#Sp9k1e

[flickwatches]

Off Week Takes

We won't be diving too often into APAC (even though its a great region for overwatch). But when I have time I want to talk a little bit about what's happening in APAC OWL, also the Dallas Fuel and Sp9rk1e, and the overall derailment of the French super team Rogue.

APAC

So lets get started by talking about the Guangzhou Charge. A team some "experts" (Custa) are calling possibly the worst team in APAC. At first I thought this was the worst take possble but than I remembered that APAC has less teams than NA and that the Valiant aren't looking that bad (will get into that more later). Mandu and Kariv are still good. Jihun/Rio and Crong are still good. If I had to pick a point of struggle I would pick Coaching and the DPS. Even though Choisehwan is playing out of his mind on Tracer he is not the best Tracer on the team. Eileen is godly on Tracer and I can only assume he is benched because of hero pool and scrim results. Charge are starting the most inexperienced DPS duo in APAC. Technically Krystal for Valiant isn't a rookie and NYXL hasn't played yet but they can still play Ivy (a veteran). This is becoming long and drawn out but the coaching decisions on the Charge and lack of DPS experience seems to be hurting them a lot this meta.

Another reason I would say the Charge are being rated so low is because the Valiant are being rated so high. High as in people are pulling them out of the trash and readding them to there power rankings. While the Charge are slightly underperforming the Valiant are overperforming at a large scale in comparison to there expectations. I personally left the Valiant out of my power rankings altogether. So I feel like the views of these teams are slanted a little based on expectations and results. Even though both teams haven't won a game yet.

The Chengdu Zone. You Chengdu it. Etc etc etc. Everyone is raving about the former one trick team 3-0ing the Shanghai Dragons. I want to talk about the one thing slightly overlooked about the Hunters hot start. The support line, Mmonk and Nisha. This team has never looked more stable (or stable altogether) than they have now. And its very apparent the support line has a lot to do about it. They provide a pillar of strength for a team known for making extreme decisions. Stable backline, good ult economy. I feel like there allowing to the Hunters to point the "use everything kill everything" gun not just accurately but efficiently. I don't mean this as an insult to Ga9a but I feel like the support line is so strong right now that they could be getting the same value with Ameng starting at Main Tank. And Ameng is real downgrade in comparison to Ga9a. Watch out for the Hunters as the season continues. These supports mite actually guide players like Leave, Jinmu, and Elsa to the promise land.

Dallas Fuel

I believe the general opinion of Sp9rk1e has not been very accurate since last season. He does excel on heroes like Doomfist and Genji but he also players heroes like Pharah, Tracer, and Echo. A lot of problems the Paris Eternal had toward the end of the season revolved around Sp9rk1e being the Tracer and the Echo player during a Tracer and Echo meta which meant Xzi had to fill next to him and it didn't go very well for that meta. Now that the meta has changed slightly and the coachings are adjusting around Doha next to him it looks like Sp9k1e has more room to express his dominance as a DPS. Any value and positives the Fuel are gaining so far this season are from Sp9k1e playing the DPS role at a disadvantage vs other teams. Last season the Eternal tried to have Sp9k1e mirror warpath Zarya god Decay on an elimination map to no prevail. But this season I don't believe Sp9k1e will let another match get that far out of his grasp while he's alive on a DPS hero.

Being Old and A Pro Overwatch Player

What happens when you've played a few years of OWL and your worth has naturally gone up? What happens when at the same time teams are trying to cut cost and sign cheaper players? You sit at home, lie about do the streamer grind, and watch minimum rookies underperform at the highest level of Overwatch. Agilies took a pay cut to go back to the Valiant only for the Valiant to move to China. No way Linkzr took more than league minimum to play on Vancouver. China mite be paying out more then NA but players like Kai and Shax had to have taken no other offers available discounts. Only team that made any kind of splash for veterans was the Shock by signing Nero, Glister, and FDgod. They also signed Twilight last year. The difference is they sign at the minimum with the expectations of higher payouts from tournament winnings. Soon was cut from Boston for Visa issues instead of being held onto until he was ready. Players are in desperate need of more protection. Many players are moving over to Riot owned Valorant for strictly the career safety net it provides. CSGO and League careers have traditionally been much longer on average than Overwatch careers. Valorant is a CSGO like game owned by the makers of League of Legends. A combination of 2 of the longest running esports. One of the biggest things holding OWL back is the backhanded business model of spending less money to make more instead of winning to make more. If you know anything about IRL sports basically the majority of OWL are just the Florida Marlins, or Philadelphia 76ers, or Jacksonville Jaguars. Purposely putting out poor rosters and making money off of existing in there leagues.

Rogue Going Rogue

One of the greatest overall career disappointments in pre OWL Overwatch history. This team was one of the dominate teams of the pre OWL era. Korea had Lunatic-Hai and Runaway. NA had Envyus (a famously EU team). And EU had Rogue. Runaway was the underdog, Lunatic-Hai was the king, Envyus was the king slayer, but Rogue was the triple DPS ego maniacs of what Overwatch could of been. OWL gave us goats. Rogue tried to give us Tracer, Genji, and Soldier 76 at the same time. Winz (the Lucio player for Rogue) would famously screenshot and tweet from the payload during official matches. Nicogdh (gdh stands for god hand) would swap between Genji and Dva. AKM player Soldier 76, Pharah, and Dva up until he refused to play Dva and forced Nicogdh to play Dva. Soon played the Tracer, the Tracer, and sometimes the Tracer. This team also had Unkoe on Zen.

Unkoe

Winz

Nicogdh

I can't believe and OWL org didn't want this group of players to represent them....

Nicogdh has famously just talked, talked too honestly, and too much. I personally like Nicogdh as a person but he does talk, a lot. Or the fact someone added gdh to end of there player name and well Nicogdh and people around him went a little crazy about it in a negative way. Honestly that has to be one most respectful things you can do. His gdh is the godliness standard for mechanics. People have harassed him in the past, he has been knocked for that, but the dude also harasses others and assumes its equivalent. This man is extremely hard to attach to a brand with sponsors. Or just to a team altogether and still have his teammates trust him.

Unkue is honestly known to be a little trolly and toxic in match making. He had some "strong" opinions in OWL and toward the end of his OWL career but he wasn't too problematic. He always seemed like he had a negative mindset.

Winz was just aggressive in a good way at first but it started to become negative when Rogue started losing and stopped being able to play pro. The payload tweets became attacks on teams and other players. One could say these players cared about each other so much they refused to let others talk badly about them. But they have notoriously been negative publicly and showed there ass a majority of the time in many situations.

Which brings me to Soon and AKM. The founders of the "no talk can't be problematic" club. They paved the way for future generations of DPS talents to have viable career options because they learned to never talk shit, never get involved in drama, and separate there private life from there careers. Its very easy to sign players like Soon and AKM and not have problems. Honestly the only problem is the baggage of ex teammates.

Conclusion

Sorry this is kind of off the wall, not very concise, and not in a format I prefer. I need to start proof reading things and building easier to read article like stuff. I just got inspired with teams topics tonight and wanted to kick them out in my limited free time. Sorry I couldn't bring up more research for the Rogue stuff. but Nicogdh does have a long list of just random statements and comments. I do understand right now that the French community is being harassed right now and I do want to stress a bit of self defense of those players who speak publicly about it. Not everything comes out right all the time there just trying to express how they feel during this trying time for them and there fellow community members. They just want people to stop harassing them in game, online, and in life.

[lucytara]

LA GLADIATORS PICKING UP BIRDRING.....let’s fucking GO dude....now announce fl0w3r and glister and we’re stacked

i will say like, i love the la gladiator fans and community - especially after seeing what paris’s fans were like after picking up sp9k1e - like everyone’s just excited to see good players. all the fans are always super welcoming and makes me proud to be a fan of the team

[flexyatta]

shock and eternal?

San Francisco Shock: Whats your favorite match?

There’s been so many tbh it’s hard to remember but I’m gonna say Fusion vs Nyxl in the season 1 semifinals cause I love both teams and that game damn near gave me a heart attack, either that or Fuel vs Outlaws season 2 stage 2 cause I was there live and it was absolutely insane

Paris Eternal: What is your ideal team lineup?

Oh this one is so hard,, I’m tempted to just say og Seoul Dynasty/Lunatic-Hai.. but maybe current Paris Eternal but with Shadowburn back to play until Sp9k1e is old enough lmao, and maybe throw in poko cause why not (gamersorigin rights!)

[flickwatches]

Top Players That Have No Limits

I want to talk about some of freeiest playing players in OWL right now. Players that don't believe in limits or boundaries. Players that transcend the basics of the game and rewrite the rules. The gods of winnable.

Jinmu

Embodiment of fuck it yolo. He doesn't call the fight winnable he just decides he wants to kill things one way or another.

Yaki

Somebody who is Profit but not Profit. Literally someone cloned Profit and named them Yaki. He attacks, attacks, and most importantly he attacks. Yaki is the DPS cannon we all dream of being.

Shax

What makes this man insane is that he has historically been a situational bench player. And he just walks into the server mid match and fucks. He has zero fear about failing. He's already on the bench the majority of the time.

Sp9k1e

If being angry and yelling was a player it would be Sp9k1e. The embodiment of "I'm pissed off so I'm swapping to the hero that lets me punch people in game".

Profit

This player is actually Profit. Not a clone. Every hero Profit plays as is basically just him playing Tracer but with a different skin. There is no god because up here he sees no one but himself. Playoff Profit is year round and every team fight is a gift to us.

Honorable Mention Legend of Overwatch

[flexyatta]

I have some thoughts about sp9k1e to paris, but overall i am, cautiously optimistic,