Written by volamel

Overwatch Contenders China Trials Season 3 is finished. And only one new team will find their Contenders berth. Aspirants that have challenged for the coveted Contenders spot will be sent back to the open circuit. The four teams that will advance to Contenders Season 3 will be Ambitious Immortals, Lucky Future, Future Group, and Triple Six Legend. The question remains: can these young teams compete with China’s best? Better yet, what does China’s best Contenders talent look like post-Overwatch League scouting? Contenders Season 3 for the east is going to be a rollercoaster of new narratives and themes to refresh the masses.  

The Keys to the Season

  Like I mentioned, with a potential power vacuum coming, the keys to the season lay in the supports and flex tank role. China has a myriad of talented DPS players, that should not be a question in anyone's mind after the region's performance at the Overwatch World Cup. My biggest issue comes from a lacking backline to support that talent.   To give an example of how important these positions are, look at all of the rumored rosters for the Overwatch League’s second season. Now, look at the strength of their flex tanks and supports. These roles tend to be evergreen and will hold the most value over the longest amount of time through patch changes, whereas something like a DPS has more variables to deal with. That’s why I’m convinced that the team with the strongest supports and flex tank, specifically D.Va, will win Overwatch Contenders China Season 3.  

Future Group

  Future Group was one of the teams that I spoke about in Week 1’s scouting report that looked promising. While I doubt they’ll perform as poorly as they did last season, there is some housekeeping in order. LeeJaeGon, Future Group’s main support, will be leaving to return home to South Korea to play with RunAway’s new lineup. This again puts a lot of what the team has done in Trials under a microscope leading into the regular season. This has got me worried. In their final match against Lucky Future, the tank coordination was not as steady as I would have liked. Losing a potential leader and strong support could seriously hamstring Future Group as they look for a replacement. Now I will not pretend to know how Future Group’s calling structure is laid out, but it is common to have your main support do some partition of the in-game leadership. Knowing this, making last minute changes in a role that is so important is more than likely going to hinder their performance. What looked like a possible darkhorse team now is surrounded by question marks.

Lucky Future

  With their sister team under scrutiny regarding the Overwatch League’s newest expansion teams, Lucky Future is put in an odd scenario. They’ve seemingly come into their own and have looked solid throughout Contenders Trials only dropping a five-game set to Ambitious Immortals, but the organization has another team to find a roster to field for their second team, Lucky Future Zenith. In the past, they’ve been quite malleable with what Lucky Future players go to what team. The issue that I’m anticipating is the splintering of the Lucky Future proper team to build a core for the new Lucky Future Zenith roster. Barring any speculation, the team looks to be on the mend and much more coordinated which is a massive improvement over their Contenders Season 2 performance.   Tian continues to impress me as a leading D.Va in the region. While D.Va is hard to judge from a viewer’s perspective, what we can see is a D.Va’s ultimate placement and impact. From this, I must say, Tian stands out against the backdrop of other Chinese flex tanks. He’s seemingly found more solid footing with his South Korean main tank, Sowhat, and their dives and timings look more cohesive in general. This is a great sign of things to come. If you go back and watch some of Contenders Season 2, you’ll notice a frequent trend with the team that landed them in the bottom four; their communication. This is understandable seeing how this is a mixed roster and now seeing progress is a very nice step in the right direction.   Another person that has really come out of his shell in a big way has been SlpWa1ker. China has a tendency -- or at least a theme --  or producing some very talented hitscan DPS players and SlpWa1ker is seriously climbing his own regional ladder. Throughout Contenders Trials, he’s gone on an impressive Widowmaker rand McCree run, but before I begin sounding the alarms, I want to see a little bit more from him. The “hot hands fallacy” is extremely real and recency bias tends to cloud our judgment more than it should. That said, I am excited to see the makings of another solid team coming into season three.   Last but not least, there is a giant elephant in the room; what will happen to Yarg? During the playoffs of Overwatch Contenders Season 2, Lucky Future moved the all-star DPS player from Lucky Future proper to Lucky Future Zenith, the eventual champions. The former Lunatic-Hai player is one of the most talented flex DPS players in the world outside of the Overwatch League and if Lucky Future can hold onto him, he’ll easily be worth his weight in gold. Imagine if Zenith is a full South Korean team built with Yarg in mind? The possibilities are endless, but until November were left in a holding pattern.   Many questions and narratives are beginning to emerge, but can the Lucky Future empire continue? Can they win a third consecutive Contenders Season? Oddly enough Lucky Future proper, one of the most inconsistent teams in Overwatch Contenders Season 2, has a good chance to change their fate -- but I would not count anything out until the rosters lock sometime in November. Something that we have to remember is that the new Chinese expansion slots have not finished signing their players yet. This does not even account for the fact that new academy teams could be created leading into Overwatch League Season 2. Things are changing and November is right around the corner. Contenders will be the first stop on the global Overwatch tour. _____   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.