A Korean folk tale tells of Kings and Queens that traversed on a "royal road", a sacred road where only rulers may pass. Whilst traveling on the road, they were said to be completely invisible. A mimicked story comes from ancient Persia where king Darius the Great constructed a “royal road” where couriers would peddle goods across vast distances. It was said that —"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their tasks". Do these tales hold any merit when it comes to esports, more specifically, Overwatch? It does indeed and we may be on the fringe of one of the best royal road performances in esports history.

Becoming a Royal Roader is something of legend. Throughout history, walking the royal road is the beginning of a string of dominance. Within both Starcraft games (Brood War and Starcraft 2) Warcraft 3 and including League of Legends, there is a slew of prodigies that have risen through the ranks and hoisted a championship titled. Some of the most famed Royal Roader’s include:

Within League of Legend’s sphere of influence, one of the most prolific Royal Road appearances comes from North American “golden boys”; Cloud 9. The 2012 promotion tournament for the League of Legends Championship Series Quantic Gaming (later Cloud 9) cleaved through the amateur tournament securing themselves a spot in the next season.

Rebranding under the Cloud 9 banner, the 2013-2014 roster lead by Hai “Hai” Du Lam would start their tear going 25 - 3 in the summer regular season, only dropping games to Counter Logic Gaming and Team Vulcan. Leading them into a playoff run where they would sweep Team Dignitas and Team Solo Mid to capture a 1st place victory, this would culminate with a match record of 30 - 3.

These are the golden mason’s who’ve laid each and every brick along the royal road. These are teams and players whom have taken the world “talent” to a new level, transcending mediocrity and becoming more of an enigma. Player’s like; the Tyrant, Jaedong. The 5th race, Moon. The grandfather of modern esports, BoxeR. All of these old masters came from the same road that one particular team in OGN’s APEX Season 2 is taking. Meta Athena could very well be Overwatch’s first royal roader.

Meta Athena emerged onto the scene first as “UpperWatch Quix”, housing half of the roster we know today; Libero, Hoon and Nus. After the Worridongne Game League Tournament, the core of UpperWatch Quix roster adds; Kris, Sayaplayer, and JaeTwo to form “The Meta”. They qualify for APEX Season 2 under this title, beating the likes of Rhinos Gaming Titan and MVP Infinity. Current in their freshman appearance in APEX Season 2 under the name Meta Athena, they were seated in group A with; Team Envyus, BK Stars and MVP Infinity.

Rising through the ranks of the challenger scene was no easy task, and Meta Athena’s crazy train seems to be lacking any form of brakes. With an unprecedented match history of 19 - 0, they move to the playoffs taking the first seed from group A, after upsetting Team Envyus 3 - 0. This has resulted in them going, on a pure match record of 33 - 5 coming from the challenger scene, than add on top of that their regular season record of 9 - 2 and you come up with a whopping 42 - 7 since early November of last year!

It is safe to say that Meta Athena fills out the top five teams in Korea, at the moment. With great macro play and an amazing roster to boot, the sheer force the team bring is incredible. What is insane to think about is that these are still kids; they still attend high school. They’re only 16, they have 4-6 more years of prime progamming left in them. Not only that, but with the trajectory of esports, it actually might be even more feasible for the next generation to play professionally for an extended amount of time.

Meta Athena is a marvelous rising talent, and is in contention for the world's best team. Their roster layout is a bit of a unique one -- the only real starting DPS player on the roster is Ha “Sayaplayer” Jeong Woo. Known for his Widowmaker, McCRee and Tracer play, Sayaplayer holds majority of the responsibility when it comes to cleaning up frags that his teammates prepare for him. His Widowmaker has gone toe-to-toe with the likes of Taimou and at times has one of the better McCree’s in Korea.

“I’d like to play against Lunatic-Hai in the quarterfinals. They are the best team in Korea… I want to challenge them.” - Ha “Sayaplayer” Jeong Woo

“Libero” has been reffered too as the "Korean Army Knife" or the "Korean TivQ" but some know him simply as Kim Hye Sung. Libero is quite the interesting player, his hero pool is very diverse and seemingly can play a number of heroes at a high level. He’s most known for playing D.va, but also carries with him a strong Genji and Hanzo. These, technically speaking, are your DPS line-up but, this team is more like KongDoo Panthera where a member of the frontline demands a considerable amount of resources allocated to him as he provides almost a quarter of the team’s damage.

Choi “Hoon” Jae Hoon or to the Korean netizens “Hoon-ddo-goong” (Hoon ults again). Hoon is their staple Zarya player and you don’t find him on much else. Nano Boosts primarily gets used on Hoon to allow him to play very aggressive and build Graviton Surge insanely fast. Bring a whole new style of Zarya play to the table, Hoon is easily one of the better Zarya’s in the world. Having so much damage come from the front line makes Libero and Sayaplayer’s job much easier. Not to mention that Graviton Surge is a huge team fighting tool. Hoon is one player that doesn’t get as much notoriety that I think he deserves. When you see Meta Athena in the playoffs pay close attention to Projected Barriers and Hoon’s positioning.

A large portion of Meta Athena’s healing comes from Kim “Nus” Jong Seok, who pilots Ana. Out of all the players he is one of the most quiet, but really solid. His Biotic Grenades are accurate and his Nanoboost’s are on point. There are a few instances where he does come in clutch was during the Meta Athena vs Envyus match on Hollywood. Multiple instances of him saving or winning rounds based on his Biotic Grenade. Same sentiment on Ilios, he had a 6 man Ana grenade. If you on the receiving end of that, the chances of you coming out of that alive are slim to none. Nus doesn’t make a lot of noise, but he is a glue or cement that holds the team together.

For a Lucio, Choi “Kris” Jun Soo actually makes a lot of plays. His Sound Barriers are crisp and heis known for using Lucio’s Sound Blast to save teammates from hooks and sneaks out some cheeky environmental kills. He’s a bit aggressive for a support, but on Payload maps you can get away with playing a bit offsides due to the cart healing you for a small amount. Kris makes Sound Blast look like it overpowered. He is always in the right place, at the right time, and knockback high value targets. Meta Athena’s support line is quiet, but they demand respect.

When it comes to our our Reinhardt players and the sake of simplicity we have to conflate them into one. Moon “ChangSik” Chang Sik and Sin “Alpha” Jong Hyeon. We are not to sure exactly who is going to be playing moving forward. They do play similarly, both ChangSik and Alpha are very aggressive Reinhardt players. With all this praise for this roster I do have some concerns, ChangSik in particular because he has been seen in Meta Athena’s most recent set. His positioning of Reinhardt and his shield are a odd. I think you could compare him to some aggressive Reinhardt players in the west, Hammer Esports Super for example, but I think Korea’s punish game is a step above the west’s.

Prodigy comes from a the Latin word, prodigium, meaning “omen or monster”.

Overall this roster is very good. Without a doubt this team should be in the playoffs, no questions asked. The bigger picture still remains; can they make it all the way? Can they pull off an unthinkable royal road?

It is very possible, but the road is not paved completely. Meta Athena will have to clear their own path.

Meta Athena have their work cut out for them. While they have looked very strong within group A, questions start to pop up like little gopher holes on a golf course. Could Meta Athena perform to the same degree in group B, widely considered to be one of the hardest groups? Let’s replace Misfits with Meta Athena, can our young prodigies take games off of LW Blue and Lunatic-Hai? Now, what makes that even more relevant is come time for playoffs, those questions will be answered. They will be tested against other top 5 teams in the world. This isn’t to say that they won’t make it out (personally I think they can win it all), but they will have to play at their A game. Not only will they be forced to perform, they will have to perform on a stage of unfamiliarity

It is possible that the newest patch hits before playoffs, throwing a smashing every team's prior constructs. This change could push Bastion into the meta and could alter the frequency at which we see Roadhog and Mercy. However, Meta Athena and others, have known they will be going to playoffs for quite a while, it would surprise me if they had not been dedicating some amount of practice on the Play Test Realm (PTR). Based on some quotes we have from the Korean scene, this accusation seems much more reasonable.

Lee Tae-Jun, of ex-Lunatic-Hai fame, recently spoke on his stream about how “Meta Athena is a team that doesn't hesitate to waste time on planning strategies.” He then went on to cite some clear examples of such plans, “...the most evident example came from yesterday's Hollywood, where the whole team [Meta Athena] flanked around point A to attack” and “[they] go around through the second floor to the backline of [Hollywood] the very last point when initiating”. This shows a level of preparation that teams haven’t shown all too frequently. Another example, although anecdotal, comes from their double-sniper strategy while attacking point A on King’s Row. MonteCristo has a fantastic analysis of this composition and why it makes sense on this map.

What is intriguing, is that this very strategy is a “sub-strategy” from a previous attack they performed versus Rhinos Gaming Titan, back as they were attempting to qualify for APEX season 2. The same rules apply, but instead of running a Hanzo, they run a McCree. They position Sayaplayer on the balcony of hotel, and use his cover fire to run through to cat-walk. Meta Athena drop down thus pushing the enemy team right into Sayaplayer’s sightlines. Now, to be fair, the strategy doesn’t pan out exactly as it was intended, but it was successful nonetheless.

(Three of Meta Athena’s best maps could be played very early on in a set.

Image courtesy of Winston’s Lab)

Meta Athena’s strength lives and dies with their Hybrid play, particularly King’s Row and Hollywood. Their King’s Row record is 3-0 and their Hollywood record is 2-1. While they don’t perform as well on certain King of the Hill maps, their Ilios record is 4-0. The significance of map pools are vastly underrated when it comes to judging teams merit. That being said, with the OGN format the way it is, all three of those maps have a potential to be front loaded in a best of 3 series.

Previously, I mentioned a large, glaring issue when it comes to Korea and the future of the Overwatch landscape. The omen comes in the form of 16-year-old Korean High School students on an Overwatch team named Meta Athena.

They have laid the foundation for a bedrock finish to an amazing season. Qualifying for the most prestigious league in their country, going undefeated through their groups and defeating world champions in convincing fashion. This is truly an example where life could be imitating art. With play after play, this team consistently raises the bar and sets an apt example for how team’s should play.

Their team fight focused style pivots around Hoon’s ability to maintain high charge and how quickly he build’s Graviton Surge. Hoon coupled with, who some call the “Korean TviQ”, Libero, this team already looks stacked. Add ontop of that Sayaplayer, Kris and Nus and you’ve got a potentially devastating “dark horse” team.

Are they the best team in the world? No. The KongDoo organization would like to have a word with you on that one. But, you cannot deny that these young men are gifted beyond belief. At times the best team in the world doesn’t always win. With the emotional momentum moving in their favor going forward into playoffs, Meta Athena have everything to gain and nothing to lose. If they lose, do they risk losing a large sponsorship? No. If they lose, do they risk losing their organization or better yet, get benched? Unlikely. If they lose, must they fly back home disappointed, questioning what could have gone better? No.

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Consider this my “hat in the ring”; Meta Athena will meet Lunatic-Hai in the Grand Finals of OGN’s APEX League Season 2.

Meta Athena will do the unthinkable and win in an absolute war against the heavy favorites in a best of seven.

And who will become Overwatch’s first Royal Roader’s?

Meta Athena will.

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Written by: @Volamel

Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment, OGN and Meta Athena. And a special thank you to MonteCristo for use of his video.