EnVyUs: The Great White Ninja Does Not Disappoint
The North American powerhouse secures their path to their third consecutive Apex quarter finals.
After securing their second 3–0 sweep against BK Stars yesterday, EnVyUs seems to be making their presence known in the Korean scene. The diverse team, mainly European in construct, came into the match after a flawless victory against Rhinos Gaming Wings last week, and were looking in excellent condition to rapidly devour another mid-tier Korean team.
With BK Stars’s “Bunny” going out of his way to describe this match as “revenge” and a highly anticipated duel between two of the best Tracer players on the planet — not to mention plenty of goodnatured-but-savage trash talking — the pre-match hype ran high.
Unfortunately, only EnVyUs showed up, and the match ended up being a fast, one-sided series. BK Stars started off the match with great momentum winning the first point of Oasis, only to disappoint fans throughout the rest of the series. Effect, the star Tracer player for EnVyUs and a recent addition, as well as the only native Korean on the team, started off slow but eventually crushed Rabbit in the duel of god-tier Tracers.
The match also saw a lot of the Sombra combos that have become popular recently, especially the Sombra + Reaper combo. An EMP to lower defenses and Death Blossom’s massive AoE DPS combine to wipe teams on assault-style maps, especially in the closing seconds where the teams converge for the final push. Generally speaking, a lot more Sombras have been seen in Apex matches, used not only as EMP but also for her ability to set up devestating combos.
Just like that, western fans have a rising hope that EnVyUs will drive deeper than their previous trials. EnVyUs ended Season 2 with a quarter final elimination after struggling to acclimate to a meta that included aggressive three DPS play-styles developed to combat EnVyUs’ tri-tank line-ups, which was an offseason focus of improvement for Korean teams. Presently, EnVyUs is tied with LW Blue as the preeminent performing team in the league, while Afreeca Freecs Blue have garnered some support in the Overwatch community to beat EnVyUs and take their place at the top along with LW Blue. LW Blue recently reached the prized top seed in Group C, destroying Flash Lux 3–0, sending their former rivals back to the loser’s bracket on the same day.
What does this mean for the rest of the Apex Group Stage?
Four more matches remain in the Round of 16, and only a few questions are left unanswered in regards to group standings. Lunatic-Hai is the comfortable leader in Group A and will most likely be joined by KongDoo Pathera. However, Mighty AOD still have a decent chance, they need a sweep over KDP to overcome the deficit in points.
Group B is all but decided, with Afreeca Blue and X6 Gaming having secured their place in the quarter finals already. In Group C, MVP Space and Conbox Spirit are left dueling for runner-up positions behind the leaders, LW Blue. While in Group D Meta Athena will need to win just one additional map against RG Wings to advance to the next round.
