and Jake, POGGERS

Is it just me or the production quality of this World Cup is very bad? No desk, mic issues, incorrect screens displayed between matches, no translator for Koreans in a Korean arena...

The casters are doing a good job, as well as Goldenboy and Malik, is everything else that's imo very poor, and it's a damn shame. :(

Btw Carpe looks like a carry no matter what team you put him on, and flexes on basically everything (Widow, Brigitte, Tracer, McCree, Genji, Phara, Hanzo, Sombra).

GG SK, even if with some struggle.

For sure this is a damn hard group stage.

For sure production quality is pretty low, compared to OWL, but also to some Contenders if you ask me, it's a pity tbh. :(

So wait is not live? What was that screen showing SK already winning 3-0? :/

Damn SDB Phara is simply amazing <3

https://youtu.be/QRt_Eu4MoHw

This should be enough, damn pity we didn't manage to see more of SDB during Season 1 of OWL.

GG AT, nice win, and GG also to our CIS overlords!

You could also wonder why does LONDON Spitfire need to make an event in Seoul about their team? :P

Oh don't make me even start with that, as I must admit despite understanding why the Korean players and the Korean staff would prefer to have the meeting in Seoul, I can't for a single reason understand why that should happen BEFORE an actual meeting with the London fans (which is going to happen I guess in October?) had even been announced.

I get it, players need to go back home, well how long should their "holidays" be? We have 5 months before the new season starts, planning a 2-3 days meeting in London shouldn't be such a struggle both for the organization and for all the Koreans in it, in the end, is not like they are playing a videogame for fun, they are professional paid to represent a specific town.

Well thanks to my insomnia a couple of pessimist ideas crossed my mind.

In Korea they just witnessed what happened between Dinasty and Spitfire, and an org might not like it.
In the end isn't like Contenders Korea is such a bad tournament, why risking an older/bigger team to forbid me from meeting my fans? That's needed to make more revenue (not just to please the fans).

In EU, unless we speak of an already existing OW org, I can understand doubts from investors, why should I invest that much money for a spot in Europe in a tournament that for sure this next year, but who knows how long, will only take place in NA? Will I get more fans watching my team from a (let's say) Chicago spot or a Paris one?

You are both right, it's just that pessimist in me that always comes back to the surface. :)

What sort of worries me (so to speak, I'm not losing my sleep over it lol) is that with the exception of Davin and the relatively recent addition of Shadder2k, this team is basically ENCE eSports, who were beaten up to pulp on a regular basis from the old Gigantti...

I wonder what would have happened if they stayed with Northern Lights, Riverboat was nuts during the open division and Trials.

8th map POGGERS!

Of course I have no idea about it, I was answering to Raisin's postulate (with which I partially agree), that the reason he struggled to be more impactfull was mainly due to communication.

Saya might indeed be learning English, in which case I say they him and maybe pick up some more up to date supports?

Swapping an entire roster because one player doesn't fit in (in this case for communication/cultural issues) thou doesn't make much sense, even if you are speaking of the best player on a team, for various reasons:

• Players don't come for free and current ones had 2 years contracts (I guess)
• Bringing an whole new Korean team (Kongdoo or Runaway) it's gonna be hard, unless there won't be another new Korean city drafted for season 2.
• Even if both the above are "solved" nothing guarnatee you that this new team will be better than the current Florida with just 1-2 better supports, Florida doesn't strike me as a franchise willing to risk bunch of money.

Then again, I'm not good at predictions so eh. :)

Is Logix a better widow than Saya? Of course not, but Logix doesn't require the whole team to play around/for him, Saya does.

Saya is actually one of the reasons why after some very slow but steady improvement Florida suddenly started going south again.

I really don't understand all this argument of "Koreans need other Koreans for language reasons", are they too lazy to learn a new language?
English is THE language for Overwatch players, no one in Florida is English and yet their coms are in English, what about the Fusion? How many different nationalities do they have? Wonder what also Koreans.

What to do about Sayaplayer? Force him to learn English, yes for for people form Korea (China and every other Asian country) is more complicated than for Europeans or South Americans, but it doesn't requires ages to learn some basic communication.

If he can't learn English, get rid of him he'll find easily a place in a Korean speaking team.

Damn the other day I saw BERNAR's Tracer, on Linkzr stream... it was something incredible. :O

Well this is a start, now they should announce the remaining 3 franchises, better be at least 1 EU one. :P

God doesn't matter how it ends (but I hope 6nakes win), but damn Asking is always popping off... litrerally every single time I see him play :O

Great match and despite being a bit sad Xavier (my neighbour) is going out, so hyped up for CAG!

:D
The visuals on this skin's Shatter thou are horrible...

Totally agree thou people didn't want to play Rei (some even wanted him out of the game), dive was the way, dive was the life for how long? Almost 14 months? Of course they didn't focus on him, not broken (aka OP) enough to be viable in the months long dive meta.

But I get you, the amount of RNG involved in shatters is incredible, and painful :(

Eh I was starting to enjoy playing Ana (so good vs the hamster), now is almost always an insta-picked :/

S.H.A.M.E.

🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍