Alternate Overwatch History is a brief column where theory meets history. We dive into pivotal moments in history and review what may have happened if the circumstances were slightly different.









OGN’s Overwatch APEX tournament had the highest level of competition in the pre-Overwatch League era. Before starting its fourth and final season, the top team, LuxuryWatch Blue, shockingly forfeited all of their matches and dropped out of the event. It would later be revealed that the team would be signed as the New York Excelsior and were in the process of moving the team to the United States. This begs the question of how would the tournament be impacted if LW Blue actually played during APEX Season 4?





It would have changed things drastically.





To set the stage, we have to go back and look at the roster they would have fielded. Many of the original LW Blue members would have been present along with two new important signings. Mano, the former main tank for Afreeca Freecs Blue, would have seen his debut with LW Blue alongside Zenyatta god, JjoNak. The only caveat being that this LW Blue roster did not have a main support at the time. So, for the sake of the discussion, I’ll be adding Anamo to the roster as ArK would have been competing with the other LuxuryWatch sister team, LW Red, in the same event.





Mano would just be coming off a strong 3rd place finish with Afreeca Freecs as well as a dominant performance at the 2017 Overwatch World Cup qualifiers in Katowice, Poland. As for JjoNak, he still was fairly unknown at this point but that should not distract from how skilled he has shown himself to be.





LW Blue would be playing in a metagame that demanded a strong Winston, along with a talented Tracer player to coordinate dives and pincer attacks. Mano and Saebyeolbe cover these bases incredibly well. The metagame at the time would have also allowed Fl0w3r and JjoNak to play their comfort picks of Genji and Zenyatta, respectively, while rounding out the table, Pine could have played a good deal on maps like Numbani and Volskaya Industries.





Next, we have to take a look at the group LW Blue would have played in. Alongside our protagonists, they would have played against X6-Gaming, CONBOX, and Meta Bellum. And I’m convinced that LW Blue would have easily dispatched each team claiming the first seed, leaving X6-Gaming to take the second seed.





Now, this is where the timeline really goes haywire. Going into the second phase of group play, Group B would have been one of the most competitive groups in APEX history. We would have seen LW Blue compete in a round-robin against the likes of RunAway, GC Busan, and two-time APEX champions, Lunatic-Hai.





Advancing from this group would be LW Blue in the first seed and GC Busan in the second. The reason I favor LW Blue over RunAway, is due to how weak RunAway played both X6-Gaming and GC Busan and how strong I think this LW Blue squad would have been in the metagame at the time. GC Busan still would have made it out either way because of how improved they looked coming from the first stage of group play.





This would pair LW Blue up with Nc Foxes in one semifinal and in the other we would have GC Busan competing with X6-Gaming. LW Blue would easily man-handle Nc Foxes due to having a greater individual skill level as well as having more experience at their core. Again, I don’t know if anyone would have been capable of stopping GC Busan during this era.





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In this alternative history, I see the grand final of OGN’s Overwatch APEX Season 4 featuring LW Blue and GC Busan.





When you look back at the final, there is one incredibly glaring question; can you really stop Profit in his prime? May I remind you that he, not once, played Genji throughout APEX Season 4, but somehow showed a shocking proficiency with the hero during the actual grand finals against one of the most prolific Genji mains in history, Haksal.





I wonder how much the time off actually helped the New York Excelsior in their dominant season one performance? Whos to say they would have even have found their style that allowed JjoNak to play so aggressively? Even with that lack of practice and that absence of style, I see LW Blue getting a lot more value out of Saebyeolbe whereas Hooreg had a very shaky series against RunAway in the actual APEX Season 4 grand final.





However, in that same vein, I don’t believe Fl0w3r would have been up to the task of marking such a talented Genji player in Profit. I see LW Blue’s Genji ace falling into the same pitfalls that Haksal did during the actual grand final against GC Busan. With how much pressure the duo of Gesture and Profit would have caused, Fl0w3r may have looked to make some of the same greedy ‘hero’ plays that Haksal did. This would end up resetting the team's tempo in regard to their ultimate economy and would force them to be reactive rather than proactive.





LW Blue wouldn’t have the same level of experience and synergy that GC Busan did at the time due to their recent player acquisitions, but they equalize with pure roster flexibility and individual mechanics. If it came down to LW Blue and GC Busan I think this becomes more a battle of styles with JjoNak’s brute force facing off against Profit’s flexibility and adaptability.





And that’s why I have to give this hypothetical grand final to GC Busan, in a close 4-3.





I just don’t see LW Blue finding that same style around JjoNak in such a short turn around. Yes, Mano and Saebyeolbe are an incredible duo now, but can we with confidence say they would have managed that same coordination that we currently know and expect from them? Personally, I don’t think so. Given that, and how dominant Gesture and Profit were as a duo towards the end of the second group stage, I really don’t know if anyone could have stopped them.





Even JjoNak, NYXL’s rookie star and multi-time MVP, needed a full stage during the Overwatch League to fully iron when and where his ultimates were best used. If you recall all the way back during Overwatch League Season 1 during the Stage 1 finals against London Spitfire, a large reason why NYXL were reverse-swept is because of this very problem. London shifted their play to lean a bit more heavily on pressuring JjoNak and baiting out his Transcendence, which allowed them to answer with their own offensive ultimate.





So, what might have happened if LW Blue played out their final season in OGN’s Overwatch APEX?





I believe they would have done extremely well and brought LW Blue their best placing outside of their IEM performance before heading over to the United States and competing in the Overwatch League.



