RunAway, the most storied organisation in Overwatch

Overwatch is a very recent game when compared to other successful esports. A May 24 2016 release date makes it a little over 3 years old, which is but a beginning when other titles have been around for decades with esports scenes that have grown for years. This — alongside all the changes that Overwatch League brought — made creating a long-lasting, historic organisation nearly impossible. So, let’s discover a team who has survived through a roller coaster of emotions, a panoply of narratives and dozens of players to make that creation possible. This is the tale of Runaway, the most storied organisation in Overwatch.

Runner and Flowervin- Image credit: ESPN

The birth of something special

Yoon “Runner” Dae-hoon and wife Hyun-Ah “Flowervin” Lee created RunAway as a passion project soon after the game released. The team —described by Runner himself as being a “6 men ranked stack” at the time — quickly rose to prominence by nearly completing the Apex Season 2 Royal Road. The final match seemed to be in their hands with a 3–1 map lead, but they seemingly crumbled and allowed Lunatic-Hai to pull off the reverse sweep. For a first showing, this was a fantastic finish that allowed them to automatically qualify for Apex Season 3 and, with a roster that barely changed, expectations were high.

Runner and Kaiser- Image credit: gosugamers

The first obstacle

Ryu “Kaiser” Sang-hoon was the only player to leave the team, but with no main tank acquired, the burden was passed on between players like a hot potato, which caused extremely confusing role swaps. Kim “Haksal” Hyo-jong seemed to be playing whatever the team needed him too, along with Kim “Kox” Min-soo, Park “Bumper” Sang-beom and Bae “Mirage” Jung-min needing to pick Winston or Reinhardt at times. Runaway’s members weren't the 6 exciting rookies that worked as a unit anymore, after a piece of the puzzle left, they looked lost. Was the team able to handle change?

Apex Season 3 ended for the warriors in everyone’s favorite pink sweaters and change was exactly what they were looking for. Coach Kim “Nomi” Min-yong left the team and Runner started to step down as an active player, becoming what caster Wolf “ProxyWolf” Schröder called “the one who tries to manage the chaos”. Hwang “TiZi” Jang-hyeon and Choi “JJANU” Hyeon-woo joined as Main and Flex tank respectively, while Bumper role swapped to healer. The first group stage of Apex Season 4 was used as a testing phase for players like Haksal and Kox to swap roles for a few games and to allow the team to get used to not have Runner on the main line up. Their captain wasn't in the lobby anymore, but he still ran into the booths and helped the players keep their minds in the game, or deal with the good and bad moments.

Fighting back

The starting roster for playoffs- Image credit: OGN

As the second group stage and playoffs kicked off, the main roster was decided: Haksal, Lee “Stitch” Chun-hui, Tizi, Jjanu, Bumper and Kox. These are the 6 players that eliminated Lunatic Hai — the team that beat them in Apex S2 and won Apex S3 — and ran over NC Foxes in order to end up face to face with GC Busan in the finals of Season 4.

Apex Season 4 Finals stage- Image credit: Winstonslab

The last season of OGN Apex came to an unrivaled climax with the clash of these two teams and their epic narratives: RunAway, the fan favorite squad that came back stronger than ever reaching their second finals, this time against GC Busan, the impressively strong new roster on its way to a Royal Road that their opponent failed to accomplish two seasons before. The best of 7 that promised to be a fantastic farewell to the most respected tournament in the Overwatch scene began as close as it could’ve: GC Busan took a hard fought Nepal 2–1 and RunAway answered with a tough but decisive win in Hollywood. The rookies then came back after an Hanamura loss and managed to win two maps in a row, which left them at tournament point. Now — unlike in the Apex Season 2 finals — it was RunAway who needed to pull off the back to back wins to get the title.

The RunAway roster- Image credit: OGN

A painful conclusion

OGN had the tradition of playing a few clips of the teams’ roads towards the finals of the tournament before the introduction kicked off. It was clear that, for these competitors, those roads were very different. GC Busan players were very confident and extremely happy with how well they’d performed in the tournament, given it was their first run. RunAway’s roster painted a very different picture: they knew what their opponents were feeling, having been in that same position just two seasons prior, but the few months that filled the void between the two finals were what the players focused on. “For the first 2 or 3 weeks after losing in season 2 finals, I think I was having trouble sleeping.” Stitch began the team-wide reflection upon their darkest times, followed by team owner Runner, who confessed that “We cried a lot, back then”. This wasn't just a finals for these players, it was a second chance to get a title and proof that they fought back and came back stronger after those tough weeks. Casters ProxyWolf and Seth “Achilios” King described it simply: RunAway had a lot more to lose than GC Busan.

An extremely convincing Dorado win from RunAway brought the finals to a seemingly inevitable seventh game. Here they were again, one game away from glory. A tactical pause called by GC Busan gave both teams 3 minutes to calm down and prepare for the final battle. Runner joined his team’s booth already in tears, trying to keep his calm and give the players whatever help he could. The different atmospheres as the cameras swapped between each booth were clear: a very emotional one on the pink side, tears and smiles showing through the glass, while on the dark blue one the players were sitting in silence focused on their objective. Order versus chaos.

Tactical Pause emotions- Image credit: OGN

GC Busan picked Eichenwalde, forcing their opponents to once again step onto the bridge in which they perished against Lunatic-Hai in Apex Season 2. Joon-yeong “Profit” Park goes all in onto his Genji — which he had never played professionally prior to this series — and outperforms Haksal, the Genji god, throughout the entire map. In a cruel twist of fate, as painful as the ending to a tragic novel, RunAway lose the title nearly in the exact same spot.

A new beginning

OGN Apex never came back again, but the road wasn’t finished for the fighters in pink. A new year for the organization was synonymous with new changes. Their founder, manager and coach, Runner, had to leave the team to complete his mandatory military service. These roles were taken on by Flowervin, his wife. The roster in itself also went through a bit of a transformation with Bumper returning to the main tank role, Kox and Kaiser leaving the squad and Sin “AlphA” Jae-hyeon, Kim “Slime” Sung-jun, Lee “Twilight” Ju-seok and Ahn “Amy” Min-yeong joining. Kwon “Yang1” Yang-won, who was their manager took on the coach role. An Apex win wasn’t achievable anymore, but the Contenders Korea S1 kicked off just as stacked. Runaway were off to an impressive group stage, with a map record of 17W-3L, surpassed only by Element Mystic’s incredible 18W-2L.

The team’s inability to win, often referred to by then as a curse, came back to haunt them. After barely taking down an underwhelming Team Kongdoo Panthera 3–2— who had finished the season with an 8W-12L record — RunAway were convincingly beaten by X6-Gaming in the semifinals. X6 went on to win the tournament with a 4–0 destruction of O2 Ardeont in the final, so even this 3rd/4th place finish felt like another time that Flowervin’s team had been a few inches away from a title.

Contenders Season 2 began just a couple of months after with a similar squad list. RunAway maintained most of their roster, but decided to drop the substitute healers and main tank, opting instead into getting two extra DPS: Seo “Seominsoo” Min-soo and Lee “Hooreg” Dong-eun. The group stage went very similarly to Season 1, but this time they were at the top of the region with a 16W-4L map record, closely followed by a resurgent Team Kongdoo Panthera, another historic roster who had never won Apex or Contenders. What the map record doesn’t show is that Kongdoo actually beat them 3–2 in the only series they played.

Vancouver Titans and Flowervin- Image credit: Harsha’s instagram

The happy ending

Once again, a script-worthy narrative was materializing around RunAway. The two top teams plowed through their sides of the playoffs, unrivaled in their ways to the final. Contenders Season 2’s roads lead to this, a nostalgic throwback to the Apex days, with two of the most historic teams in Korean Overwatch trying to get their first major title win. The narrative was unfolding perfectly with RunAway spiritually becoming the new Lunatic Hai, the fan favorite team that couldn’t get the title, or as Erik “DoA” Lonnquist put it, “the uncrowned kings”, they found themselves in a position that made LH famous in the later years of Apex. After taking Lijiang Tower 2–0, Flowervin was watching her warriors’ dreams withering away as KDP went up 4–2 in the series, with a tie in Temple of Anubis. 7 game series were an hallmark of Korean Overwatch, but these two armies wanted to take it all one step further. In order to take the title, Runaway had to force an 8th map with 3 back to back wins.

King’s Row was the turning point in the series and in RunAway’s history, in a testament to their mental fortitude, they completely crush the map with one of the most successful attacks ever seen. As if the series wasn’t exciting enough, the map that followed was Route 66, which ended up being another 3–4 loss to Kongdoo Panthera. An 8th map was forced by the team that Achilios described as “the masters of Kong”, who were clawing their way back into a title in one of the most intense series to ever happen in Overwatch. The fate of these two teams was about to be decided in Ilios, the map selected in a coin flip between it and Nepal. The pick heavily favored RunAway, was the curse finally destined to be broken? Kongdoo Panthera opted into the mirror comp — the one which would later be called Goats — and charged head first into the final map of the series and destroyed RunAway in the first control map. The second point was much more contested, KDP’s Kyungwoo “CoMa” Son was playing out of his mind trying to take the narrative and crush it right in front of their opponents. As the percentage climbed closer to 100%, RunAway grouped outside the spawn point as caster Wolf, with his voice at its limit, laid the truth bare, “no other chances, no other opportunities”.

In what felt like an eternity, Bumper and his army pushed back and forced a third and final round. In the Ruins the gladiators fought to their death and, when it mattered most, RunAway showed up miles above Kongdoo. They crushed them to complete the final map and the entire Overwatch world couldn’t help but be happy for an organisation that had finally reached their objective. Runner’s emotions weren’t broadcast, but Flowervin and her squad couldn’t hide theirs. Cries and laughs filled the booth as the players jumped in joy, accompanied by the crowd’s roars. The narrative had gone full circle and RunAway were finally champions.

RunAway are finally champions-Image credit: dailyesports

A new chapter

The RunAway road seemed to be over, they had reached their first title after years of grinding, years of blood, sweat and tears, and the players had earned their spot in Overwatch League as the squad was picked up in its entirety to form the Vancouver Titans. This would’ve been the end for most organizations, as was the one of Lunatic Hai, but this is an article on Overwatch’s most historic roster, so it couldn’t have ended here, that’s not how the script goes.

They joined Contenders Season 3 with a completely new roster: Jeong “Heesu” Hee-su, Lee “Schwi” Dong-jae, Yu “QoQ” Sung-jun, Kim “Mag” Tae-sung, Lee “LeeJaeGon” Jae-gon, Gang “Gangnamjin” Nam-jin and coach Kim “nOrU” Jae-dong. Expectations were understandably low, but RunAway didn’t seem affected by that in the slightest. They completely smashed the group stage, winning 5 series and only dropping 3 maps. Element Mystic, similarly to Contenders Season 1, followed closely behind, with the same map record but with a series loss.

The playoff bracket played out like a side by side repetition of Season 2’s, but with EM in Kongdoo’s place. The top two teams crushed their respective opponents without dropping a single map and the Contenders fans were ready for another classic 7 map series to top the season off. RunAway had other plans though, they were done clawing their way back to series and suffering to the last possible minute and, after losing Busan 2–1 to EM, they completely destroyed the 4 maps that followed. Half a year was all RunAway needed to go from the “masters of Kong”, to the only organisation to win two contenders seasons in Korea, win them in a row and with two entirely different rosters.

Bump in the road

The format changed going into the first Season of Contenders Korea 2019, but RunAway didn’t, adding only Park “D3CAL” Sung-in as a substitute DPS. The round robin went similarly to the group stage of Season 3, with 30 maps played this time, Flowervin’s squad dropped a single series in 7 and ended up with a 22W-0D-8L record. The new playoff seeding placed them immediately in the Semi-Finals and RunAway finally fell, being destroyed 3–0 by O2 Blast. On the other side of the bracket, Element Mystic took the region by storm, going 10–0 in maps and earning their first Contenders Korea title. This was a tough lost for the previous season winners, as they didn’t even lose to the team that took the tournament — like they did in Contenders Season 1 2018.

The first season of 2019 was the beginning of a new narrative, with RunAway now having new opponents in their way in Gen.g Esports and O2 Blast, along with a known rival in Element Mystic. Contenders Korea Season 2 2019 kicked off with a bit more change in Flowervin’s roster. Schwi and D3CAL left, Kim “assassin” Sung-won and Jun-ki “yaki” Kim joined along with Kim “Kuki” Dae-huk, who came in to help nOrU in the coaching department. As is now customary for RunAway, the tournament unfolded as if following a script.

Back to the top

The squad had a shaky Round Robin, finishing 4th with a 4–3 series record. Element Mystic had an even worse time, finishing 2–5. This put the squads on opposite sides of the playoff bracket, and the Déjà vu kicked in when both of them fought their way into the finals. Gen.g esports lost to EM 3–0 once again, but O2 Blast couldn’t steal RunAway’s place in the narrative like they did in the previous season. After the hard fought 3–2 win, the two-times Contenders champions had the reigning champions Element Mystic as their last opponent.

A few hours ago the tournament came to a conclusion. After 6 intense maps that couldn’t have been closer, RunAway took the series 4–2 and proved, for the third time, that they show up when it matters most. It all came down to King’s Row, the team’s most historic map. Element Mystic convincingly pushed all the way to Point C, but RunAway answered with a lightning fast point A take. EM didn’t falter though, and held their opponents for nearly 3 mins in a row. A 7th map seemed like a certainty when Element Mystic had full control of the point B defense as the map went into Overtime.

Contenders 2019 Season 2- Image credit: twitter/order_army

Nothing is certain when the boys in pink are in the server though, and they punched back harder every time the enemy players popped off. They got point C in Overtime and the Element Mystic roster looked already beaten as the camera panned through their booth. They could feel the RunAway confidence and indescribable edge. What was once a curse has now become a blessing, this team doesn't lose finals. It felt like the players were taking turns in making clutch plays, with Heesu, Yaki, Gangnamjin and QoQ all showing up when needed. The pressure doesn’t affect the players who represent the only organisation to have won three Contenders Titles in Korea.

A never-ending story

The next chapter in the unending RunAway story is The Gauntlet, the perfect opportunity for them to show their worth in the international stage. Wherever they go, narratives blossom and some of the most exciting moments in Overwatch take place. This is a team to follow, regardless of players or circumstances. They have proved they’re warriors, champions, and, as caster Andrew “ZP” Rush put it, a family.

Runner and Flowervin created RunAway as a passion project soon after Overwatch released, blissfully unaware of what was to come. They now manage a three-times Contenders champion, had a full roster join the Overwatch league and are ready to achieve international success. Despite what the future might hold and what changes might occur, RunAway will always be remembered by fans throughout the planet as one of the most storied organisation in Overwatch.

The RunAway dance- Image Credit OGN

RunAway fighting!