Last Saturday, the Lower Bracket Quarterfinals of the Pro-Chaser Association ended with two unceremonious 4-0 victories. Team XX easily dispatched Exceed Glory, a team that had gotten the wrong read on the meta and kept trying to run Reaper. Team Capere’s match against TOP was relatively closer, but although TOP held their own in fights, TOP continually made mistakes at key moments that caused them to fall a hair short every time. After all, a 4-0 is still a 4-0.
By Sunday, only four teams remained standing, and the competition started heating up.
Farewell, Capere
For their Lower Bracket Semifinal match, Team Capere came out of the gate ready to counter Insane of Team XX, who had been tormenting backlines all tournament long on his signature Venture pick. Capere put a stop to Insane’s shenanigans. Through coordinated focus fire and crowd control, they found great success picking Insane off at the start of team fights.
After dropping two maps, Team XX finally rallied back on King’s Row, winning the map in extra innings. Half a map later, however, things were looking bleak. Team XX struggled against Capere’s Winston comp and ended up getting full-held on Dorado.
And then Argon happened. Team XX did find more success in their defense after Insane gave up trying to make Venture work on Dorado, but it was Argon who turned the tide in XX’s favor. With only a minute and a half left on the clock to push to Point A, Capere were looking for a quick and easy EMP team fight win — and Argon countered by throwing a Blizzard that froze Capere’s entire team. After that pivotal moment, Capere had no more ults left in the bank. Team XX had completed a fuller hold.
Team Capere’s fighting spirit seemingly vanished after Dorado. If I wanted to be flippant, I would describe Capere’s performance in the next two maps as a total mental collapse. Team XX’s full push on Runasapi took a grand total of seven minutes. Capere had made no progress with the Push bot in that time, making Runasapi the first PCA Push map in which one team pushed zero meters. The second Push map in the PCA with that distinction occurred moments later, when Team XX accomplished another full push on Colosseo.
While the Lower Bracket Semifinals ended in a bitter loss that knocked Capere out of the tournament, this won’t be the last we see of the team. Capere are already looking to rebuild for the Pro-Chaser Association’s next season; Capere’s coach Nohill recently announced that the team would be signing former Overwatch League player Molly on support.
Apagando los Oldest Pros
The Upper Bracket Final was a rematch between Oldest Pro and Team CC. These matchups are always a headline event for the PCA, but for Oldest Pro, the match had come at an inconvenient time. Jinmu of Oldest Pro had been busy attending wedding banquets hosted by his parents and in-laws to celebrate his recent marriage. (In Chinese, this tradition is referred to as 喜酒 xǐjǐu.) There was a real concern that Jinmu wouldn’t be available to play against Team CC on Sunday and that Oldest Pro would have to forfeit the match. To prepare for this possibility, Oldest Pro had treated last week’s match against Team Capere as if a single loss would knock them out of playoffs.
Fortunately, Jinmu did come back home a couple of hours before the match started. He was greeted by an Oldest Pro team that had not scrimmed in the three days he’d been gone and a terrifying new Sombra-D.Va comp from Team CC. What followed was a back-and-forth nail-biter of a match. For seven maps, Oldest Pro desperately searched for an answer to Pineapple’s Sombra, who relentlessly secured fight wins with hacks and EMPs.
The final fight of Oldest Pro vs Team CC came down to yet another Pineapple EMP. There was hope that Jinmu could make something happen for Oldest Pro with his Mei ultimate, but LiGe negated Jinmu’s Blizzard with Defense Matrix. Oldest Pro had nothing left in the tank to counter EMP. In the end, Team CC avenged their previous loss to Oldest Pro and guaranteed themselves a spot in the Grand Finals.
After the match, Chen, the coach of Oldest Pro, admitted on stream that he genuinely considered having Jimmy play Torbjörn to counter Sombra. We’ll see if Oldest Pro will lock the Torb against Team CC this weekend, or if Team XX will do the unexpected and knock out Oldest Pro in the Lower Bracket Finals.
Three Stars
These playoffs matches were chock-full of DPS players thriving under the constraints of the current rush meta.
Third Star: Wh4le (Team Capere)
After Spectra's departure from Team Capere, Wh4le was brought up from the bench to play DPS alongside Apr1ta. Since then, Wh4le has more than proven his value as a solid hitscan player. Wh4le played an effective Sombra during Capere’s match against TOP and even found the opportunity to show off some sick Widowmaker headshots on Circuit Royal.
Second Star: Argon (Team XX)
Mei’s strength in the current meta has been a boon for Argon, one of the best Mei players in the tournament. In every one of Team XX’s playoffs matches, Argon has charged Mei’s ult at an incredibly fast rate, routinely outpacing the other team’s Mei player. The Mei-Venture duo Argon forms with Insane is a formidable force to reckon with.
First Star: Pineapple (Team CC)
Pineapple had the greatest impact of any individual player this weekend. His Sombra played a crucial role in Team CC’s victory over Oldest Pro. Along with LiGe’s D.Va, Pineapple’s Sombra put constant pressure on Oldest Pro’s backline — time and time again, Pineapple would find a window to hack a squishy target, and LiGe would swoop in to confirm the kill.
Commentaires