Season 3 of Overwatch Contenders China is in the books and with that, we’ve officially passed the halfway marker for the season. Because this season’s group stages have been so dominant, six of the eight teams have already qualified for playoffs whereas teams like Lucky Future and Triple Six Legend just need to ace week four to qualify. Barring any massive upsets, the playoff teams should be fairly close in skill with T1W Esports and Team CC leading the pack. However, before we get into our review of week three, let’s take a look at some predictions leading into week four.

Week 4 Predictions

ReStart (3-1) Alter-Ego

Team CC (4-0) LinGan e-Sports

Triple Six Legend (4-0) Laboratory

Flag Gaming (2-3) Big Time Regal Gaming

T1W Esports (4-0) Zenith of Optimism

LGD Gaming (1-3) Lucky Future

12.) Zenith of Optimism ( = )

(0-4) LinGan e-Sports - Contenders Season 3

(0-4) Team CC - Contenders Season 3

(0-4) Triple Six Legend - Contenders Season 3

There is not much to say about Zenith of Optimism. They’re a metagame too late and they’ve missed playoffs by a good margin. ZOO does thrive in chaotic situations where their traditional Tracer-based composition can work, but at times it can feel forced. For example, during their match with Triple Six Legend this week, they were fully held with a Bastion/Torbjorn composition that is almost never used. ZOO then immediately tried to use TSL’s composition against them and it failed miserably. ZOO is in dire straights and needs to make some changes before the re-qualification happens during the first season of 2019.

11.) Alter-Ego ( -1 )

(0-3) Big Time Ragel Gaming - Contenders Season 3

(0-4) Lucky Future - Contenders Season 3

(0-4) LGD Gaming - Contenders Season 3

Outside of KINGKONG on Winston, Alter-Ego still look pretty lost in the current state of affairs. While they did manage to take a draw away from Big Time Regal Gaming, that loss could have been chalked up to BTRG floundering on their weakest map type. It’s a consolation prize, but things don’t look good for Alter-Ego. They tend to find some success when taRocook1e and KINGKONG are on Sombra and Winston respectively, but they’ve strayed away from that composition quite a bit in recent weeks.

10.) ReStart ( +1 )

(0-3) Big Time Ragel Gaming

(0-3) Flag Gaming - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(0-4) LGD Gaming - Contenders Season 3

(0-4) Big Time Ragel Gaming - Contenders Season 3

(1-3) Lucky Future - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(1-3) Flag Gaming - Contenders Season 3

ReStart began as a handful of veteran Chinese players and now has transformed over the last few weeks. This week they’ve recruited former Talon Esports player Raphael and might be adding more Korean players to the roster in the future. With the loss of B612, I was concerned but they seem quite capable without his leadership. While playoffs are not in their cards, putting forward a good performance might net young player’s like Raphael and Cloud a chance to compete during the first season of Overwatch Contenders in 2019.

9.) Laboratory ( = )

(0-4) T1W Esports - Contenders Season 3

(0-4) LinGan e-Sports - Contenders Season 3

(0-4) Team CC - Contenders Season 3

Laboratory has been struggling since the beginning of the season. Their roster has been in shambles since week one and they’ve had a hard time trying to adapt to the new metagame. This difficulty has been partially brought about by their part-time main tank Seeds who has only shown real success on Hammond. This has forced some adaptation from the rest of the team, usually resulting in an immobile backline composition that is spent pocketing Melo on some form of hitscan. This first season for them has been a solid starting ground, and going into 2019 I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of these names in the future.

8.) Lucky Future ( = )

(3-0) Big Time Ragel Gaming - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(1-3) Flag Gaming - Contenders Season 3

(0-3) Team CC - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(3-1) ReStart - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(4-0) Alter-Ego - Contenders Season 3

(0-3) Flag Gaming - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(1-3) Big Time Regal Gaming - Contenders Season 3

Lucky Future has been on a slow mend, but still, have consistency issues. Ruff and BLACKBEAN have been standout DPS players, but getting them all to be on the same page can be a struggle at times. This theme was highlighted on their aggressive Numbani Point B defense where Lucky Future at BTRG corralled all the way into their spawn. This was eventually broken by some quick wits by BTRG, but Lucky Future never really regained any momentum. Every fight seemed to have more and more ultimates used and they never gave themselves an advantageous fight. At times they look like possible semi finalists and others I worry if given a different group draw if they would even make it to playoffs. Lucky Future is against the ropes and needs a win this week to build back up some morale.

7.) LGD Gaming ( = )

(1-3) LinGan e-Sports - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(4-0) ReStart - Contenders Season 3

(3-0) Avengers - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(0-3) Triple Six Legend - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(2-3) Flag Gaming - Contenders Season 3

(0-3) Team For Victory - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(4-0) Alter-Ego - Contenders Season 3

I’ve said this week on week, but LGD Gaming still does not look great as a whole. However, hoyoqian had a great week last week on Lucio, so I have to give credit where credit is due. But their compositional choices still have me a bit worried. Their match on Well and their defense on Hanamura A this last week just looked rough around the edges. The Orisa composition on Well makes sense, but once you lose the point, re-engaging with that composition is difficult because of how immobile it is coupled with how small her shield is. This is why you have Soldier 76 paired with her so that he can add a consistent damage threat. Sometimes you also see McCree stationed with the Orisa so that the enemy team has an additional crowd control threat to worry about. That said, Showcheng decided to swap Zarya for some reason. It could be that there was a call made and the team didn’t follow up, but I digress. Things just are a mess in the LGD House at the moment.

6.) Triple Six Legend ( = )

(1-3) LinGan e-Sports - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(0-4) Team CC - Contenders Season 3

(3-0) LGD Gaming - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(3-1) Team For Victory - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(0-4) T1W Esports - Contenders Season 3

(0-3) Team CC - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(3-2) Team For Victory - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(4-0) Zenith of Optimism - Contenders Season 3

In my heart of hearts, I want to move Triple Six Legend up a spot, but I cannot justify it. They’ve managed to qualify for the LanStory Cup finals and that’s great, but I want to see them backed into a corner and come out successful. The turn around that this roster has done from last season has been phenomenal, but they have not had much luck against top teams. That’s not to say that LinGan has, but they have a better track record as a team competitively. Heading into Week 4, TSL has to play against Laboratory which should be a walk in the park for them. DPS and n1ghtg0d are the power duo’s here for TSL heading into playoffs. And I need them to come out of their quarterfinal match, assuming they make playoffs, with a win to move them up on the list.

5.) LinGan e-Sports ( = )

(3-1) LGD Gaming - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(3-1) Triple Six Legend - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(4-0) Zenith Of Optimism - Contenders Season 3

(4-0) Laboratory - Contenders Season 3

(0-3) Team For Victory - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(0-4) T1W Esports - Contenders Season 3

Team fight in this heavy tank metagame matter a lot. If you thought that you were at a resource deficit during the Tracer metagame, then being down Rally and Graviton Surge is going to be a rude awakening. This anecdote sums up my opinion on LinGan. The team isn’t bad, but they just have these small windows where Aidoudou plays slightly too aggressive while being pressured by the enemy Zenyatta’s Discord Orb. LinGan for me is the “jack of all trades” team, they played both styles right now, but neither of them are looking to be contending for a title shot.

4.) Flag Gaming ( = )

(1-3) Team CC - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(3-1) Lucky Future - Contenders Season 3

(3-0) ReStart - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(3-0) Lucky Future - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(2-3) Big Time Ragel Gaming - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(3-2) LGD Gaming - Contenders Season 3

(3-1) Team For Victory - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(3-1) ReStart - Contenders Season 3

This week I was just confused with Flag Gaming. Up until this point, I had them as a “counter” team, but this week they pulled out tanks with one of their substitutes, Lie. While he didn’t play every map, Flag Gaming still has troubles with tanks. Lie has a difficult time finding damage and can be absent-minded when it comes to his shields, they can either be too early or too late at times. I still think they have a lot of power in Jason, Over, MG, and Coldest, but only when they play ‘their’ style.

3.) Big Time Regal Gaming ( = )

(0-3) Lucky Future - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(3-0) Alter-Ego - Contenders Season 3

(3-0) ReStart - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(0-3) Team CC - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(4-0) ReStart - Contenders Season 3

(3-2) Flag Gaming - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(3-1) Lucky Future - Contenders Season 3

Big Time Regal Gaming has easily been one of my favorite teams to watch and for good reason. Their match against Lucky Future showcased everything that I’ve been saying is good about them for the last few weeks. Their rotations have been spot on and this leads into their win conditions quite a lot. Think back to their Numbani Point A Defense, you constantly have EFFORT flanking on the high ground as Soldier 76 after key mobility cooldowns have been used. This allows him to fire onto the point unchecked. I will say that they can tend to fall into their old traps of not being able to adhere to the metagame 100% of the time, but they can find little workarounds that can be off-putting to some weaker teams.

2.) Team CC ( -1 )

(3-1) Flag Gaming - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(4-0) Triple Six Legend - Contenders Season 3

(3-0) Lucky Future - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(3-0) Big Time Ragel Gaming - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(4-0) Zenith of Optimism - Contenders Season 3

(3-0) Triple Six Legend - LanStory Cup Hangzhou

(4-0) Laboratory - Contenders Season 3

Things continue to look bulletproof for Team CC, but I can’t in good conscience keep them at number one. They innovated a little bit with their quad-support composition on Lijiang Tower, Night Market, earlier on in the season but outside of that, I haven’t seen much else from them in terms of strategic depth. Now, that doesn’t mean they need to bring out pocket strategies to win, on the contrary, but I do think it’s important to have a plan going into the playoffs. Team CC has the tools to be able to play some Pharah with Yakumo or some more traditional 2/2/2 with Kheart and Ieatuup. Team CC is, for my money, the strongest team on tanks in China, but with a new patch looming overhead and teams looking to counter tanks at every turn, I’ve got to ask more from them.

1.) T1W Esports Club ( +1 )

(4-0) Laboratory - Contenders Season 3

(4-0) Triple Six Legend - Contenders Season 3

(4-0) LinGan e-Sports - Contenders Season 3

This was a big week for T1W Esports for more ways than one. Not only did they show that they can play more standard heavy tank compositions to a fairly high degree, but their star DPS player Mijia can also flex to fit that mold. Seeing Mijia off the Doomfist and onto the Zarya was a big selling point for me, and one of the big reasons why I’ve bumped them up to the top spot this week. Their tank play has been okay and they can easily play counter-compositions, this T1W squad if a force to be reckoned with come playoffs.

Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLGs of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel .