This article has been updated since its original publication.
On Sunday, EDward Gaming (EDG) won Valorant Champions 2024, securing China’s first world championship title in Valorant esports. EDG’s fateful Grand Finals match against Team Heretics happened to coincide with Week 2, Day 3 of the Pro-Chaser Association Group Stage — meaning that, between rounds of Circuit Royal, Team XX and Exceed Glory were sending messages in match chat about the Valorant Grand Finals.
I couldn’t blame the players for checking in on EDG during their own Overwatch match. EDG vs Team Heretics was an exciting Grand Finals, culminating in an aspirational success story for Chinese esports. Valorant was officially released in China last year, three years after the game launched globally. Chinese Valorant esports lagged behind for a while, forced to play catch-up with regions that already had years of tournament experience. Now, a Chinese Valorant team was the best in the world.
Chinese Overwatch, on the other hand, is still playing catch-up with the help of tournaments like the PCA. “Can CNOW win a world championship?” PCA organizer Chen mused during his co-stream of Team XX vs Exceed Glory. “There is a way, and it’s two words: hard work.”
Oldest Pro: The Chengdu Hunters Retirement Home
Two months ago, former Overwatch League player Jimmy posted a video announcing the roster for a new team called Oldest Pro. Oldest Pro consisted of five players who had all previously played for the Chengdu Hunters: Jimmy, Jinmu, Ameng, Kyo, and D (formerly known as Xerneas, formerly formerly known as Yveltal). All of these players were assumed to have retired after Overwatch League ended, with many of them finding alternate career paths in streaming. The Chengdu Hunters were a popular team in the Overwatch League before their untimely demise in 2023, so fans were thrilled to see players from Chengdu’s old guard compete together again.
A month after the team’s formation, Oldest Pro placed fourth in the Hammer Cup, losing in the semifinals to VEC and Team CC. Nobody had expected them to win the tournament — the players were a few years past the competitive peak they had reached in the Overwatch League — but the fourth-place result was still disappointing. Around two weeks later, Ameng abruptly announced that he was leaving Oldest Pro. After some behind-the-scenes turmoil, in which the team scrambled to find a new tank player before the Pro-Chaser Association tournament, Lateyoung joined the team to replace Ameng.
At the beginning, it wasn’t clear how well Oldest Pro would perform in the PCA. After all, their tank player Lateyoung hadn’t competed for three years. But those doubts were soon set to rest when the team won all three of their matches in Week 1. Oldest Pro had noticeably leveled up with Lateyoung on the roster; if you watch the players’ streams, you quickly get the sense that Lateyoung is the team’s most vocal shotcaller.
Oldest Pro’s match this week against Team Capere was their biggest challenge yet. Chen, who also coaches Oldest Pro, noted in his co-stream that the team wasn’t playing as well as they had in scrims earlier that day; he attributed this drop in performance to fatigue from scrimming too long before the match. Ultimately, the team dropped two maps, but they closed out the series with a dominant showing on Runasapi. (Jimmy’s Ashe performance on Runasapi even earned a spot in the weekly PCA highlights reel.)
“You’re really not tired?” Chen asked after the match was over. “I feel really tired.”
“I’m exhausted, but I have to play Black Myth: Wukong now,” Kyo replied.
Next week, Oldest Pro faces off against Team CC, another team of esports veterans, in perhaps the most anticipated matchup of the tournament. Stay tuned.
Now I Am Become Capere, the Destroyer of Preds
Team Capere surprised us all this week by pulling off a reverse sweep against Team CC, a team of Overwatch League veterans who were heavily favored to win the tournament.
Capere looked lost during their first two maps, which Team CC won easily, but they regained their footing on Junkertown and narrowly clinched another map victory on Suravasa. Finally, they pushed 123 meters on Colosseo against a struggling Team CC; in the last minute of the match, Team CC’s support players even swapped to Mercy and Zenyatta in an unsuccessful last-ditch effort to get some picks and make up the difference.
This was not the same Team Capere that had suffered disappointing 2-3 losses to Team XX and Oldest Pro a few days before. What had changed? Capere had revamped their starting roster, putting in hitscan DPS Wh4le over former M80 player Spectra and flex support LoveinPuff over Noy. When Spectra was in the lineup, Apr1ta was usually relegated to hitscan duty, so the addition of Wh4le allowed Apr1ta to play his signature hero, Tracer. Credit must also be given to Deng’s aggressive tank play and Saya’s propensity for bashing everything in sight after using Brigitte’s ult. Holding W on Brig didn’t always get good results for him, but man, when it worked, it worked.
By handing Team CC their first loss of the tournament, Team Capere had shattered everyone’s match predictions. The upper echelon of the PCA now looks increasingly fallible. If the squad of Overwatch League veterans with multiple Contenders championships under their belts can lose against a team that came in through qualifiers, then anything is possible. I look forward to Week 3.
Stats Corner
This week, Chen shared an infographic of tournament fun facts, as well as charts showing hero pick rates in Week 1.
A few notes on these hero usage statistics:
Week 1’s matches were played on an old patch, so these graphs are not representative of the current meta. Week 2’s matches were played on the current patch. The new hero Juno was released on this patch, but PCA teams will not be permitted to play Juno until playoffs. (In any case, it’s unlikely that Juno will make a significant impact on the PCA playoffs meta.)
D.Va reigned supreme in Week 1. We’re still seeing a lot of D.Va in Week 2, but there seems to be a bit more diversity in tank heroes.
Tracer and Ashe both having a 125% usage rate speaks to a universal truth: everyone loves running Tracer and Ashe in a dive meta.
After Kiriko’s and Lucio’s damage were both buffed in the current patch, more teams started playing the Kiriko-Lucio support duo. In fact, the majority of teams in Week 2 chose between two distinct support lineups: Kiriko-Lucio and Ana-Brig.
The 2% Junkrat pick rate on the DPS hero graph is all thanks to Jinmu, who unsuccessfully played Junkrat last week on Lijiang Control Center against TOP. This week, Jinmu unsuccessfully played Junkrat once again on Lijiang Control Center, this time against Team Capere. Jinmu has never won a round of Control using this Junkrat strat, but will the third time be the charm?
Three Stars
I’ll close out this column by showcasing three players who I felt had noteworthy performances this week.
Third Star: Argon (Team XX)
During Team XX vs Exceed Glory, Argon had free reign in Exceed Glory’s backline, constantly harassing their supports and frequently finding key eliminations and Pulse Bomb kills. His Tracer was a major factor in Team XX’s two match wins this week. While watching Team XX’s loss against Team CC, I wrote in my notes, “XX aren’t winning this, but Argon’s Tracer is really good.”
Second Star: Deng (Team Capere)
It’s not every day that a player goes blow for blow against one of the best tanks in China, but Deng did just that this week, holding his own against legendary tank player LiGe.
Some teams in this tournament can be frustratingly passive at times (I’m looking at you, Mad Wind — sorry), but I can always count on Deng to make the riskier play. Before this tournament, Deng was mostly known for being a ranked ladder warrior who frequently placed on the Top 500 leaderboard. After Capere’s win against Team CC, it seems like Deng’s ranked grindset is paying off.
First Star: Lateyoung (Oldest Pro)
Before joining Oldest Pro, Lateyoung had been retired from competitive Overwatch for almost three years. I’d wager that no one expected him to be as good as he ended up being. While he hasn’t been able to play his iconic Zarya much in this tournament, his D.Va has looked great, and he can bring out a serviceable Sigma when the time calls for it. Plus, he’s working on expanding his hero pool. In his words: “I’m not the same Lateyoung from a week ago. I can now play a functional Winston.”
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