After the recent departure of Dean and Leetaejun many had Lunatic-Hai as the underdog in this. While in theory the current starting roster has more skill it was hard to know if they’d have enough preparation, considering they played Leetaejun on day 3. To further lessen their chances they were against the roster that many would currently consider as the best in Korea, after their win at IEM Gyeonggi – LW Blue.

The match started on City Center, Oasis. Both squads opened on Mercy, Lucio, Winston. D.Va, Tracer, but LW complimented their composition with Flow3r’s Pharah, whereas WhoRU was on his signature hero – Genji. After multi kill for Pharah, Blue took control of the point. They kept it for 64%, but despite dominant play by Fl0w3r, a team effort by LH claimed them the point. They held it for 80%, but eventually the Pharah overcame them and lack of switches from Miro and co. allowed it to run rampant as LW took City Center 100–80.

On University Ana and Reinhardt came in for both teams instead of Mercy and Winston. Additionally Zunba switched to his signature Zarya and Saebyeolbe and EscA ditched Tracer for Roadhog and McCree, respectively. For University Saebyeolbe and EscA ditched Tracer for Roadhog and McCree, respectively, but otherwise both teams kept same compositions. As the cowboy was enough to lessen Pharah’s impact Fl0w3r switched to McCree himself, but that wasn’t enough for LW to take away the control and LH equalized the section score to 1–1.

For Gardens the teams returned to their set-ups from City Center: Mercy, Lucio, Winston. D.Va, Tracer, Pharah for LW and Mercy, Lucio, Winston. D.Va, Tracer, Genji for LH. Blue got the initial control again, largely thanks to Fl0w3r, but this time they didn’t relinquish it and took 1–0 lead in the series.

For second map, Lunatic-Hai selected King’s Row. They attacked on Lucio, Ana, Reinhardt, Zarya, Mei, Genji against LW’s Lucio, Ana, Reinhardt, Zarya, Roadhog, Soldier 76. Miro and co. secured A quickly and started pushing the payload, having 5:03 in the bank. In response to this Fl0w3r swapped 76 for Mei. The cart got close to the second point, but LW kept stopping the pushes and WhoRU ditched Genji for Pharah. As there was nothing to stop the rocketeer on LW, it got them past the second point on the first fight and they continued pushing with with 3:09 left on the clock. Looking to stop the rocket menace Fl0w3r moved to McCree, but WhoRU had already changed back to Genji. The changes favored LH, as they continued rolling and delivered the payload with 1:16 in the bank.

On the offense Blue started with Lucio, Zenyatta, Reinhardt, Zarya, Roadhog, Hanzo against LH’s Lucio, Ana, Reinhardt, Zarya, Soldier 76, Genji. Several quick picks earned Fl0w3r and co. quick takeover of A and they started pushing the payload, having 5:23 left on the clock. The 76 was traded for McCree, but LW proceeded forwards similarly quickly, on the back of shots by Hanzo. That got them past the second point, having over 5 minutes in the bank. In the third portion of the map however, LH finally managed to stall and whittle down Blue’s time bank to 1:58.

For their second attempt on the offense LH opened on Lucio, Zenyatta, Winston, Zarya, Widowmaker, Genji against LW’s Lucio, Ana, Reinhardt, Zarya, Mei, Reaper. As they couldn’t find picks EscA and WhoRU switched to Tracer and Pharah. In overtime they secured A as WhoRU returned to the ninja and after a short push LH scored 54m past A.

After switching sides both teams used identical four hero cores of Lucio, Reinhardt, Zarya, Roadhog and Zenyatta, Hanzo for LW versus LH’s Ana, Soldier 76. Despite good play by LW, Ryujehong came through for his team in the clutch and LH defended on A, equalizing the map score to 1–1.

For map three, LuxuryWatch selected Temple of Anubis. They attacked with Lucio, Zenyatta, Winston, D.Va, Tracer, Genji against LH’s Lucio, Ana, Reinhardt, Zarya, Soldier 76, Genji. After getting repelled initially LW secured the point and started pushing toward the temple, having 5:50 left on the clock. In response Miro switched to his signature hero, Winston and EscA traded 76 for Mei. As their first push on B failed LW changed to Lucio, Ana, Reinhardt, Zarya, D.Va, Tracer. That didn’t work out either and as LW didn’t change LH defended B, without losing even a single tick.

After switching sides LW picked Lucio, Ana, Reinhardt, Winston, Zarya, Roadhog as LH attacked on Lucio, Ana, Winston, Zarya, Widowmaker, Genji. Miro and co. secured A even quicker than LW and headed toward B with 6:55 left on the clock. For the defense on B Saebyeolbe switched to his signature hero, Tracer as EscA ditched the sniper for Reaper, looking to punish the tanks.As Blue defended the initial push successfully, Luna swapped Ana for Sombra. The change worked successfully as well and Flow3r switched from Winston Mei. Following that EscA picked Mei too and this helped them secure B, giving them 2–1 lead in the series.

LuxuryWatch Blue

LuxuryWatch selected Watchpoing: Gibraltar as the fourth map in the series. They opened on the offense with Lucio, Zenyatta, Reinhardt, D.Va, Soldier 76, Tracer against LH’s Lucio, Ana, Reinhardt, Zarya, Soldier 76, Genji. They got quickly past point, still having 5:35 left on the clock, but LH compensated for it with strong hold at the shuttle. That whittled it down to 3:23 as Blue were going past the second point. LH continued defending well, but the time was too much and Blue delivered, having 30 seconds left in the time bank.

For the defense LW picked Lucio, Ana, Reinhardt, D.Va, Roadhog, Soldier 76 versus LH’s dive focused composition of Lucio, Zenyatta, Winston, Zarya, Tracer, Genji. The dive worked out well, but they still scored worse time than LW, having 4:42 left as they walked past the first point. However Miro and co. got through the hangar much quicker, driving past the second point with 4:46 left to deliver the cart. The decimation of Blue continued and they delivered, having 2:59 left in the bank. However as LW only had 30 seconds both teams received extra 30 seconds.

For their second run on the attack LW picked Lucio, Zenyatta, Reinhardt, D.Va, Soldier 76, Tracer versus LH’s Lucio, Ana, Winston, Zarya, Soldier 76, Genji. LH stifled the push easily and LW managed only 60.6 meters past the starting point.

After switching sides LW picked Lucio, Ana, Reinhardt, Winston, D.Va, Tracer, whereas LH continued using the same composition. They reached the distance easily, taking a 3–1 win over LW.

Player of the day:

Ryujehong — another great performance by what is at this point clearly the best Ana player in the world. Kept outdueling and shutting down both, Sayebyeolbe and Fl0w3r, whenever they tried diving him. That’s in addition to constantly landing clutch darts and long range grenades, as he always does. Even when they lost control he was always there giving LH a fighting chance, similarly to what Fl0w3r did for LW, but better and from a role with less natural impact. While it is unfortunate that Dean had to retire a performances like this is why I wanted him to be off the starting roster. Ryujehong is simply too good on supports (Zenyatta included) to have his talent ‘wasted’ as a good offtank player.

Honorable mentions: Fl0w3r, Sayaplayer.

Map of the day: LuxuryWatch Blue vs Lunatic-Hai, Watchpoint: Gibraltar — we got to see an amazing performance by LH on the map after the first point of defense; extremely well executed both, on the offense and the defense. Clutch performances by Ryujehong, solid Winston from Miro and Tobi and plays that could be in a highlight video from the rest. And while LW seemingly disappeared after their first offensive run we got to see them do decently as a team, with two of their players (Saebyeolbe and Janus) underperforming. It is ensuring to know they can still deliver decent performances even when they aren’t firing at all cylinders, but against an opponent performing like LH did today, you need all the firepower you can muster.