Postbellum: Hwaiting
I ain’t even mad. I have every right to be upset, but I can’t be.
When we arrived in South Korea, we set out a goal to be the best we could be, and my god did we try. I couldn’t realistically ask for more from any player in my team after our practice and performance these past 5 or 6 weeks, because every day in practice, every moment outside of practice, and in the games themselves, we played our hearts out. There’s a lot of quotes out there saying how you haven’t lost until you’ve given up, and we never gave up for a moment during our stay here.
Arrival
When we arrived in Korea, we were an unorganized mess, tainted by the poor practice in Europe where essentially Ninjas in Pyjamas were the only opponents comparable to the Korean standards, in a time where Overwatch teams weren’t practicing due to holiday spirits. We came here not over-confident, but intrigued how we’d grow with the challenge at hand.
We were placed in the group of death, facing LW Blue, without a doubt the best team in the world, just a few days after our arrival in Korea. It was unrealistic to expect a win right out the bat, and so we just took the experimental cocktails of “our strategies that worked the best vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas” and put all our eggs in one basket. We were so frustratingly close to snag a win on the initial Ilios map, and we won Hollywood, versus the best team in the world. We weren’t heart-broken, we took what we had learnt from the series, and in positive spirits, looked forward to our upcoming matches.
Limbo
Next up were Lunatic-Hai, actually it was Afreeca Freecs Red, but not to be poorly mannered, the reality was that we would never go through, unless we defeated Lunatic-Hai in the end, and we knew they were exceptional. To be honest had they played with LEETAJUN and dean, both of whom later on got banned from competing following their drama story, I would have probably been even more hopeful of a Misfits victory, but instead we were now forced to prepare for a ruthless diving machine.
After the LW Blue match we upped our practice even more since our arrival, and personally even more so. Janus of LW Blue, is probably the best Reinhardt in the world as of APEX Season 2. Last season I spoke highly of Panker, and Panker is still a beast, but Janus. Damn. Every time I played versus Janus it felt like he read my mind, he KNEW when I was going to earthshatter, it was ridiculous, and at the same time he earthshattered when I expected it the least, or couldn’t do anything about it due to positioning or simply the power of a Reinhardt with ultimate advantage.
I had dropped off severely after the tank meta was released during the last season of APEX. Internal issues in Rogue had caused my Swedish fear of confrontation to lead me down a spiral of lack in self-confidence. The tank player of the best team in the world was now scared of getting hooked by a Roadhog, scared of making the wrong charge, and scared of earthshattering shields. Scared of getting called out for rightfully so, bad performance.
I came home from Korea following last season and I’d jump into pro player PUG’s feeling like I had to perform, after all I was Reinforce of Rogue? I was one of the most successful Overwatch players to date? I NEEDED to perform.
I ended up getting run over by no-namer Reinhardt’s, because I just stood still, passively, thinking twice too many times. It was a really difficult time for me, having mentally dug myself a hole so deep of which I didn’t feel I could get out of.
After my poor performance vs. LW Blue, I started grinding. Hard.
Our practice for the next couple of weeks started at 1 PM, and we went on until midnight most of the time, alternating the last two hours with either scrims or VODs from practice, going through our mistakes, errors, and educating ourselves how to react versus what and when, but even then I realized I would never get on par with the best Reinhardt’s in the world just going through the motions.
After our team practice I’d continue reviewing personal VOD’s I had recorded from my practice vs. great Reinhardt’s, take notes and read them prior to the next day of scrims to ensure every practice had a purpose. Watching VODs, especially personal VODs, is not for everyone, but far too many players don’t think about what they’re actually practicing.
I’d sit up until 2–3 AM, watch my own recordings or team recordings and take notes for what we and I could improve, encouraging discussions internally about things that would never ever get talked about and solved unless brought up, and ensuring we didn’t repeat the same errors we had done prior. Ensuring we always kept moving forward.
Alarm at 11 AM, hit the gym, practice again at 1 PM.
Repeat.
The practice paid off.
No longer was Panker a Reinhardt I feared going up against, I jousted with him in scrims like I knew he had something to lose, I was reinvigorated, and played some of the best Overwatch I’ve played in my damn life. No Reinhardt was too scary or too much of a challenge for me anymore, my teammates in Misfits had supported me since our inception, and it now felt like they could trust me in my decisions. What a great feeling.
We started choosing preferred practice opponents based on their playstyle and compositions, we had to go all-in on defeating dive composition teams, but there is no team in Korea like Lunatic-Hai. How do you practice vs. something you can’t practice against? A lot of theory was put in place, and assumptions regarding what was coming for us. Typical, but AF Red was probably the most similar team in regards to Lunatic-Hai’s playstyle, but even then we couldn’t even practice AF Red because we were about to play them, and after our match they were done anyway, and so they went on vacation when we had to prepare for our group decider.
Runaway were another good shout for good practice versus Lunatic’s dive, but they don’t have a Zunba, a Ryujehong, or a Miro, and so we were stuck in limbo, not being able to practice for the godly team we were about to face, in Lunatic-Hai.
We ended up defeating AF Red relatively easy. We knew we were onto something good.
Doomsday
Honestly, going up against Lunatic-Hai I was hopeful. Going into it I 100% believed we could win 3–0 if we had a good performance and a bit of luck was on our side. We had fantastic results in scrims leading up to the match itself, but then again those scrims were against teams who weren’t Lunatic-Hai. It didn’t matter at this point if we were trading maps with both KongDoo teams in scrims, or took on other teams advancing in OGN like they were no big deal.
We had to defeat Lunatic-Hai. We knew they were good, but based on yesterday’s result, they were extraordinary, and most of all, unique.
We didn’t play impeccable, it’s LAN where things don’t always turn out the way they’re supposed to, discipline gets lost in communication, and tunnel-visioning is more prevalent than awareness. But it’s hard to not be kicking ourselves, knowing we could have continued to rise with the challenge, and with just a few things going our way in-game (as well as outside the game, i.e group drawings), could have gone on to make the West a lot more proud, and silence those who already believe Westerners have lost the race to the Koreans.
Now we’re out. In this day and age of the Overwatch scene, OGN was everything, and now we’re left with emptiness. Pushed aside.
One thing is for certain though, and it’s that this wasn’t the last you’ve seen of this squad of Misfits. No matter what way the Reddit users are circle-jerking, regardless of how many times Twitch chat spam their emotes in unity, or a smart-ass has taken uneducated facts and presented them wrongfully. Every member on this roster know themselves that we possess the talent, work-ethic and motivation to be among the best, if not the best.
“Every Champion was once a contender that refused to give up.”
