Now that the final week of the Pro-Chaser Association Group Stage has come and gone, we have to say goodbye to the bottom two teams in the tournament standings.
Mad Wind and Intrepidus both went winless throughout much of the Group Stage before finally meeting in a comically long six-map series. Intrepidus won the first two maps but lost on Circuit Royal thanks to some heroics from Mad Wind’s tank player, Sheep. Mad Wind then took a brief break from their incoming reverse sweep to draw on Blizzard World. They ended up winning the series 3-2, begging the following question: “Does it count as a reverse sweep if one of the maps was a draw?”
Mad Wind vs Intrepidus was scrappy, uncoordinated, and reminiscent of the infamous 2020 “Toilet Bowl” match between the Boston Uprising and Houston Outlaws. Mad Wind C9ed the second round of Samoa. At one point on Circuit Royal, Widowmaker players Dice (Intrepidus) and Jeongmin (Mad Wind) were the only ones alive to contest the payload, so they engaged in a close-up Widow 1v1 and spammed A and D on their keyboards. On Blizzard World, Lilko stuck Woshishabi with a Pulse Bomb, and Woshishabi chose that exact moment to jump towards his teammate Xiaosishen, blowing them both up.
As Blizzard World ended in a draw, I recognized that I was watching peak Overwatch. I wanted to pour one out for Intrepidus, a team that went to map five (and even a map six!) against two separate teams but still failed to win a single match. I wanted to ask Woshishabi why he chose to compete under a tag that, when translated from Chinese, literally means “I’m a f—ing idiot.” I knew in my heart that the PCA was the real deal, because only a truly great Overwatch tournament could give us a Toilet Bowl as magnificent as this one.
A day later, Team CC played against Oldest Pro, and I recognized that I was watching peak Overwatch again.
We Are Ready to Let the World See Oldest Pro Again
Team CC vs Oldest Pro was the most anticipated matchup of the tournament, but the first two maps of the match almost felt like a letdown. A carry performance from Jinmu’s Pharah on a single round of Lijiang Tower momentarily put Team CC on the back foot, but otherwise, Team CC were winning with relative ease. Oldest Pro, on the other hand, were not playing well. They were running dive comps that required good focus fire, but they weren’t coordinated enough to execute their targets. After weeks of hype for this potential clash of the titans, the possibility of a one-sided Team CC victory loomed in the air.
Then fortunes began to turn on Runasapi, where Team CC spent most of the map stubbornly running a Junker Queen composition that allowed Jinmu’s Pharah to rain down havoc from above. On New Junk City, LiGe’s Mauga successfully countered Oldest Pro’s dive-centric comp for several teamfights, but LiGe ended up having to switch off Mauga after Jimmy started playing Mei. New Junk City came down to the wire. Jimmy clutched up the final point with a 2k on Tracer, and Oldest Pro was in the midst of possibly pulling off a reverse sweep.
Blizzard World was the thrilling conclusion to an already exciting match, and I highly recommend that you watch it yourself if you get the chance. This map might best be described as a pendulum constantly oscillating between “it’s so over” and “we’re so back.” (Team CC successfully defended Point A for almost four minutes, meaning that Oldest Pro can only cap in overtime? It’s so over. Jimmy just killed three on Tracer? We’re so back.) During Oldest Pro’s initial attack round, every point was capped in overtime. The map went to extra innings, and then Jinmu pulled off this play:
Doubt had been swirling around Oldest Pro after their middling performance in the Hammer Cup and the behind-the-scenes fiasco that was finding a new tank player, but now, the team had fully redeemed themselves. Oldest Pro had reverse-swept Team CC, one of the strongest teams in the tournament, and clinched the first seed.
Afterwards, on Lateyoung’s stream, a fan wrote “We are ready to let the world see OP [Oldest Pro] again” in the chat. This message was a reference to Lateyoung’s first Overwatch League post-match interview, during which he said the now-iconic line “We are ready to let the world see China again.” Back then, that quote signaled Chinese Overwatch’s re-emergence into the spotlight after the failure that was the 2018 Shanghai Dragons. Now, fans were bringing it back to show that Oldest Pro was not the same team that lost 0-3 to Team CC in July. Lateyoung read the message aloud and laughed. “True!” he said. “Very true!”
Stats Corner
It wouldn’t be a PCA recap without some translated stats graphics. The tournament organizers kindly sent me blank templates for two of the infographics this week, granting you all a brief respite from my scuffed image-editing process. For the hero usage charts, however, I’ll still be covering up Chinese text using the fill bucket tool.
This table of Fleta Deadlifts from the PCA Group Stage was also released this week. The “Deadlift %” stat refers to the percentage of the rest of the team’s final blows; a player who accounts for 50% of their team’s final blows would have a Deadlift % of 100%. Surprisingly, it seems a lot easier to get a Fleta Deadlift when your team loses and there just aren’t many final blows to go around.
A few notes on these hero usage stats:
These graphs compare hero usage before and after Overwatch 2’s Season 12 patch. Perhaps the most notable change between Week 1 and Week 2 is that Kiriko and Lucio are now played more frequently thanks to their recent damage buffs.
In both Week 1 and Week 2, Jinmu played Junkrat on Lijiang Control Center despite finding very little success on the hero. I regret to inform you that Jinmu learned his lesson this week and did not play Junkrat on Lijiang Control Center. This may be the last time we see Junkrat on a PCA hero usage graph.
Teams seem to be growing more comfortable with playing Venture as time goes on, especially on smaller maps with fewer wide-open spaces.
Kudos to Team CC for having the courage to run Mercy in the year 2024. Superich has occasionally played Mercy to pocket Diya’s Ashe, with mixed results.
Three Stars
There was no shortage of notable player performances during this week’s matches, but I tried my best to whittle the list down to just three — or, well, four.
Third Star: BL1NK and KIVIS (TOP)
As the lone Korean players on an otherwise all-Chinese team, TOP’s support line of BL1NK and KIVIS have sometimes seemed disjointed from the rest of the team. TOP looked more cohesive this week, however, as they punched above their weight class and secured an unexpected 2-3 victory over Team Capere. BL1NK and KIVIS played an instrumental role in that match, getting important picks in teamfights and setting their teammates up for success with well-timed Sound Barriers and Kitsune Rushes.
Second Star: LiGe (Team CC)
During the Overwatch 1 days, many people considered LiGe to be the best off-tank player in China. He’s still got it, even now that “main tanks” and “off-tanks” are a thing of the past. This week, LiGe took full advantage of D.Va’s current state as an unkillable demon tank, often bursting down squishy heroes uncontested. He also got the chance to show off his expanded hero pool; his Winston was a huge boon for Team CC on Dorado against Oldest Pro.
First Star: Jinmu (Oldest Pro)
When Jinmu first started playing in the Overwatch League, he was 19 years old. Back then, he was known for his reckless playstyle and his tendency to play Pharah during a time when teams were almost exclusively running GOATS. Now, at age 25, Jinmu’s in-game decision-making is noticeably more levelheaded, but his Pharah is still a menace. Despite all his great Pharah highlights this week, Jinmu’s defining moment wasn’t a Pharah play at all — instead, it was a clutch Tracer 3k on Blizzard World.
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