The Overwatch World Cup group levels kicked off this week, and with fifteen games every they’re fairly intense to maintain up with. If you’re solely in a position to watch one match from this stage, although, it’s best to make it Finland vs. South Korea. The match-up was at all times going to be hotly contested, however the two groups placed on the most effective exhibits {of professional} Overwatch I’ve ever seen.
South Korea are undoubtedly the favourites to win the cup, having emerged not solely victorious, however fully undefeated, previously two years’ championships. Finland, although, have come out sturdy, bringing a roster stuffed with expertise together with six Overwatch League gamers plucked from 5 totally different groups. You can watch the match in full earlier than I get to spoiling it beneath:
Until this game, South Korea had not misplaced a single map within the group levels of any World Cup, they usually began sturdy right here too. In explicit, Pan-seung “Fate” Koo picked up Wrecking Ball, who had previously struggled to find his place in the Contenders playoffs, and confirmed everybody the way it’s completed. His combat initiation and the flexibility to pressure Finland into awkward positions together with his minefield final means led the house facet to victory within the first map.
But Finland was right here to wreck their beforehand excellent report. On King’s Row, they have been in a position to take the sequence to a 1-1 draw by defending DPS star Timo “Taimou” Kettunen and enabling him to constantly decide off the susceptible Korean gamers.
Third map Temple of Anubis was much less dramatic. South Korea snowballed by each seize factors with greater than 5 minutes left of their time financial institution, and Finland not solely couldn’t match their pace however have been prevented from taking even the primary level in any respect.
But they refused to surrender, even when South Korea, as soon as once more utilizing Fate’s Wrecking Ball, nearly held them off from taking a single level on escort map Rialto. Joonas “Zappis” Alakurtti dropping a D.Va bomb final proper on prime of a Sombra-hacked, Zarya-immobilised crew and completely wiping them out was particularly satisfying:
Finland additionally used Rialto to experiment with a far-forward defence, trapping South Korea of their spawn, which was sadly spoiled by a game crash. When they have been in a position to resume play nearly 30 minutes later, they tried once more, however South Korea was in a position to capitalise on Finland dropping the component of shock. Finland recovered within the ultimate stretch, although, and have been in a position to pressure South Korea into the primary five-map tiebreaker of this World Cup.
It all got here down to regulate map Nepal, and commenced about as shut as may be with the primary spherical coming right down to a 99-99% battle that finally flipped Finland’s means. Then South Korea clinched the second spherical, leaving all of it as much as the tiebreaker’s personal tiebreak. Neither facet needed to lose after coming to date, and as soon as once more, the scoreline reached 99-99%, however South Korea in the end managed to grind their option to victory as the gang cheered the native facet.
As anticipated, South Korea is main their group, however Finland later overcame Russia, placing them in shut rivalry for the second place qualification. It’ll probably all come down as to if or not Russia can beat South Korea tomorrow (at 9:15am BST), so anticipate a game simply as tense as this one.
