MVPs of APAC Premier

Overwatch is very much a team game. The interplay of abilities, positioning, and teamfights creates a dynamic where teamwork is the most valuable asset for a side - but there are still times for individuals to shine.

If you want to take a look at the criteria for MVP selections in more detail, check out the MVPs of Overwatch Open where my process is explained.

Rogue won the APAC Premier after taking second seed in their group, but they didn’t do it by having world-class performances from every player on the team. They won the trophy, title, and ¥500,000 (~$75,000) for being the best overall team at the tournament, but it is also important to recognise the individual players who outshone the competition or at times the rest of their team. This was also the first time we saw some of the best players in the East play in a major tournament, and their mechanical skill was at times insane.

APAC Premier MVP team

DPS:

TviQ

The first dps MVP, and overall MVP of the tournament, was TviQ. He took “flex dps” to the next level with his play, constantly switching himself around and displaying world-class talent on almost every hero. Rogue structured many of their novel compositions and strategies around his play, and he even excelled on the classics compared to the Overwatch Open. His Mei and Genji play was sublime as he used them in Rogue’s usual compositions to great effect.

When he swapped onto niche hero picks for specific strategies, he looked like a god. His Pharah in particular on King’s Row was the turning point in the Grand Final and his individual play was monstrous. It’s true that Lunatic-Hai looked slow and cumbersome on the counter and his team helped by taking the focus of Esca’s McCree, but the positioning and aim from TviQ was undeniably brilliant. Rather than diving through the air aggressively like ultimawep or ShaDowBurn, he played behind cover, dodging and evading until he had sufficient distraction to strike. He ripped apart Lunatic-Hai, and again surprised them with Bastion on Nepal’s Village; while the strategy itself deserves more credit than the minutiae of the execution, TviQ did have great timing and adaptability whenever Lunatic-Hai threw a dive strategy into him, as well as near-perfect tracking to convert that into kills and damage.

He also took up Reaper at times when aKm felt better on McCree, and picked up the Hanzo on occasion. His Hanzo was hit and miss throughout the tournament but it was always used in a safe manner when his team would not be ruined by a few missed shots - and when he was hitting his arrows he was a monster. His performance against NGA and then in the Grand Final was very consistent and the mercurial nature of the hero meant that alone carried his team through many fights.

TviQ put his name firmly forward as one of the best players in the world after his display at APAC, building on previous outstanding performances.

aKm

aKm was the second best dps player at the tournament, hitscan or flex. At the Overwatch Open he had been forced onto Reaper in almost every fight, whereas here he showed us again that his McCree is a world-beater. Rogue looked at their best when aKm was on McCree, constantly providing damage from mid-range poke and proving that you don’t have to conform to trending compositions if your strengths lie elsewhere. He also delivered great performances on Reaper and to a lesser extent Tracer, occasionally turning into a true carry on hitscan dps for a map.

He was also helped by a rather underwhelming display from competing dps players, a role that did not seem to be an Asian forté. Esca had crazy performances on Mei and easily looked as good as TviQ and Nevix for that hero, as did Seagull, but both failed to deliver on other heroes when their teams were forced to swap off - Esca failing to perform at an elite level on McCree or Reaper and Seagull looking average with his Zarya play on Control.

The other Korean dps players likewise fell off. recry looked mediocre, both compared to ArHaN's reputation as Genji and aKm's talent on McCree. ArHaN, despite the hype, was often seen playing Winston for the team rather than excelling on Genji and couldn’t have the same impact. Leetaejun was a good stable second dps for Lunatic-Hai, but improvement on Roadhog with his hook percentage or the ability to pick up Genji/McCree would have helped them immensely, and he never felt like a star player.

We will have to wait for OGN APEX to see whether this was simply a bad tournament for the Korean dps talents.

Flex:

Miro

Over on flex and tank though, the Koreans looked fantastic. Miro really did look like the best Zarya in the world for most of the tournament, and his Winston was the best in APAC and on a world-beating level too. He stayed alive and fully charged throughout many consecutive teamfights, acting like a third dps for Lunatic-Hai. His powerful, consistent style of Zarya looked stylistically similar to Kryw, and it seemed a shame to switch him off to Winston until he demonstrated how good he was there too.

Dean also played a fabulous Zarya on Control with the two of them sharing the flex/tank role at times, mostly to free Miro up to pound on Winston. On Control in particular Lunatic-Hai seemed to have a great understanding of how to use Zarya and Winston bubbles to mitigate being caught in a Graviton, and often turned them around to end up winning the fight.

Tank:

Dean

Dean was great on Reinhardt the whole tournament. He took a lot of the Nanoboosts as well, since his team disliked running Reaper, and as discussed he played Zarya on Control to a very high level. His Zarya was the second best in the tournament behind his own flex player Miro, and Dean's technical skill on both tanks was very high. His tank had the most impact for his team within the server, frequently finding nice pins and transitioning to his hammer in fights at the right moment.

However, if I’d taken into account the wider emotional or mental game and how the players worked within their team atmosphere, Reinforce would have to take this MVP. He may even have been up there for MVP of the tournament with TviQ. His energy out of the server always spurs Rogue on, feeding their emotions and filling them with confidence. Rogue still play at a great level even when they’re down, as in the EU Final of the Overwatch Open, but when they’re on fire they’re the best team in the world.

Reinforce knew that and appeared to have planned a strategy to keep his troops at maximum morale, instantly shouting and jumping out of his seat after the first map win. Even aKm and winz got involved, shouting and standing up by the end of the match; it was a new level of hype for the team and it carried them through the maps like a wave of energy. They absolutely needed it after the slugfest of Numbani didn’t go their way, but they never allowed themselves to get into a negative attitude as at the OW Open.

Reinforce himself has been playing increasingly well over recent tournaments, but was still occasionally far ahead of his team in an initiation/distraction role on tank. He has a unique style, often throwing himself in to tie the other team up and buy position and space for his team - it’s perhaps an effective one in the wider sense of the teamfights but it certainly doesn’t reflect well onto his play personally, so I couldn’t give him the MVP for his individual play as tank.

Support:

Tobi

Choosing between KnOxXx and Tobi was tough; they looked to be the best hard supports of the tournament but of the two Tobi seemed to have more physical impact. He was difficult to kill in general, able to delay fights with his movement and stay alive behind the bulk of his team. His defensive play of Ryujehong was also great, and the biggest thing to separate him from the other supports, speedboosting his Ana away and keeping him safe with boops. His style was safer than some of the other hard supports, as was Ryujehong’s, but the balance between that and still supporting their team was impressive.

He also had solid Sound Barriers execution. Some of them were in unconventional situations, clearly premeditated, to help other abilities like Esca’s Deadeyes. The Koreans in general got far more use from their Deadeyes, normally turning them into a wipe either by getting two or more kills with the ultimate itself, or by forcing the enemy into bad positions for numerous seconds so the rest of the team could kill them. Tobi played a large part in that, as the McCrees were kept alive with bubbles and Sound Barriers and the Korean teams disengaged rapidly with a speedboost when one was popped onto them in return.

KnOxXx was also very good with a more aggressive style, getting up in opponents’ faces to take attention away once the fights got smaller in size. A perfect example was his awesome play at the end of Gibraltar, where he rushed forward to apply pressure. His Lucio aggression made recry back off and miss everything while TviQ cleaned up on Reaper. KnOxXx also didn’t die very often given his playstyle, had good timing with speedboosts and Sound Barriers, and crucially he calls for his team. He was famous in TF2 for being the most cerebral decision-maker in the game and this may be a similar story in Overwatch. If that’s the case, the calling probably would tip this MVP decision given Rogue’s brilliant teamplay in the final, but I can’t make a judgement call on that from the outside without knowledge of the calling structure.

Ryujehong

Ryujehong played a blinder on Ana all tournament. His positioning was novel and put himself in situations where he could always have an impact and yet remained safe from danger, and he was always rapid at building his ultimate charge. His safe positioning didn’t compromise damage or healing, though he often focused on the latter, and he had far more escapes and solo kills than any other Ana with his use of clever positioning, Biotic Grenades, and Sleep Darts. He was unreal on the hero, and it made it very difficult for opponents to play into Lunatic-Hai; they couldn’t get into the backlines with a dive as the two supports would bait them into bad areas and take the fight, often winning.

His only challenger was uNKOE, who stepped up massively in the Grand Final and may have even been better in that particular series. Ryuhejong had been amazing throughout the tournament, but in the final uNKOE took his style of getting into the thick of it and stepped it up. The buff to the Biotic Grenade definitely helped him, as he was able to dive into close range teamfights and provide large health differences between Rogue and Lunatic-Hai. His charge rate on the Nanoboost was also better than Ryujehong’s in a few maps of the final, as he was able to get in deep without being as punished by the Korean dps and tank players.

Grand Final of the APAC Premier. Image credit: Nate Nanzer

APAC Premier MVPs

This makes my APAC Premier MVP team:

aKm

TviQ

Miro

Dean

Tobi

Ryujehong

Overall MVP of APAC Premier: TviQ

Interestingly, the team is made of four Koreans, despite their statements before the tournament that Western teams were carried by star talents. In APAC the opposite appeared true, the Korean teams carried by star talents on tank/support roles but without the adaptability. Their lack of exposure to a range of strategies seemed to hurt, as they had not been forced to think through counter compositions or styles enough for them to be instant and ready to pull out on the fly. Lunatic-Hai’s teamwork when running the Mei strat was sublime, and they looked to be executing it better than even Misfits, dodging Nano-Blossoms and setting up perfect walls and icedarts with Esca, but they lacked the ability to do that with other compositions.

They also lacked superstar talent in their dps roles, a factor that can often swing pivotal teamfights. Esca wasn’t world-class outside of his Mei and Leetaejun in general was just good, not great. ArHaN seemed wasted a lot of the time, while his partner recry was mediocre on McCree and good on Genji. RLE looked to have moments of brilliance and potential, but his impact was severely limited by his team.

The dps talents for EU were quite a way ahead of their counterparts, whereas the supports barely edged it for Korea with almost nothing in it. The Zarya and Reinhardt play was excellent from Lunatic-Hai in particular, but the tournament came down to strategy and mental fortitude of which Rogue showed spades.

Nonetheless, while China and Japan did not seem ready for the world stage, Korea did. I fully expect the ridiculous Korean dedication and infrastructure to keep them near the top of the world rankings, especially once the KeSPA teams get involved, and Europe will be hard-pressed to hold on.