Written by volamel

As the rumblings of the Overwatch League postseason enters its final few aftershocks, a new wave of candidates ready to face the crucible of the Overwatch Path to Pro has revealed themselves. Overwatch Contenders Season 3 is nearly a month away and Chinese Overwatch has not stopped since the finale of their second season.   With a rapidly growing scene and multiple third-party tournaments to play in, even teams outside of Overwatch Contenders’ grasp have seen a bit of spotlight, but first, teams must be tested. Contenders Trials is a small event that pits the bottom four teams in each Overwatch Contenders season against the top four amateur teams decided by the Open Division, an open tournament for amateur teams. Three teams have made their claims heard in this first week of Contenders Trials. The first is a team that has quietly made headway through multiple seasons of Open Division and returns to Contenders Trials after having a top-four seed slip out of their grasp.  

Fiat Lux

  The team that took Open Division Season 1 by storm. The team that missed Overwatch Contenders China Season 2 by three maps. Fiat Lux has been waiting in the wings of China’s third-party tournaments, desperate for another chance at Overwatch Contenders. While you may write Fiat Lux off after week one because of their poor match record after week one, take a look at whom they’ve played against. Two losses are to the undefeated Ambitious Immortals and Lucky Future. The other is to CEGM E-sports, and while this name might not ring a bell to some, they are the former sister team to one of China’s best teams, LinGan e-Sports Youth. With this context in mind, we can then further explain the history of these two particular teams.   During Open Division Season 2, Fiat Lux was knocked out of the upper bracket semifinals by none other than LinGan e-Sports Youth, 2-3. The two teams then sat opposite each other in the lower bracket finals, where Fiat Lux would take the series, 3-2, and advance to the grand finals. Coming into Contenders Trials, the LinGan e-Sports Youth roster would be picked up by CEGM E-sports. The subsequent loss to CEGM E-sports in Contenders Trials was more of a stylistic miss match due to their history rather than a measure of power. Something that I think can be more heavily considered is that nearly three months ago during LanStory Cup 2018’s Guangzhou’s online qualifiers, Fiat Lux defeated another team that is featured in Contenders Trials, Triple Six Legend. Not only that, but they defeated a Contenders team during the NetEase Esports X Tournament. In Group B, Fiat Lux defeated Hero Taciturn Panther, 2-0, in a best of three.   However, we cannot omit their recent hiccup in performance. When compared against the backdrop of other talented Chinese teams, Fiat Lux is starting to fade. While their record isn’t condemnatory just yet, their chances are starting to look grim. Their saving grace is the fact that their strength of schedule is one of the highest in Contenders Trials. Meaning, after their first match in week two, they should have a sudden boost in map score. It will be there where the line is drawn: can Fiat Lux remedy their situation so they do not leak anymore map losses to lower teams? With their track record, I’m willing to say they can, but it’s very likely that the shift in the metagame is causing the team issues as well. This could result in other teams squeaking by Fiat Lux and falling just short of a Contenders berth once again.  

Future Group

  Future Group is a team who failed to perform last season in Overwatch Contenders. However, for Contenders Trials, they’ve restructured their team quite heavily.  From a team who only took a single map and went winless in matches last season, Future Group has gone with a full south Korean roster with a surprising amount of experience behind them.   Their new team welcomes their existing South Korean DPS lineup of V3NDETTA and V3NTURE from last season and they’ve recruited former Meta Athena and Legend Young Beyond DPS player, Songboos, formerly named Bloodflower. Future Group has also brought on board former Flash Lux’s flex tank, Weeso, who has renamed to dfbjkl, LeeJaeGon from We Love Gaming KR, a Pacific Contenders Trials team, and Lethe, who played in some of the first Korean tournaments back in 2016.   While they have not been together for very long, week one has been kind to them. Future Group’s second and fourth match in week two is going to be serious litmus tests against Ambitious Immortals and Lucky Future. However, one thing that some teams can bank on is their bye weeks due to the absence of Legen Young Beyond. Other teams can use this week off to relax and prepare for next week’s opponents, the issue is, Future Group cannot because they drew Legend Young Beyond as their first match in week one.   Out of their two matches that they’ve played, they’ve only lost one map to Triple Six Legend, which is a solid start. Technically speaking, Future Group has the second highest map score, right behind Lucky Future. With the kings of the region rumored to be leaving and the Chinese scene in flux due to the Overwatch League, what could happen in a Contenders region that has been so shaken up? Future Group might be off to a great start, given enough time to coalesce, they have the potential to reach as high as making playoffs.  

Ambitious Immortals

  And now, for the pièce de résistance, Ambitious Immortals. It shouldn’t be a shock that the team that I’m most looking forward to seeing is the team with all-star talent, solid coordination, and a very distinct team style. This amateur team has been taking matches off of Contenders talent for a while now. During the LanStory Cup 2018 qualifiers, Ambitious Immortals dismantled LGD Gaming, 4-1. During the same event, they took Lucky Future Zenith, the champions of Contenders season one and two, to game five. They defeated Big Time Ragel Gaming in the NeXT qualifiers, 2-1. And now they’ve gone undefeated through the first week. Primarily thanks to their star DPS player, Shuaiguo.   Ambitious Immortals’ style for the last few tournaments has been all about Shuaiguo, who is now playing under the name, XiaoRikka, so much so they’ve popularized a single tank, triple support composition built to allow Shuaiguo’s Doomfist to run rampant. And when you have someone this good at a hero, compositions like this unlock. While their style is a bit one dimensional, they seem dedicated to running these odd compositions to stagger your enemies. That isn’t to say that Shuaiguo hard carries the team. Haker historically has set him up nicely with either Sombra or Mei and wenxuyan manages to keep a high charge on Zarya within such a strange composition.   During Open Division Season 1, Ambitious Immortals only managed a 5-6th place finish. In Season 2 of Open Division, they took gold and only dropped a map. And out of week one, Ambitious Immortals are the team to beat. The progress they’ve made in a few short months has been impressive, to say the least. Be sure to pay attention to this team, I know others are. _____ 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.