On August 1st, WDG announced finalized rosters for Overwatch Champions Series Korea, Japan, and Pacific. These announcements saw several changes to teams' rosters from last week's Open Qualifiers and confirmation of several unannounced roster changes.
Beginning in Korea, Team Falcons have quietly signed DPS player Happy, who last played with M80 at the OWCS Dallas Major. Happy provides dedicated hitscan proficiency that should allow Proper to better utilize his hero pool.
Meanwhile, Fearless's short run with ZETA DIVISION comes to an end, as he returns to complete his mandatory military service. The team formerly known as Metamong has been renamed to HaeJeokDan, which roughly translates to "Pirates." They've got a cool new parrot logo to boot!
Lastly, Old Ocean (a continuation of the team formerly known as Genesis) adds DPS Taejong and Tank RULER. Both players competed and failed to qualify in OWCS Open Qualifiers, Taejong with Xero in Korea and RULER with VortexWolf in Japan. While supposedly a retooled Genesis, the team features three former Poker Face players: Probe, Becky, and Faith. The elephant in the room for this kitbashed roster is their flex support: thirty-two-year-old Ryujehong.
The former Seoul Dynasty player has become a popular content creator and competed in the OWCS Korea Stage 1 Open Qualifiers on a team with Bumper and Haksal. (It makes one wonder if the name "Old Ocean" is a reference to the Ernest Hemingway novel The Old Man and the Sea.) Ryujehong has kept his skills sharp, but it's truly remarkable how much his age is an outlier in Overwatch esports. He is 14 years, 10 months, and 27 days older than his teammate Taejong.
In Japan, not much has changed since the Open Qualifiers. Namekuji Brothers have replaced their Lifeweaver specialist Basabasa with EuclidEUC, the latter formerly of VortexWolf. Insomnia, who placed 2nd in Japan Stage 1, has overhauled its roster completely, retaining only Flex DPS Undersea. Former Sin Prisa Gaming duo Ade and Mealgaru are the team's imports, while the backline consists of two relatively unknown Japanese players: eYeKu and Wgym.
Since the Open Qualifiers, MFC X Supreme (the "MFC" unofficially stands for "Miku Fan Club") has dropped their backup support Grandeesauto. MFC is a delightful team that deserves some focus. It features former San Francisco Shock DPS player Ta1yo, now a streamer for ZETA DIVISION, and the Reddit LĂşcio to end all Reddit LĂşcios, Frogger. French-Japanese DPS Kilaa, Japanese DPS Aokigahara, Turkish-American Tank Romani, and Japanese-Korean Support Supreme round out the roster. Is this international smorgasbord merely a meme-fueled streamer team? Or does MFC have a real shot at making noise in the Japanese region?
Pacific saw arguably the most changes since Open Qualifiers. 99DIVINE is a new organization that possesses Honeypot's slot. They retain Sgy, Lightt, Kame (now returning to the DPS role), and coach Dreamer from that team. 99DIVINE adds Colourhex and OPENER from Mkers, Oceania's representative at the Saudi-funded Esports World Cup, and R3K, formerly of DAF and Team Hong Kong, comes out of retirement to be the team's tank player.
A team called Cat added Indonesian DPS Proxiezs. Cat also features Taiwanese-American player Dash, making him the fourth current or former UC Irvine student-athlete to compete in OWCS Asia (after Lightt, Romani, and Supreme). Meanwhile, USIA Esports adds Singaporean DPS FlickiMinaj, who competed with REVATI Luminous in Pacific Open Qualifiers.
The biggest moves were undoubtedly made by Full House (formerly known as 321 Diving). Alongside a strong domestic core highlighted by up-and-coming talent Speed75, they've somehow acquired F4zE, former tank player for RunAway and O2 Blast. F4zE is considered by some to be one of the best Korean tank players to never make the Overwatch League. His Zarya is particularly scary. He's brought a friend along tooâjust a two-time Overwatch League champion, two-time Overwatch APEX champion, and best Genji to ever touch the game. WhoRU was a Genji god in 2017...
...and in 2023.
Lastly, there is Bleed Esports. Tank CLEAR has chosen to return to North America, and DPS prodigy Yoshinori2k returns to inactive status due to being underage. Bleed reloads with two Korean players, a change in philosophy for the team. Manager rXis had previously expressed a reluctance to bring in Korean players, but that "dream [is] dead."
Korea, Japan, and Pacific promise exciting Overwatch action seven days a week. OWCS Pacific begins on August 8, followed by OWCS Korea on August 9, and OWCS Japan on August 12.
The Week 1 slate is highlighted by ZETA Division vs Team Falcons on Sunday, August 11 at approximately 8:00 PM KST (7:00 AM EST, 1:00 PM CEST), and MFC X Supreme vs Namekuji Brothers on Monday, August 12 at approximately 8:30 PM KST (7:30 AM EST, 1:30 PM CEST).
Follow @OW_Esports_Asia on Twitter for up-to-date schedule information.
Comments