Let's get the obvious out of the way, KSA proved that they showed up to play, fueled by the doubters and the help of their loyal fan base KSA was able to do the impossible and defeat Team China in the Grand Finals. How did we get here? And what made KSA rise above the rest?
The first inkling that KSA was a team to look out for was in the qualifying stages, They were in Group B of the Europe and Middle East Preliminary Tournament and decimated their way to the top of their group only dropping a map to Team Finland. Their dominant off-meta style of Overwatch caught the attention of many who viewed them as a dark horse threat going into the group stages.
Unforeseen roster changes and a meta shifting in the opposite direction that KSA was used to playing put expectations low for the team who were representing their country in the group stages for the first time since the start of the OWWC. To add insult to injury the group they were placed in was Group D surrounded by the likes of Team USA, France, and Japan. France and USA were initially viewed as favorites in this group, the meta seemed to favor both teams who both holstered multiple Overwatch league caliber talent.
However, this did not faze KSA who never doubted their ability, regardless of meta or group they were placed in. This strong mindset would lead KSA into group stages with a dominant start making quick work of every team that they were viewed to be worse than in dominant 2-0 fashion ending the group stages 3-0 with a 6-0 map score. KSA was on a roll and individual performances by some of their players were to thank for this position.
SirMajed: It made sense for KSA to rely on SirMajed, he is the only current OWL player that was on the KSA roster and provided a deadly pocket pick in this meta with his infamous Illari and he showed why he is considered the greatest Illari by destroying teams from the support role with his high damage output, influential picks, and fight turning ultimates. KSA played almost exclusively Illari in the group stages and let SirMajed shine, this individual performance was a huge help to KSA who grasped the meta better than anyone in their group and showed that by destroying their competition.
Quartz: A player who in the preliminary tournament was used as a third hitscan DPS specialist, he didn't see consistent play time but was played from time to time. When group stages came KSA had signed another DPS, presumably which would put Quartz back in the 3rd DPS position, The meta was shaping to have some hitscan in the mix so it made sense for Quartz to be no more than a player to sub in and out depending on the map. Quartz would show that this was not the case at all, on the hitscan role Quartz provided stellar performance after stellar performance notably vs Team USA where his sojourn play was a key cause of their success. Quartz provided many clutch moments and consistent damage throughout the tournament showing that he is more than comfortable being the starting DPS and not a sub. Quartz would make sure everyone knew his name after the World Cup.
The Road to Victory
Despite everything that KSA had achieved in groups, doubts still followed them into the playoffs. People viewed the competition of KSA and claimed that it was easy for KSA as they beat teams that were struggling in the meta and not as good as people thought. This did not affect the confidence of KSA however, who were convinced in their ability to go all the way. The first opponent KSA would face was Team Spain who barely qualified for playoffs but showed some flashes in group stages. These flashes would not correlate to anything when faced with KSA who took out the team with ease in a 3-0 match. KSA would flex their strengths in this match and use it as a message to other teams and viewers who had been doubting them, KSA was here to win.
The quarter finals would be a match we had seen before in the Europe and Middle East Preliminaries, Team Finland vs KSA would be the quarterfinals match that shocked many, two teams that came from the same Preliminary group facing each other to go to finals after doubt from everyone, The clash of dark horses would begin. Team Finland and KSA had more in common than just being dark horses, both teams played the same Sigma comp that had been dominating the current meta and played it in a very dominant fashion and only one could rise above the other. The match would start to look like a stomp, Team KSA came out ready to strike, they took a 2-0 lead over Team Finland and seemed to be simply outplaying them at their own game. Backs against the wall Team Finland would give KSA their first challenge, they fought back. Team Finland found their momentum and ran with it convincingly taking the next two maps and completely flipping the switch on KSA. Suddenly the score was 2-2, One map would decide a winner and KSA had never been here before. They were falling, they had to find a grip on something and not let Finland snowball them any more than they had. Many things could help KSA, Individual play, Good map understanding, and good team play, however, his situation was something bigger than in the game KSA needed something to rebound and they needed it fast. The fan base of KSA is one we simply have not seen before in OWWC, the love for the team was something people didn't expect to see. The key to success was the passion of the people, the passion for their country, the passion for KSA. KSA would win the final nail-biting map, and relief was felt by the fans and players. KSA was tested for the first time in this tournament and they passed making their way to finals vs the goliath of the World Cup, Team China.
Team China was composed of the Hangzhou Spark, who in the OWL just placed 3rd. On top of having the talent, Team China had an off-meta comp that up until this match seemed to be the answer to the oppressive Sigma comp. Team China started the match out for blood, KSA had no answer to Team China's Doomfist comp and the first two maps were dismantled. They suddenly found themselves down 0-2 on map point, everything people had said about Team China being on a different level seemed to be true. KSA had no answer to the dominance that Team China was showing, the atmosphere was gloomy in the arena as the people had accepted that Team China had figured out KSA before the match even started. Something had to change, KSA fans still had hope but it was hard to believe in that hope when looking at the first two maps, to win it would be on the players of KSA to come together and figure out how to defeat the goliath that was Team China. Map 3 was Suravasa, something needed to change and that change would come in the form of Quartz. Quartz had exclusively played Sojourn and Ashe and looked dominant on it, however, in this match Team China was abusing the fact that Quartz only played Sojourn and Ashe and would play the Doomfist composition that would negate his value. If we recall Quartz was a player who didn't get much playtime in the Preliminary stages, he wasn't supposed to be in this position but here he was and now he had to be the answer for KSA to succeed and overcome the biggest challenge they faced. Bastion would be the slingshot for KSA and would stop China in its tracks, A slingshot is useless without help, you need something to help the slingshot succeed and that is where the DPS counterpart Youbi came into the equation. Youbi would be the final piece to help gain momentum against China with his Symmetra. Bastion and Symmetra are two characters that together we have seen a lot from ranked but not in the finals of the Overwatch World Cup, so how did it work?
The comp change was critical to the success of KSA but how did the Bastion Symmetra composition even work? The thought behind the comp is simple, KSA wanted to still play their game while negating the effect of the Doomfist composition, and they decided that they needed to survive more and longer. The longer the fight the better it was for KSA because of Quartz Bastion which provides a lot of bursts and poke damage while being able to survive better than Sojourn, despite having less mobility KSA realized that no matter how much mobility they had Team China would simply chase them and they would die, so instead they played death ball and wanted to burst whoever tried to jump them before they got killed. On paper, this wouldn't work, Doomfist does well into death ball and can get charged punch off Bastion consistently. The combination that would make this perfect was Symmetra, everything that made the Bastion bad into Doomfist was fixed by Symmetra who would Teleport the team away from the Doomfist whenever he tried to engage and leave the Doomfist without abilities and far away from the enemy team, on top of that Symmetra turrets slowed down Doomfists engage and made it harder for him to get stuff done. This plan worked to perfection against Team China and KSA found their momentum, they used this comp with Bastion as the core to defeat Team China on Maps 3 and 4 and take them to Map 5. The difference between this map 5 and the map 5 versus Team Finland was that KSA was in the driver's seat, they were the ones in control and Team China was scrambling to find an answer. The answer would never come for Team China despite a close map 5 they never regained control of the game and fell 3-2 getting reverse swept by KSA who claimed victory in their first-ever Overwatch World Cup.
Despite the doubt and hate from others, team KSA always bet on themselves and used the passion of their fans to find victory after victory, individually the players proved that they weren't some unknown names and proved they could compete at the level of anyone. This was a shocking conclusion to the Overwatch World Cup as KSA flipped the script on Team China in a reverse sweep. Overall KSA proved that they are legit and a World Cup team to look out for in the future.
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