Although it may have been an upset a long time coming, it was not one that the Sydney Drop Bears would have been looking forward to. Last week at IEM Sydney, ORDER took down the Drop Bears in the championship match for the 2019 Season One Grand Final of Contenders Australia. It was the first championship match the Drop Bears had lost across all four seasons of Contenders Australia.

Not only does the loss mark the end of their three-season dynasty over Australian Overwatch that began in 2018, it also means that Drop Bears won’t be heading over to Shanghai to compete in the Pacific Showdown later in the month.

After 3 consecutive season wins, we fall to @ORDER_army. Thank you to all that came and supported us over the weekend. We will learn from this event and come back stronger. @ckm_ow @Hus_ow @ChroNoDotA @BertlogOCE @Shoyo_ow @AkrakenGG @Coach_Spilo @Noxiousow — Sydney Drop Bears (@Dropbearsgg) May 5, 2019

Not angry, just disappointed

For Sydney Drop Bears support player Dario “Akraken” Falcao-Rassokha, his feelings after the Grand Final loss were clear. “Disappointed, of course,” he said. “But I’m happy about the way we approached that, and the way we played on game days, particularly against ORDER. We had a very good mentality throughout the whole match, we never gave up, nobody was tilted. There are positives to [be found] in loss and disappointment.”

When it comes to why the Drop Bears lost the Grand Final match, there were a multitude of reasons. “I think [ORDER] were starving, honestly, and you can see that from their reaction after they won. Some of them were almost breaking down in tears. They’ve been wanting to win for so long and they haven’t had the chance to. All of that focus put into their preparation made sure that they were as prepared as possible.”

International Man of Mystery: ChroNoDotA

The Drop Bears main tank from the regular season, Teetawat Teerayosyotin, was unable to make it to the Australian LAN event for the finals. Instead, North America-based main tank and former Sydney Drop Bears player Niko “ChroNoDotA“ Raisanen was brought back into the lineup. He would play for one weekend only, after previously leading the team to an undefeated run in Season Three of 2018.

ChroNoDotA only found out about the opportunity a few days prior. “I learned [about coming on for Drop Bears] four or five days ago,” he said. “I only got like two days of practice and you also have to consider I spent a whole bunch of time flying.”

“Obviously we [didn’t] have time to work me in properly or learn new strats, it’s more about just “this is what we do, try your best to adapt.” They already know my general playstyle, I know generally how they play so we can sort of meet in the middle.”

Although ChroNoDotA had played for the team in the past, it still didn’t feel quite the same. “It feels very different. It’s not easy … Different regions and different teams have different visions of the game, and I’ve been playing with a whole bunch of teams while Drop Bears have been playing together. So I have a different mentality and different defaults for certain situations. That’s why it’s more important than anything else for me to listen and take advice for how they want me to play, instead of trying to enforce the way I play on them.”

Akraken wasn’t shy to admit that having ChroNoDotA come in at the last minute made things difficult. “Absolutely, it affected things. To play with a main tank, Teetawat, throughout the whole season and him being extremely good… ChoNo is good, he played well, we’ve played with him before, we love ChoNo, [but] the main tank is one of the major roles in your team. It’s the one that guides the pace – how you play, how you set up corners and whatnot. So it’s probably one of the worst roles to have swapped out.”

Despite the difficulties, ChroNoDotA tried to catch up as much as possible. His 20-hour journey to Australia lined up with Drop Bears Head Coach Jacob “Spilo” Clifton’s flight from LAX to Sydney, so they fit in some strategical catch-up. “We had the same flight to Sydney,” said ChoNoDotA. “So when we got there – both of us super sleep-deprived – we got to LAX, busted out the notebook and tried to write down how we wanted to play everything.”

ChroNoDotA remained optimistic in a difficult situation. “It’s definitely very difficult, but what can you do? I’m comfortable being vocal, so if I don’t understand something, I’m not afraid to ask questions.”

An uphill battle

The sudden change in main tank wasn’t the only problem facing the Drop Bears leading up to the match. “We had some practice issues throughout the season,” said Akraken. “We had a lot of holidays this season, so we didn’t have a long time of uninterrupted practice, which unfortunately is a side effect of people having vacations, jobs… having a life.”

It was a rough start to the match for the Drop Bears, who found themselves on championship point and down 0-3 without a single map to their name. They managed to take a map after that, but ultimately lost the fifth map and the championship shortly after.

The team knew it was always going to be difficult. “During the match, we had really good mentality … but we knew it would be a war. We knew it would be an uphill battle … We had strategies to play around [ORDER], we executed those strategies okay, but going into it we knew ORDER was a very good team.”

Missed opportunities

Losing to ORDER also means losing a shot at the Pacific Showdown and facing against Korean, Pacific and Chinese Contenders teams on LAN. If the Drop Bears had made it over, Akraken was optimistic about their chances. “If we went there, we could beat any other team beside Korea 1, I think. It’s a bold claim but we’ve scrimmed Korea 2, we’ve scrimmed Chinese teams, we’ve scrimmed Pacific teams, with Teetawat, with Chronodota… We’ve done 40-60 into nearly all of them, and Chinese teams, we were beating.”

When it comes to the ORDER squad heading to Shanghai, Akraken is similarly confident. “I think ORDER could surprise a lot of people. Obviously it’s disappointing that we weren’t able to take advantage of that opportunity but I think they can do really well.”

ChroNoDotA pointed out that while North America, Europe and Korea are the clear best regions, a good Australian team shouldn’t be discounted. “A very good Australian team could potentially be better than one of the best Chinese or Pacific teams. There’s definitely upset potential in those really strong super teams.”

The Sydney Drop Bears will return later in the year for the second season of Contenders Australia 2019, while ORDER we compete in the Pacific Showdown later in the month. You can read out interview with ORDER here and view more info about upcoming Contenders action here.

Featured image provided by Reni Indrawan for Blizzard Entertainment.

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