South Korea completely dominated the other groups throughout the Overwatch World Championship 2016 and ultimately its final opponent Russia as well. This team comes home undefeated and with the gold medal.
To be honest, the final was quite boring to watch. South Korea easily eliminated Russia with a 4-0 score. South Korea is the Overwatch World Champion, having actually won every single game in the entire World Cup 2016. However, Russia also performed very well during the championship, and I expected a more exciting final. I did not anticipate that South Korea’s victory would be so dominant that Russia couldn’t even secure a single checkpoint; not a single control point was in for the Russian team. Even among the audience, it was noticeable that the atmosphere had somewhat diminished.
This is how South Korea outplayed its opponent Russia in the Overwatch World Cup 2016
Here’s an example from the final: At first, it looked like Russia would be able to win the first point at King’s Row after they skillfully broke through South Korea’s defense. But just seconds before the point would have been taken, South Korea surprisingly came back with the help of Lucio and swept Russia off the map again. And that’s how it went for the entire four rounds.
South Korea was able to showcase nearly perfect teamwork during the final and the entire championship. Every single player contributed to a fantastic composition. In contrast, Russia mainly had one star player – Shadowburn. South Korea quickly developed a counterplay for Shadowburn’s outstanding Genji and was able to eliminate Russia quickly, among other things, because of that.
Sweden vs. Finland – The Third Place Match
The third place match looked very different. It was incredibly exciting, and it was a joy to watch these two teams! After a 2-1 victory, Sweden secured a place on the winner’s podium and received the bronze medal. The decisive match took place on the map Nepal. Sweden was able to win the first round with TviQ’s Bastion. But Finland did not give up and struck back hard. With a very impressive McCree play by Taimou, Finland managed to take the lead in rounds 2 and 3.
However, Sweden did not take that lightly and quickly took the control point with Mei and Reaper in round 4. In round 5, it looked like Finland would be able to secure the victory for third place. They managed to hold the control point until it reached 99%. At the last moment – already in overtime – Sweden broke in again and took over the point. When Sweden reached 99%, the control over the point swung back and forth between the two teams until Sweden gained absolute control and was able to push Finland back.
What can we expect from Overwatch in esports in the future?
This question is still quite difficult to answer at this point. It is certainly not the first time in esports history that Korean teams dominate and lead to rather one-sided finals. Although I was quite impressed that the Western teams in the Overwatch World Championship 2016 held their own so well. It must also be said that there is a lot of talent and top players among the top 8 in this championship. It would be unfair to say that the other teams were bad. South Korea was simply better, by far.
What makes me a bit skeptical is the way the teams for the World Championship were determined. The Overwatch/esports community was able to participate via a click on the official BlizzCon website to decide which teams would go to the group stage. This also meant that rather popular streamers and YouTubers entered the competition who might not have been as good compared to higher-ranked players. I would wish for a different system for next year because quite honestly, that doesn’t seem right in competitive gaming. Or what do you think?
If you want to know what else happened at BlizzCon 2016 besides the Overwatch World Cup, check out Cortyn’s BlizzCon overview.
