Week 3 of Overwatch Contenders China Season 2 was the week of upsets. Serving as a prime example of just what the week held for the Chinese region the Shanghai Dragon’s academy team, Team CC, lost in clear fashion to Lucky Future -- a team that very clearly, and understandably, looked dysfunctional in their Week 2 performance, to say the least. Things in China have become more of a contest of who “shows up” or just who is better on the day. Doubling back to the Team CC and Lucky Future example, there should be no reason why a team with even the slightest Overwatch League backing and with semi-legendary Chinese players should be losing to a team that has clear communication issues and plays second fiddle to their sister team, Lucky Future Zenith. However, this week may have been a nightmare to predict, Week 3 had some fantastic stories and moments to touch on.  

LGD Finally Awake

LGD Gaming, one of the most recognizable brands in all of Chinese Overwatch has had a mixed presence in Overwatch esports from the beginning of 2016. Early on, LGD struggled to find any success, but leading into 2017 LGD has been a staple of the high end of the Chinese Overwatch scene culminating in their absolute slog of a grand final during Season 1 of Overwatch Contenders China against Lucky Future Zenith. However, Season 2 did not start as well as the first season ended. With a surprising loss to Legend Young Beyond to start off the season, I’ve been very public about my worries surrounding LGD’s playoff chances. They’ve got all the talent in the world, but things have just been slow to come to together. Now, in Week 3, I think LGD Gaming has finally shaken whatever haze they were in and looked solid in their 3-1 victory over Moss Seven Club. The dive attempts from Guxue and Eileen looked strong and very coordinated, the supports seemed to be on the ball and Shy had an absolutely stand out performance on Widowmaker throughout the entire series. I don’t say this often, but Shy’s performance on Widowmaker was one of my favorites in a long time. It gave me that same feeling of awe that Taimou’s famous streak on Dorado against BK Stars circa APEX Season 2. And I’ve spoken ad nauseam about how important Shy is, has been, and hopefully will be for LGD, but this week against Moss Seven Club, everything just seemed to click. However, they were not the only team to finally shift into gear. Hero Taciturn Panther, who just so happens to be LGD’s Week 4 opponent, has definitely turned up the heat.  

Prowling

For a team with a fairly middling performance in Contenders Trials coupled with a slow start to Contenders Season 2, Hero Taciturn Panther has been holding their own for the most part, but they came out swinging and it showed in their dominant 4-0 victory over Legend Young Beyond. Equal parts overconfidence from the camp of Legend Young Beyond and a stellar performance from Hero Taciturn Panther’s DPS, namely Wuligiao, played a role in this fairly surprising upset. When we took a look at Legend Young Beyond last week, their mechanics were on full display and WATER looked to be setting the bar of how Genji is valued in China. When we look at Night Market, Legend Young Beyond played overly aggressive and attempted to push into HTP’s spawn which allowed Wuligiao to back cap as Pharah. This same scenario happened to Legend Young Beyond in their match against LGD Gaming. However, when it came to the tank matchup, it seemed like Hero Taciturn Panther was head and shoulders above Legend Young Beyond and I got a very familiar vibe from them especially on Volskaya Industries.   Start at 49:51Ink’s brilliant use of D.Va Self Destruct here coupled with his team’s understanding of this set play is the cherry on the top of this map. Ever other fight it seemed like Ink had D.Va Self Destruct, which isn’t uncommon, but what was interesting is that he found paydirt on many of them. While those notes came through in brief intervals, I don’t think anyone had Hero Taciturn Panther, a team who barely made it out of Contenders Trials with a 4-3 match record, taking a 4-0 victory over fairly competent Korean players that are lacking a strong voice in the coaching department. This definitely changes how Group B is going to shake out and could change how I view each of these teams. As a whole, Week 3 was quite a show from a viewing perspective, Week 4 might just surpass that with just how close some of these matches have the potential to be.  

Week of Death

Looking ahead into Week 4 has got to be the closest week out of the regular season for Overwatch Contenders China Season 2. And at the top of the morning on Sunday, we’ve got a match that no one is really expecting. Flag Gaming has not had a good season thus far, but they’ve also had quite a difficult schedule playing against T1w Esports Club and the reigning champions from Season 1, Lucky Future Zenith. Last season they were able to make playoffs quite comfortably when a majority of the team was playing under Team Skadi’s Gift.  They face off against uNdeAD and Lin-Gan Esports who have looked mortal at times. Now, when Lin-Gan is firing on all cylinders, they look impressive, but they’ve got some consistency issues and they’ve got a blemish dropping a map to Triple Six Legend who looks to be the worst team in Group A. I think this is going to be a sleeper match, you might not want to miss out on. Following that, we’ve got LGD Gaming facing off against Hero Taciturn Panther. Two teams on the mend looking to fight for a chance at playoffs. You’ve got the old guard in LGD and the young bucks in Hero Taciturn Panther. Both are teams with very high peaks, but their valleys are what worry me. LGD has shown tremendous mechanical skill coupled with some nice coordination, where Hero Taciturn Panther has that flipped. If both of these two teams show up well prepared on Sunday, this has to potential to be the match of the week. Now speaking of match of the week, we’ve got a titanic matchup rounding out Sunday’s games - Lucky Future Zenith vs T1w Esports Club. Both teams are undefeated and between them, they’ve only dropped a single map. This match is a litmus test coming into playoffs. Can anyone stop Lucky Future Zenith as they look to retain their crown or are T1w Esports Club going to usurp the throne? Sunday morning, we find out who is taking the first seed in Group A.  

Week 3 Power Rankings

1. Lucky Future Zenith = 2. T1w Esports Club ↑6 3. Team CC ↓1 4. LGD Gaming ↑1 5. LinGan e-Sports ↑1 6. Hero Taciturn Panther ↑1 7. Lucky Future ↑2 8. Moss Seven Club ↓5 9. Legend Young Beyond ↓5 10. Flag Gaming ↑1 11. Future Group ↑1 12. Triple Six Legend ↓2  

Upcoming Matches (Week 4)

(Team/Match record/Map record) July 22nd Flag Gaming (1-2) (5-0-7) vs LinGan Esports (2-1) (7-0-5) LGD Gaming (2-1) (7-0-6) vs Hero Taciturn Panther (2-1) (7-0-5) Lucky Future Zenith (3-0) (12-0-0) vs T1w Esports Club (3-0) (11-0-1) July 23rd Triple Six Legend (0-3) (1-0-11) vs Future Group (0-3) (0-0-12) Lucky Future (2-1) (6-0-7) vs Moss Seven Club (1-2) (5-1-6) Team CC (2-1) (7-1-4) vs Legend Young Beyond (1-2) (4-0-8)  

Week 4 Predictions

Flag Gaming [ 2 - 3 ] LinGan Esports LGD Gaming [ 3 - 2 ] Hero Taciturn Panther Lucky Future Zenith [ 3 - 1 ] T1w Esports Club   Triple Six Legend [ 2 - 3 ] Future Group Lucky Future [ 3 - 2 ] Moss Seven Club Team CC [ 3 - 2 ] Legend Young Beyond _____ Joseph "Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLGs of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel. Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.