The second season of OGN's APEX is over and Lunatic-Hai have emerged as the victors, taking home ~$90,000. In this article, I bring you my key takeaways from the tournament.

Where the Korean scene stands — compared to the West — has been an ongoing discussion, ever since teams from the small Asian peninsula started participating in NA's online tournaments. As three of the foreign teams were eliminated during the Ro16, and the former champions EnVyUS finished at a joint seventh, it seems rather obvious that the Korean teams, as a whole, are better than their European and North American counterparts. This has been only further exacerbated by the lack of tier 1 LANs in the West and the precarious state of the European scene. And while some might think Koreans are overrated, Alicus of Laser Kittenz's put it best by saying “they're factually already better”.

Other aspects where Korea has seemingly outdone the West is the excitement among fans in the crowd, production value, and most importantly, in producing exciting games at the latter stages of the tournament. The last can be attributed solely to the format used for APEX S2. While some dislike the focus on match-to-match preparation and how long it takes for the tournament to end, no one can deny that it has produced exciting, high-quality Overwatch. After the one-sided final in the previous season, having close and high-quality matches throughout the whole bracket stage was a huge step-up. The two double-elimination groups of four teams in the Ro8 almost guarantees that the  four best teams in the semifinal are the four best present in the tournament.

That said, the results in APEX S2 are not quite representative of the real balance of power among the regions.

As their return home showed, Fnatic and C9 are no longer the strongest representatives of the North American region — the latter has even undergone changes and yet to debut their new roster. Those spots are now occupied by Selfless, Immortals and Rogue's fully French squad, which plays from Las Vegas. None of them has shown what they are capable of offline, but all three have looked formidable in online competitions.

Excuses can be also made for the European side of things, as both EnVyUS and Misfits were out of practice for the start of the event. The former had trouble adjusting to the new metagame and the latter was placed in the group of death, which featured the eventual champions and the third place team, LW Blue. And while the current state of the boys in blue is unknown, as they haven't competed since their APEX S2 exit,  Zebbosai and co. have looked stronger after making positional switches. In addition, vallutaja's eUnited (formerly Reunited) have been on the up and up, the Finns of Ninjas in Pyjamas are looking as dangerous as ever and the newly formed Laser Kittenz pack a lot of potential.

Each of the listed teams has looked considerably better than the Western teams in APEX S2, or in Misfits' case, is in seemingly better state than previously. With some practice in Korea, each could put up a good fight  — and some would likely win — against the top Korean squads, even the current champions.

The battle might have been lost and Korea boasts a multitude of strong squads that are constantly striving to improve, but Europe and North America are still not out of the war. The top Korean teams' level isn't out of grasp for the West, and regardless of the APEX S2 results, Korea isn't yet the dominant force it has been and continues to be in other esports titles.

The prime evidence for this is the current best team in Korea. The APEX S2 champions, Lunatic-Hai, may have won the event but the team has a lot of work ahead of them if they hope to defend the title. Despite playing throughout multiple different metagames, the squad has barely shown any ability to adapt to whatever is the current one. Similar criticism of being one-dimensional should also be levied at the focal point of their strategy, WhoRU. The young Genji specialist delivered an MVP worthy performance in the finals, but is yet to show anything close to that level off the ninja. Both are obvious weaknesses that high-level opponents will be targeting in APEX S3 and Korea’s golden Overwatch boys might not be ready for that. Furthermore, even if they just hope to keep up the level they showed in the APEX S2 final, EscA will have to maintain the form he displayed there. The troubling part for Lunatic-Hai is that history suggests he won't be able to.

On the bright side, ever since 1.8 and Winston's buffs let him back into the professional metagame, Miro has returned to his old level. His play on Reinhardt had already improved since APEX S1 and he had shown us flashes of brilliance with the shield bearer on multiple occasions, but his signature hero re-entering the metagame saw his level of impact boosted back to its previous heights. A lot of his positioning and tricks have become a staple among Winston players since he first emerged on the international stage. Others have attempted to reproduce his playstyle to a varying success, but no one has quite replicated his precision and spur of the moment creative plays that make him the superstar he is with a hero, which spawned the catchy verse:

I have no brain,  I have no aim,  you guessed it right,  I'm Winston main.

Unfortunately for him and his fans, despite his gasconade in the post-final interview, the superb performances were not enough to earn him back the unofficial title of best tank player in the world as it belongs to KAISER right now. Miro's ability to to squeeze seemingly every little drop of efficacy from the resources he receives is stunning and quite possibly unrivaled; however, in terms of raw impact on the game, he is surpassed by his RunAway counterpart in a pink sweater. In a borderline brutish manner, KAISER imposes his skills on the game. Unbelievable Charges, ridiculously long range Fire Strikes and game-changing Earthshatters are the norm for KAISER. The result is him often astonishing fans across the globe by almost single-handedly carrying the game for his team.

After a number of changes to RunAway's active roster, during which him and Haksal were the backbone of the team, KAISER emerged as the primary carry of the squad.

Similarly to RunAway, last season, we saw EnVyUS make a mid-season roster change and win. This time around, it was two teams who did a similar thing playing in the final. The champions of Lunatic-Hai who had to bring back in EscA after the LEETAEJUN and dean controversy early in the season and the aforementioned runner-up of RunAway.

This begs the question, is a mid-season roster change or a roster with more than six players going to be a catalyst for champions in future?

The answer to this is in all likelihood a resounding no.

- EnVyUS unknowingly recruited one of the best D.Va players in the world right when she received buffs. The same patch also introduced Soldier 76 back into the metagame, just when their support and Soldier 76 specialist switched to DPS.

- Lunatic-Hai wanted to play with LEETAEJUN initially, but circumstances forced them to use EscA who is regarded by most fans and pundits as the better of the two. If the team had their way, they likely wouldn't have won the finals. Considering the group they were placed in, as unbelievable as it seems now, ryujehong’s boys might have exited the tournament in the Ro16 in favor of Misfits advancing, had they stuck with LEETAEJUN.

- RunAway underwent changes to the active roster four times between APEX S1 and the APEX S2 playoffs, including a position switch from KoX, until they finally stopped at the roster, which we saw in the finals.

None of those screams “Calculated!” and all of the teams would have definitely preferred having more time to practice with their rosters before having to play on stage. The success, however, highlights the fact that — with regular patches forcing more or less drastic changes to the metagame — versatility will be a requirement among teams, hoping to sustain greatness for prolonged periods of time.

Speaking of greatness over prolonged periods of time, looking past EscA's return to the active roster and WhoRU's strong play in the final, there was one man who always performed for Lunatic-Hai. Game in, game out, ryujehong gave his team the best chances to win the tournament, at least within the bounds of the support position. From the textbook-perfect Zenyatta, through the brief but impressive Soldier 76, to  his deadly Ana, ryujehong's play has been MVP-worthy in every series Lunatic-Hai played this season.

Even in the final, when RunAway were focusing him heavily, he had a decent amount of impact on the game, regularly landing crucial darts and outdoing his counterpart, KoX.

With chipshajen and EnVyUS' recent inactivity and uNKOE not having played offline since IEM Gyeonggi, ryujehong is not only the APEX S2 MVP, but also the highest impact support player in the world.

Do you agree with RadoN's takeaways? What did you identify that he didn't mention? Let us know on twitter at @EsportsHeaven and @RadoNonfire.

Overview: Korea is the best region OGN's format ensures great games The West is not yet done for Lunatic-Hai and WhoRU still have a lot of work in front of them Miro is back KAISER is the best tank player in the world Mid-season roster change does not guarantee a Championship Versatility is king in Overwatch ryujehong is the APEX S2 MVP

Photo credits: OGN

About the author:

Hello readers, I go by the ID RadoN! My introduction to esports happened in 2009 and I’ve been following different titles within the industry ever since. Esports that I watch regularly are Overwatch, CS:GO, LoL, QL with the occasional SFV and DOTA2. If you wish to reach out, follow future content, or simply know more about my thoughts on esports, you can find me on twitter at @RadoNonfire.