“Meet the Koreans” is a series of articles which aims to familiarize the less hardcore Western viewers with the Korean Overwatch scene. This entry is taking a look at the adventures the LW Blue roster have gone through to arrive at the point they're at and making a case for them as the eventual champions of APEX S2.

Between the recent out-of-game controversy and losing recent matches in a questionable manner, the IEM Gyeonggi champions have been slowly losing supporters -- especially so in their homeland of South Korea -- despite entering APEX S2 as one of the strongest favorites.

Regardless of recent losses and seemingly shaky state of mind, the author thinks that LW Blue will lift the OGN trophy and give birth to an era of dominant performances, akin to the one by the French-Swedish Rogue before their time was cut short by roster changes.

From the worse of two sister teams to the best in Korea

Just like many other Overwatch pro players, LW Blues also came into Blizzard's hit FPS from other games. The most notable one in the team is Luna, who switched genres but not his role, after an unsuccessful summer season with Samsung Galaxy's LoL team in 2015. Coincidentally, he is also the captain and only remaining member of the initial LW Blue line-up, the other notable member of which was RunAway's KAISER.

The first and only time westerners saw that line-up was in GosuGamers' weekly tournament, in which they lost to sister team Red and amateur squad “Team Solo Mitt” that had been formed three days earlier. The only noteworthy team they managed to defeated was Rise Nation, who'd become one of the better online teams in NA during the following months.

The next time they played in an official match was in the APEX S1 qualifiers with five new members: Saebyeolbe, janus, Gambler, Mek0 and NoName. Despite still being regarded as the weaker of the two LuxuryWatch squads, Luna and co. made it through, while Red didn't. In the group stage, Blue showed themselves superior to their sister team again, by defeating RunAway - the squad that stopped Red from qualifying for APEX S1. Additionally, they scored a win against KongDoo Panthera - future rivals and at the time a squad notorious for excellent online performances, which had obliterated them in the Danawa Battle a month earlier. With the two aforementioned wins going against most predictions and loss to Reunited they made it to the quarterfinals.

In the group stage Saebyeolbe, janus and Luna distinguished themselves as some of the top performers within their roles while Gambler was solid and NoName showed increasingly better play as a supportive DPS.

For the quarterfinals they were chosen by BK Stars - an amateur team who had surprised everyone with an exemplary teamplay and super-star performances by their carry duo, Bunny and BERNAR. As the match saw everyone on Saebyeolbe's team -- except the man himself -- experience performance dips, fans quickly returned to the narrative that Red is the superior of the two LW squads, since the latter had lost only one of twenty-two Bo5s throughout the first and second seasons of Challengers. The opinion was further strengthened by the fact that ESL invited Red to IEM Gyeonggi; however, the coaches of the teams didn't seem to agree as the games were played by Blue's roster with one of Red’s players replacing NoName - Fl0w3r (back then Nanohana).

The tournament turned out to be a perfect storm for what would in future become the starting LW Blue roster. The recent patch had brought D.Va into the meta and it allowed Mek0 to step away from Zarya, on which he had been ineffective, and contribute to the team's performances as he was one of the best early adopters of the pink mech.  Fl0w3r took over NoName's role but brought to it monstrous skills and playmaking abilities, which the latter's skill set simply didn't allow for.

As Fl0w3r had to practice with the actual LW Red for the  APEX S2 qualifications, the roster going to IEM Gyeonggi had a limited amount of practice but managed to win the tournament in spite of that.        In the process of doing so they beat KongDoo Panthera once again; a Rogue which had just replaced TviQ and Reinforce with SoOn and skipjack and Lunatic-Hai, which although is yet to win a tournament were and continue to be one of the best teams in the world; all the while dropping only two maps to different opponents.

“Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's covering mistakes. Real boats rock.” - Frank Herbert

After IEM, Fl0w3r rejoined the rest of Red, but surprisingly, after losing a nail-biter to Afreeca Freecs Red and getting swept 3-0 to a RunAway which was yet to figure out their current starting roster,  the squad failed to qualify for APEX S2. Soon after, Fl0w3r was moved to Blue, switching places with NoName permanently. Since he had the wider hero-pool, the move saw Blue adjust to playing around him as the primary carry, rather than Saebyeolbe. This also fit well with the latter’s hero-pool; even though Saebyeolbe had shown dangerous Pharah and Genji, the majority of his playtime was spent on more self-sufficient picks, a prime example being his signature hero - Tracer.

Following a convincing win over the all-Swedish Misfits, the squad quickly became one of the hottest topics in Overwatch esports. It happened as a result of EnVyUS looking out of shape, easy win over one of the tournament favorites in the face of the Swedes and last but not least, a somewhat silly out-of-game controversy surrounding their most recent addition. While some were ready to nominate LW Blue as the new best team in the world, others were quick to shun them for Fl0w3r's misdemeanor as a young teenager. Losing the highly anticipated “Scandal Bowl” bout against Lunatic-Hai, who had experienced a controversy of their own, didn't help the situation either; it was all most fans needed to take away the unofficial title for “best team in Korea”.

After an expected win over Afreeca Freecs Red, they were set to play against KongDoo Panthera once again. The match-up was hard as the ELO kings were no longer just online stars, but the only team undefeated in maps during APEX S2; however, at least on paper, it was a series that should have been won by Fl0w3r and co. on the back of their vastly superior versatility. And it almost happened, but halfway through the series, EVERMORE's impact plays started overcoming them and after a multitude of silly misplays on the fourth map, Blue seemed out of it mentally.

LW Blue's boat has been rocked twice in the tournament now, but it took almost everything out of the tsunamis that are Lunatic-Hai and KongDoo Panthera at their respective peaks. Luna's boys showed a weakness in the inability to adapt once the waves were upon them, but still posses the skills and versatility that are needed to to execute upon a strategy if it’s devised beforehand; as shown by their most recent meeting with Panthera, which they took 3-0.

With all of the teams in the tournament having played a number of matches and shown a particular weakness, devising a plan will be significantly easier now than it was earlier in the tournament. The only remaining dangerous team in that respect is Meta Athena, as they've shown the deepest playbook so far; however, with their bag of tricks depleted -- as alluded by Zebbosai on OverSight ep. 8 -- and obvious flaws to their play, the threat they posses is significantly reduced and might be dealt with before LW Blue has the meets them.

Multiple safety nets

Being prepared for their opponents and the ability to execute upon any strategy is key to the team's success, but also have have other key advantages over the field, which can be relied upon:

- meta's favor - with the semifinals (and likely the finals) being played on patch 1.8 the metagame will be weighing in Blue's favor. If the matches played so far are anything to go by 2-2-2 and three DPS heroes are the most effective set-ups and that's where Fl0w3r and co. have excelled in the past.

- threat on any map type - a key aspect to their play and wins has been their dominance on Control maps, the last one they dropped being Lijiang Tower to Rogue in December; however, similarly important has been the the ability to play well and win on every map type. The single deadliest map to them has been Dorado, on which they've been unable to win, but excluding it their Escort record is 5-1.

- skills to the gills - team's firepower and the ability to land shots are important for every FPS game. Other teams might come close to LW's overall level, but the latter has the key advantage of having the best DPS duo left in the tournament and that's the position of most natural impact. The only candidate for that is Meta Athena's own duo; however, even though Libero has been an MVP candidate so far, he is yet to be tested by a strong dive team and Sayaplayer might be a good second star, but hasn't exhibited the ability to carry the team to the levels of Fl0w3r and Saebyeolbe.

- the ability to win - an important aspect to winning in any type of competition is the ability to win in itself. It is not rare for someone to have everything needed to be a champion, but the title itself. The best case in recent memory from esports is the previous incarnations of the current Astralis line-up. All of the rosters had everything and more, but when pressure struck and spotlights were on them - they failed. And while the author does not believe that Lunatic-Hai have been struck by the curse of the kong or some of the other teams lack in mental strength, not having proven they've “got it” is important when LW already has the deck stacked in their favor.

One might call Blue's own mentality into question after the recent losses, but when push came to shove they swept Panthera 3-1 and beat Korea's golden boys under the spotlights in the IEM Gyeonggi final.

Simply put, LW Blue are too good at what they do and they do everything. With the tide in their favor and having forecast available, no one will be able to rock their boat for the rest of APEX S2.

About the author: Hello readers! I go by the ID RadoN, my introduction to esports happened in 2009 and I’ve been following different games within the industry ever since. Other titles I currently follow are CS:GO, LoL, QL with the occasional SFV and DOTA2. 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.