The New Kids On The Block – Remembering The 2018 Overwatch World Cup
2018 saw the beginning and conclusion of the Inaugural Season of the Overwatch League, with the London Spitfire resurging in the playoffs to take the crown and become the first world champions. The Contenders circuits also began, bringing in a new era for Overwatch esports across the world, and providing the game with glimpses and promises of its next generation of professional players. During the 2018 Overwatch World Cup, many of those players made their world-wide debuts on stage in Anaheim at Blizzcon 2018, maybe to the dismay of the fans of the teams they would eventually defeat.
Yet, 2018 is the first World Cup that feels weird to look back on; there’s something different about it. It’s another year, another win for South Korea, yes, but unlike the last two years, that doesn’t feel like the highlight. No, looking back on it, the 2018 world cup wasn’t really about the winners or the best team of the tournament. The 2018 world cup was the tournament of the underdogs, the unknown quantities. This was the tournament that shone a new spotlight on major figures and talents, that would soon become household names in the top level of Overwatch esports.
Click to enlargeRevenge 250 Years in the Making – Team UK Gobsmacks the USA
Coming into the 2018 World Cup, the narrative around the USA was that this was finally their year. That was their narrative every year of the world cup, but 2018 was actually the one they were going to possibly win. Bringing in Grant "moth" Espe, Indy "SPACE" Halpern, and João Pedro "Hydration" Goes Telles, the USA really insured they had some of the best players from North America rounding out this year’s roster. Even better for them, this would be the first time in the team’s short history that they wouldn’t have to face off against South Korea in the Quarterfinals of the tournament. Surely, this would definitely be the year that the USA would, at the very least, place higher than fifth-eighth at Blizzcon, right? Well…
The first match of the day, the first match of the tournament, and the USA is eliminated by the UK in a heavy-handed 3-1 brawl. Simply put, the UK had better players with a better understanding of the meta. After OWL Season 1 and into the 2018 World Cup, Overwatch was slowly being encroached by the domination of Brigitte. The scene wasn’t fully dominated by triple-tank/triple-support, in fact, we saw a lot of Doomfist, Pharah, and Widowmaker in this tournament, but it was becoming clear that 3/3 was a very strong composition to break. It was so strong, most times teams would elect to run the mirror composition, and that’s where you saw the big gap in skill. If the meta were more favoured to anything other than 3/3, the US might’ve come out with the win, but the UK proved that Europe’s tank play and synergy was no joke.
Throughout the match, it was British Hurricane’s Cameron "Fusions" Bosworth and Finley "Kyb" Adisi that put on a clinic against the US, time and time again comboing Brigitte’s shield penetrating bash with an Earthshatter to completely boom the USA's frontline. Speaking of boom, grand finalist and star support for the Philadelphia Fusion, Isaac "Boombox" Charles, showcased an excellent performance on Zenyatta with oppressive discord usage and key Transcendences, to keep the US at bay.
The Americans were simply not ready for the level of play coming out of the UK this year, maybe getting caught up in their fizzling performance of 2017. It was a mistake a lot of people made when evaluating this group of lads in 2018, thinking too much about the failures of the 2017 squad. But this year, the UK had Fusions, a very charismatic, vocal, and visibly impactful player that made all the right decisions to wow the crowd with his tank play. It was most certainly Cameron's breakout performance that gave fans across the world a new personality to cheer for, to make it into the Overwatch League.
From Relative Unknowns to Relative Stars – Team China Impresses Slams Through The Competition
For the two world cups prior, Team China didn’t have the greatest of results, or really the greatest of plays. Both years, some players didn’t make it to Blizzcon due to visa issues, so the team was always on the back foot going into the mainstage matches. This presumably led to a lot of fans and analysts counting China out right off the bat, especially since at the time, no one really knew who these players were. Contenders China caster Eren "Kenobi" Erkey, recalls the expectations surrounding China going into Blizzcon.
“I remember Team China in 2018 was extremely unknown to those who weren't entrenched already in watching Chinese Contenders. That's why they were such a shock to everyone because, at the time, China wasn't really at the forefront of people's minds in Overwatch.”
This was especially prudent following Shanghai Dragon’s disastrous year in the Overwatch League; practically no one was paying attention to Chinese talent. Besides He "Sky" Junjian, the support player from the Shanghai Dragons, not a lot of people could recognise the players on stage. But after this weekend, after those performances, no one was ever going to forget the stars who exploded onto the team as members of Team China in 2018.
Finland and Canada both were not ready for what China could bring to the table with their variety and compositions that weren't necessarily standard at the time. I think Leave played 10+ heroes in total.
-Eren "Kenobi" Erkey
Individually, these players were incredible to watch. Xu "guxue" Qiulin, seemingly became one of the best main tanks in the world overnight and his mechanical ability, especially on Winston, was a clear cut above the rest in the tournament. But it was the triple-DPS threat of Huang "leave" Xin, Zheng "Shy" Yangjie, and Cai "Krystal" Shilong, that really made team China a blast to watch and a force to be reckoned with. Leave’s flexibility gave China the ability to play any of the dominant styles showcased at the tournament. Shy had a quieter but nonetheless great performance as well, which makes his eventual debut in the Overwatch League this upcoming season all the more highly anticipated.
Nothing can understate how good China was in this tournament. Yes, the scoreline in the finals was a 4-0 to South Korea, but 2018’s South Korea squad was a literal super team of the best players in the world at that time. Nothing could have beaten South Korea that year, and even so, China’s performance still showcased to the world, the skill and ability of a team of underdogs against well-known superstar players. This was a breakout performance for leave and guxue, moments in their careers that highlighted just how good they were, and how they instantaneously gave hope for the future of an entire region, over the course of just one weekend.
Doctor, the Patients Have Escaped! – The Best Desk Ever
One final thing to remember for the 2018 world cup that is a mandatory revisit to all fans, besides the UK’s upset win, team China’s breakthrough, or even South Korea’s monstrous amount of skill, was the broadcast team shepherding the show. Nothing will seemingly ever compare to the absolute insanity and hilariousness that Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez, Brennon Hook, Jonathan "Reinforce" Larsson, and Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson brought to the 2018 Overwatch World Cup desk. The chemistry, the ridiculousness, the DUNCE cones, everything about this desk was just wackiness turned up to an eleven. Goldenboy spoke recently about the experience, and how it was their goal to simply provide professional entertainment.
“Going into the event, we knew that we wanted to have fun. We also knew that our potential broadcast time would be very limited, so we prioritised the entertainment and then the analysis but not in a way that analysis played second fiddle. Our idea was to use our personalities to drive discussion through various bits and segments meant to inform the crowd in the arena as to who would perform in any given match but to also make them look up at the giant screen and think ‘what the heck is wrong with those guys’. I think we definitely accomplished that goal!”
They certainly did, as fans around the world could do nothing but laugh at the sheer amount of hilarity provided by these four incredible members. However, throughout everything, Goldenboy’s highlight moment also happens to be probably the most famous turn of events from that entire tournament.
“My fondest memory was getting sideshow to chug an entire bottle of maple syrup in his Canada prediction. We had no idea he was going to go for the whole bottle, and we also thought he might hurl the rest of the contents, but I was prepared for whatever came next, and as a host, you always have to think on your feet, or force your colleagues to do ridiculous things all in the name of entertainment. Good times.”
On a personal note, the 2018 OWWC seems largely forgotten. It didn’t have the legendary USA vs South Korea of 2017, or the novelty of 2016’s fan-voted rosters. Originally, it seemed like this world cup didn’t have much to offer in a revisit, that it would just be an uneventful tournament where South Korea wins again, and 3/3 would be played 24/7. Broken-at-launch Brigitte would shut down any fun plays or attempts at interesting hero diversity, and teams would have no answers to facing off against a good GOATS team. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The 2018 Overwatch World Cup showcased some purely fantastic Overwatch, where players and teams showcased just how good they could be, and where the underdogs and unknown quantities, could showcase to the world what they had to offer.
Even in a world cup that took place after the Overwatch League started, after those rising stars from previous years had finally reached the top, there was still plenty of talent that had yet to be discovered. 2018 proved that there will always be young and promising players from across the globe that have what it takes to perform on the world stage. Players like Fusions with his impeccable Reinhardt, guxue with his Primal Rage precision, or leave with his United States of Smash level of devastation in the backline. 2018 proved that in the future, regardless of the meta or how unbalanced the game became, there would always be players that would stand at the podium and yell “It’s fine now! Why? Because I am here!”
Images via Blizzard Entertainment