OGN Apex S2 Finals Preview : Runway vs Lunatic Hai

April 8, 2017 | 0 | 1957| |

The second season of OGN Apex Season 2 is coming to an end. The finals will be held at the Korean University Hwajung Gym on the 8th of April 2017. In the current Overwatch professional scene, the best teams in teh world are participating in the OGN Apex Season 2.

The OGN Global Apex Season 2 started on 17th January and the finals will be held on 8th April 2017. The finals will see two different storylines clashing together. On one hand we have Runaway who climbed their way to the finals after a disappointing finish in Season 1. Lunatic Hai on the other hand have been one of the biggest favorites at the tournament. But their results have not been forthcoming as they have lost in many recent tournaments and not been able to finish in the Number One position. We take a look at the two teams and the impact of some individual players.

RunAway

RunAway qualified for OGN Apex Season 2 via the offline qualifiers. Despite finishing in the bottom section of OGN Apex Season 1, they moved through the Promotion stage for Season 2 saw them qualify for the main event to be held along with three other teams.

The RunAway Roster:

Kaiser ( Tank)
Runner ( Support )
KOX ( Flex)
Haksal (DPS)
Stitch (DPS)
Bumper (Tank)

Kaiser is one of the star players on this team. While most of the other players are not as well known as some of the other stars from Korea, Kaiser is extremely well known for his amazing gameplay on Reinhardt.

Runner is the founder of the team. He has been the main driving force behind the team. He has been an inspiration and is always maintaining the high spirits within the team. When Runaway finished 13-16th in the previous season of OGN Apex, Kaiser and a lot of his teammates were ready to give up on their dreams to become a pro. But Runner was the person who convinced them to stay and try again. Now they have reached the finals and are scheduled to play against Lunatic Hai in the finals on April 8th.

RunAway have shown a wide spread of maps that they like to play. While in the Group stages, they were exceptionally strong on the hybrid maps; their strength and wins in the semifinals came largely of a mix of several types of maps. Eichenwalde in particular is an extremely strong map for them as they are accustomed to utilising the height advantage of the castle on the second point.

RunAways story would be an ideal story to conclude the Overwatch OGN Apex Season 2. A team which was at the bottom of Season 1 slowly climbed it’s way into the finals of the next season. Their star player, Kaiser did not even own a Computer at home till recently. He used to play from Internet Cafes had a great skill display despite such shortcomings.

The current meta is seeing a lot of Tracer play by teams both on offense and defense. It will be interesting to see how much of an impact Stitch can have on the game in the current form. His ability to flank the supports from Lunatic Hai will form the key impact performance for the Runaway Team. While Kaiser provides the adequate cover for Runaway it will fall down to Haksal and Stitch to drive their team through victory.

Lunatic Hai

Lunatic Hai have been one of the most hyped team in South Korea. It is not without reason as they have some amazing players on their roster.

Lunatic Hai Roster :

Esca
Whoru
Zunba
Miro
Ryujenhong
Tobi

Lunatic Hai boasts a very dive-centric team composition. With the likes of Miro on Winston and Whoru and Esca as the DPS, this lineup is extremely explosive in nature. Ryujenhong is a candidate for the best player in the world on Ana. His sleep darts and aggressive sniping have earmarked him as a player to watch out for his opponents. It is not unusual to see Ryujenhong actually getting multiple kills in a team fight or before a team fights.

Whoru has been impeccable on his Genji so far in the tournament. His performances have been able to complement the lacklustre performance by Esca so far. Lunatic Hai have been a team that is hyped, but with limited or mediocre results. For the most part Esca has been absent from the kill feed. If Esca does perform well, Lunatic Hai can have a huge impact in the grand finals.

Lunatic Hai cruised through the Group stages without losing a single map. Their exceptional performance in the Group stage was put to test in the Group Stage 2 ( Quarterfinals) in their matchup against Runaway. The Best of Five series was won by Runaway , however it was an extremely close match.

Lunatic Haiś roster has changed during the last few months when they replaced two members from their team. Leetajun and Dean from Lunatic Hai were removed after a controversy which saw them misusing the organisations’ name for immoral activities. Source

Different Playstyles

The two teams have differing playstyles. Lunatic Hai utilizes the combination of Miroś Winston and their aggressive DPS duo to dive into the enemyś backline. With some of the worldś best DPS players on the team, Lunatic Hai like to play extremely aggressive. They thrive off the confusion and elongated fights.

Runaway on the other hand prefer to play behind the 2000 shield barrier. Kaiser has been a pillar for the team to rally around. His aggressive earth shatters definitely have set up huge team fight wins for the recently qualified team. Runaway were pretty much a noname before this tournament. Their qualification and subsequent success has been a result of some good team coordination.

Players to Watch Out

Kaiser ( Reinhardt)

Kaiser is the best Reinhardt player in the world. His precision in landing the multi hero earth shatters definitely have created a lot of space for Runaway. It is rare to see a Reinhardt player consistently being the MVP of a team filled with talented DPS players. However Kaiser has time and again proven himself to be on par and an above average contributor to the success of his team.

Whoru ( Genji)

Whoru is the youngest member of Lunatic Hai. The young member has been a key component of the aggressive gameplay by Lunatic Hai. His performance on Genji combined with the added pressure from his team mates ( Miro , Esca) has been impressively able to contain their opponents. If any team wants to win against Lunatic Hai, making sure Whoru is tamed and not allowed free reign will be their primary concern.

Ryujenhong ( Ana)

The worldś best Ana, Ryujenhong rose to fame during the Overwatch World Cup. His Ana gameplay is not extremely defensive, but he utilizes the full kit available with the hero to maintain the lead for his team. He has been known to even snipe opponents and play Ana extremely aggressive. So far his statistics at the OGN Apex Season 2 has been one of the best. Irrespective of the result of the finals, we can expect Ryujenhong to be one of the contenders for the MVP award for this tournament.

Stitch ( Tracer)

Stitch has been very precise on his Tracer. He plays a very aggressive gameplay and is known to get into the face of his enemy. Stitch combines well with Haksal who get into the tanks of the enemies. It is not uncommon to see the enemy Reinhardt / Winston consistently going down to Stitchś Tracer.

Who is the best in Korea?

The winner of OGN Apex Season 2 will give us the answer to a pertinent question. Who is the best in Korea? The world saw the prowess of Korean Overwatch during the Overwatch World Cup. While some sources might have exaggerated the strength of Korean Overwatch, there is little doubt that Korean Overwatch is way ahead of Western Overwatch teams.

The intense competition within Korea and the proximity of the teams to each other means that the difference in skill of the teams is extremely small. We have seen multiple unknown teams able to upset the big names in Korea.

The winner of this matchup will put a name to the best team in Korean overwatch; Until OGN Apex Season 3.

Rohan

The author

Esports journalist. An esports fan, former wannabe pro and occasional angry young man. You can find him trying to climb the Dota 2 MMR or just chilling in Rocket League. Or maybe building an entire city in Cities: Skylines. The current mood is always a surprise.