Lunatic-Hai defeats RunAway to claim APEX Season 2 championship
In a tightly matched best of seven, Korean teams Lunatic-Hai and RunAway faced off in the OGN APEX Season 2 final on Saturday. Lunatic-Hai overtook RunAway 4–3 after the first sets of the match seemed to be a landslide favoring RunAway.
Heading into the seventh set 3–3, RunAway opened on defense of Eichenwalde. Their Point A defense crumbled on Lunatic-Hai’s second push, leading to a complete push of the map. In order to win the final, RunAway would have needed to complete the map as well and then complete more checkpoints than Lunatic-Hai in the third and fourth rounds. However, RunAway only completed Point A of Eichenwalde on attack, pushing the payload a measly 115m.
By the fourth set, the score was 3–1, favoring RunAway who had won on Oasis, Hollywood, and Route 66, only losing out Volskaya Industries to Lunatic-Hai. The final seemed to be destined for RunAway, but the next 3 sets proved otherwise.
Losing Hanamura 2–1 and then failing to complete the first checkpoint on Dorado against Lunatic-Hai’s defense, RunAway’s chances of a comeback seemed bleak heading into the final set on Eichenwalde, bringing to a halt all the momentum they had behind them in the first four maps.
Throughout the final, Lee “Whoru” Seung Joon of Lunatic-Hai dominated as Genji, constantly killing healers and other key targets to keep RunAway on the backfoot. Ryu Je Hong fo Lunatic-Hai, already famous for his Ana play, made a team-saving play with her, using her sleep dart on a Nano-boosted Genji, essentially canceling out both the enemy team’s Ana ultimate and the Genji’s “Dragon Blade” ultimate.
RunAway, which Kotaku describes as a “Cinderella story team with no organization” faced a monolith of a team in Lunatic-Hai, who were nearly undefeated in the group stage of APEX, losing only to RunAway. The final carried the air of underdogs, David and Goliath, and revenge.
APEX season 2 carries a ₩234,000,000 prize pool (over $250,000 US). For first place, Lunatic-Hai took home ₩105,000,000. Additionally, Whoru was named MVP of the finals by OGN and awarded ₩2,000,000 ($1,760 US), and Ryujehong was voted MVP by viewers and awarded the same amount. RunAway took home ₩44,200,000 for second place (roughly $38,844 US).
During the awards ceremony, members of Lunatic-Hai came to tears as they held bouquets of flowers and the APEX season 2 trophy. When asked by Korean caster Eun Jung Cho who the best Genji in the world was, Lee proclaimed “WHORU!” to applause.
