South Korea has won the Overwatch World Cup 2018 after demolishing China in a 4-0 victory.
The Korean team looked confident as they sat down to play the World Cup final against their Chinese opponents. The squad had held the title of World Cup champions for two consecutive years and they were prepared to make this their third.
Game one began on Ilios. Korea proved themselves the dominant force as they wiped the floor with China and took both control points with ease. Jae-hyeok “Carpe” Lee was Korea’s powerhouse throughout the game as his McCree quickly picked off opponents while avoiding Xu “Guxue” Qiulin’s Winston dive.
The match moved onto King’s Row for game two. China began to recover as they efficiently defended the payload thanks to excellent Doomfist play from Huang “Leave” Xin. But Korea quickly adapted, shutting Leave down. Korea swiftly delivered the payload to its destination and the game moved into its second half.
China managed to quickly secure the payload after Cai “Krystal” Shilong’s Genji cut through the enemy team. The Chinese squad couldn’t maintain this momentum and was unable to break through Korea’s defense. The game ended before China could reach the second point and Korea took game two.
The next game found the teams squaring off on Temple of Anubis. The first half of game three was dominated by an aggressive push by Korea that secured them the two points after only two and a half minutes. China attempted to recover but failed to take a single tick on point B.
China understood something needed to change in order to turn the tides. The group decided to swap out He “Sky” Junjian for Zheng “Shy” Yangjie before heading into game four on Gibraltar, and the team began to see positive changes. China escorted the payload to the final point with more than a minute left while the Koreans were forced into overtime.
The game moved into its second half and for a brief moment it seemed as though China might take game four. Triumph quickly turned to tragedy as China was forced off of the payload with only 0.06 meters to go. The Chinese were unable to secure the payload for the remainder of the match and lost game four as well as the final.
South Korea continued their reign as World Cup champions for a third consecutive year. Support player Bang “JJoNak” Sung-hyeon said afterward that it would take a lot to seize the title from them.
“Without cheating, you can’t win,” JJoNak said.
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