Finland vs. South Korea was top-tier professional Overwatch

The Overwatch World Cup group levels kicked off this week, and with fifteen video games every they’re fairly intense to maintain up with. Should you’re solely capable of watch one match from this stage, although, it’s best to make it Finland vs. South Korea. The match-up was all the time going to be hotly contested, however the two groups placed on top-of-the-line exhibits Overwatch I’ve ever seen.

South Korea are undoubtedly the favourites to win the cup, having emerged not solely victorious, however solely undefeated, up to now two years’ championships. Finland, although, have come out robust, bringing a roster filled with expertise together with six Overwatch League gamers plucked from 5 totally different groups. You possibly can watch the match in full earlier than I get to spoiling it under:

Till this sport, South Korea had not misplaced a single map within the group levels of any World Cup, and so they began robust right here too. Specifically, Pan-seung “Destiny” Koo picked up Wrecking Ball, who had previously struggled to find his place in the Contenders playoffs, and confirmed everybody the way it’s performed. His combat initiation and the flexibility to pressure Finland into awkward positions along with his minefield final capability led the house facet to victory within the first map.

However Finland was right here to smash their beforehand excellent file. On King’s Row, they had been capable of take the sequence to a 1-1 draw by defending DPS star Timo “Taimou” Kettunen and enabling him to persistently choose off the weak Korean gamers.

Third map Temple of Anubis was much less dramatic. South Korea snowballed by each seize factors with greater than 5 minutes left of their time financial institution, and Finland not solely couldn’t match their pace however had been prevented from taking even the primary level in any respect.

However they refused to surrender, even when South Korea, as soon as once more utilizing Destiny’s Wrecking Ball, nearly held them off from taking a single level on escort map Rialto. Joonas “Zappis” Alakurtti dropping a D.Va bomb final proper on prime of a Sombra-hacked, Zarya-immobilised workforce and completely wiping them out was particularly satisfying:

Finland additionally used Rialto to experiment with a far-forward defence, trapping South Korea of their spawn, which was sadly spoiled by a sport crash. After they had been capable of resume play nearly 30 minutes later, they tried once more, however South Korea was capable of capitalise on Finland shedding the ingredient of shock. Finland recovered within the last stretch, although, and had been capable of pressure South Korea into the primary five-map tiebreaker of this World Cup.

All of it got here down to regulate map Nepal, and commenced about as shut as could be with the primary spherical coming right down to a 99-99% battle that ultimately flipped Finland’s approach. Then South Korea clinched the second spherical, leaving all of it as much as the tiebreaker’s personal tiebreak. Neither facet wished to lose after coming to date, and as soon as once more, the scoreline reached 99-99%, however South Korea in the end managed to grind their strategy to victory as the gang cheered the native facet.

As anticipated, South Korea is main their group, however Finland later overcame Russia, placing them in shut competition for the second place qualification. It’ll possible all come down as to if or not Russia can beat South Korea tomorrow (at 9:15am BST), so count on a sport simply as tense as this one.