We had 14 teams competing at both events combined and the two winners were the "Americans" of Team EnVyYS and LuxuryWatch Red's Nanohana, backed by 5 players from sister team Blue.

Misfits and Rogue's new rosters need more time.

When the 'triple trade' was initiated many didn't know what to make of it. Misfits and Rogue had both recently won tournaments and were still teams that could have won more. The real benefit everyone talked about was that in the newly formed squads almost everyone (Rogue's Skipjack is German) would be able to communicate in their native language. And as years of competitive Counter-Strike has taught us, that is something players tend to value highly.

This lead to the new look rosters performing at IEM Gyeonggi. Despite the losses, both squads continue looking solid on paper, but from what we saw on the server they still need more time to build-up their synergy. On the Swedish side, both of the tanks and Nevix on the Ana, lacked the usual impact viewers associate with those players. However, that is something that can easily be put down to the lack of teamplay, especially given Reinforce's unusual style of play. Even after getting convincingly dispatched by Lunatic-Hai, it is completely possible in the new year we'll see third Misfits roster finish first at a LAN event. 

As for the mostly French team, despite Rogue having a better performance versus what turned out to be the eventual champion I find myself unwilling to predict they will win a gold medal with that roster. Even if skipjack was to learn how to fit with the team communicating in French, there's still the fact that both aKm and SoOn have been at their best on hitscan DPS heroes. The current meta can last only so much before Blizzard deploys patch that will bring projectile DPS heroes back into play and it is unclear, to me, how will Rogue deal with that. The final and most significant factor for my doubts regarding Rogue is uNKOE's performance from the weekend. Whereas previously I rated him as the best Ana player in the world, thanks to his great positioning, aim, clutch darts and unbelievable grenade range, his impact in Gyeonggi seemed to be lessened. This could certainly be temporary it is important to note that him stepping up was one of the important factors that lead Rogue to emerge as the best team in the world, earlier in the year.

aKm & TviQ are still monsters.

With all of the above talk about players underperforming after the changes and others needing to find their place within the new line-ups, it's important to note that both aKm and TviQ are still very much the monsters thet were previously. At IEM aKm showed us that his effective hero pool is far more than just McCree. We got to see him playing well on Reaper, Tracer, Soldier 76 and of course his signature McCree. While his play on the other three are still not as impressive as when he is on the cowboy, it's partially because of how incredible he is with McCree. The team as a whole might have to change up some of their tactics and play, but one thing that I hope does not change is the French star player's performances.

The Swedish captain showcased similarly good and versatile performance by picking up Reaper, Tracer, Zarya, Soldier 76 and McCree. The only knock against his play that can be mentioned is how much he died on Soldier 76, but that can easily be put down to his tank line not being as effective as usual and one can assume it will get fixed as the team gets more time together.

LW R...Blue are the champions of IEM Gyeonggi with Saebyeolbe is the MVP.

The LuxuryWatch squad invited to the tournament by ESL was Red, but in attendance we actually had 5 of the players from their sister team (Blue), as the only representative of Red in the squad earning the gold was Nanohana. With Mek0 on D.va and Nanohana replacing NoName, the LW Blue roster looked considerably better than it did against BK Stars, during APEX's Ro8 match. Piloting the pink menace seems to have turned Mek0 from an average tank and one of the weaker players on the team, into a statistical monster with solid game impact. He ended the tournament at 119 kills - 53 deaths on the D.va and 5-5 on Zarya. That and the added firepower and versatility, brought by Nanohana were more than enough to enable Saebyeolbe to carry the team against Kongdoo Panthera, Rogue and Lunatic-Hai and drop only two maps in the process.

Even with Rogue's recent changes and Lunatic-Hai's flaws becoming more and more obvious it is still an impressive feat. As of writing this, it isn't certain that we'll see the roster again, but with LW Red failing to qualify for the second season of APEX and the success, experienced at IEM, there isn't any good reason not to move Nanohana over to Blue. Should they do that, the roster can be a potential contender for the title of top dog in Korea. Saebyeolbe has already displayed the ability to carry versus some of the best teams of the world and Luna, Gambler and janus were some of the better players in Korea at their respective roles.

Afreeca Freecs Blue's streak has ended.

As mentioned in my takeaways from APEX , AF Blue had an interesting streak going. Despite that, similarly to LuxuryWatch, Misfits and Rogue, they also had a roster change before the tournament. Prior to the event Amy came in for Yesman to take over the Lucio duties and JIN was replaced by Mano.

The removal of Yesman was expected as he and Dayfly had been obvious liabilities for the squad, but what came as a surprise was their Zarya & Roadhog player, being replaced by Mano. Over their run in APEX, JIN had emerged as the third best player on the team and was one of the reasons they managed to overcome BK Stars and Reunited. As Mano couldn't fill his shoes the squad was easily dealt with, by Miro's Lunatic-Hai. An icing on the cake that is the loss was the team not putting ArHaN on D.va or Mei - two heroes he's shown to be the best on among that particular group of players.

With the end of the competitive year, there is a little to no questions surrounding what can be expected from that particular roster in future performances. We've seen them play on a good, bad and average day, and we know just about what can be expected of them in every situation. With JIN's departure there seems to be no reasons for the stars of the squad, ArHaN and Recry, to stick around. Much better use of their talents would be joining, separately in the best case scenario, other top teams that have showcased need for a strong projectile DPS player.

Lunatic-Hai end 2016 as the Korean team of the year.

It's not  an overstatement to say that Lunatic-Hai have been Korea's golden Overwatch team in the last few months. However, despite the squad's exciting playstyle and having two of the best players in the world in Ruyjehong and Miro, the team has failed to lift the gold. And it isn't for the lack of opportunity as they've found themselves in a final on three separate occasions now. The reason for the losses, in my humble opinion, is that they are one of the most limited top teams, both in terms of strategical and tactical adaptation. In addition to lacking the versatility some of the individuals also lack the raw firepower. Those factors combined lead to a situation, where once an elite level team is accustomed to LH's playstyle, Korea's darlings have hard time winning against the elite. 

Similarly to AF Blue, they are finding themselves in a situation where their performances are going to be within a very predictable limit. The only obvious and realistic way for the roster to improve right now is the unlikely possibility of Leetaejun becoming a player that can be depended on, opposed to his current consistently inconsistent self. At the same time though, despite the lack of gold their three silver finishes and top8 at APEX,  have earned them the title of the overall best team for the year. Given the history of how poorly competitive FPS games in the region pay, it would be hard for anyone to blame them should they decide to stick together, following the success and popularity they've experienced in the last few months.

EnVyUS are champions of MLG Vegas, Overwatch team of 2016 and the best team in the world.

If someone had missed all the LAN action between Gamescom and the APEX finals, the reaction to this would be „Obviously ... what's the point of even commenting on this?! There's no other realistic contenders!“. However for the three months after the game entered the LAN era, Talespin and co. had trouble summoning the same performances, they had displayed earlier in the year online. That struggle was finally ended by the perfect storm that was the last two patches and the addition of Mickie. The win in APEX, following that lead to many giving them the #1 spot in their world ranking.

In Vegas they defended the position in dominant fashion, despite Taimou getting late to the venue and having barely any team practice for the tournament.The North American competition got rolled over and nV lost only the first map of the event. This certainly doesn't mean they'll be able to repeat the success in other metas or that no one will be able to top them in 2017, but for the time being they are the best team in the world.

Taimou is Overwatch player of the year for 2016.

It's been a rough first year in Overwatch for the 23 years old Finn and you wouldn't guess that by looking at his results. As Blizzard's hit is filled with a lot of newcomers to the FPS genre, he was one of the first pro players to come under the barrage of cheating accusations. After several LANs and him going through nV team owner - hastr0's own test, the cheating accusations took a step back in favour of critique of his "selfish" playstyle. Those critics were also silenced, when he gave up the hitscan DPS role to Harryhook and still continued dominating the games. MLG was the last test for his abilities this year and despite all the trouble he experienced getting there, the Finn still delivered MVP level performances right from the first game of the tournament. Having in mind the level of success he's had, the consistent level of impact in his performances no matter what the circumstances or the results are, and that he's the best player on the best team in the world, it's hard not to consider him the Overwatch's player of the year for 2016.

nV's Reaper and Symmetra continue rolling through tanks.

Ever since the patch nerfing Nanoboost came in most teams have been hesitant to play Reaper. That has not been the case with the „Americans“. They have not only been picking it up, but they've had a lot of success with it. Part of it undoubtedly has been Harryhook's individual skill and improvement with the hero, but another one has been the shotgun menace's ability to rip through tanks. Many have quoted the strength of D.va as a reason not to run it, but if the pink mech has to be glued to Reaper, to defend the other two (or more) tanks on her team it prevents her from pestering Reaper's backline. While the pick is definitely not straight-up counter to D.va it is intelligent solution that has worked for the „boys in blue“. Similarly intelligent pick has been INTERNETHULK's pocket Symmetra. With the changes and buff of the range other teams seem to be picking up on this one, but nV are still the team that's been utilizing her better than everyone else.

D.va really needs a nerf.

Whereas previously the pink menace looked overpowered only in Mickie and a few others' hands the past weekend of Overwatch showed that just about any decent D.va player can have much more impact on her than he'd have on something else. The ex-StarCraft hero is dominating both statistics and in-game.  A quick look over some of the statistics show how dominant the tank has been on the scoreboard: (stats are available at winstonslab.com)

 - Over course of the weekend, in IEM and MLG, over the course of the games she was picked 73% of the time - the fourth most picked hero with only Reinhardt, Lucio and Ana being more popular than her.  -  D.va players scored in total 790 kills and died 529 times, which is quite impressive for a hero that's supposed to be a tank.  - She's been picked up by a player in a series and scored a kill or died on 49 occasions. Of those 49 occasions the player went negative in terms of K/D only 17 times; 13 of those finished the series with D.va at -1 or -2. On only 4/49 occasions a player finished with a K/Dscore worse than -2: -4, -11, -9 (0-9), -14 - once time for each.

Having those stats wouldn't be a problem, if she didn't also have the ability to single-handedly nullify enemy DPS 's impact on the game by simply standing in front of them for the duration of the match. Normally taking a star player out of a game takes 2 or even more opponents. D.va is currently able to do that alone while universally being one of the best performing heroes statistically. To me, that is sign that the hero is definitely overpowered.

About the author: Hello readers! I go by the ID RadoN and probably similarly to many of you, I’ve been playing video games for years. My introduction to esports happened in 2009 and ever since, I’ve been following different titles within the industry. Other games I currently follow are CS:GO, LoL, QL with the occasional SFV, DOTA2 and HotS. If you wish to provide feedback, support and follow future content, or simply know more about my thoughts on gaming and esports, follow me at @RadoNonFire on twitter.

Photo credits: ESL, MLG, alphacoders.