The Overwatch World Cup Group Stage isn’t far away from now- this year’s World Cup Group Stage will take place in 4 different regions: China, Australia, Poland, and the U.S. The first round of the Group Stage, where the top 2 teams from Group A and B proceed to the quarterfinals, will take place in Shanghai, China, from July 14th to 16th.

The national teams will compete in round-robin matches during the Group Stage, and they will proceed to the single-elimination playoffs based on their results. The top 2 teams from each group will play in the quarterfinals, and then 4 top teams will compete to proceed to the finals. When this is over, only 2 teams will remain to play on the final stage.

Group A includes China, who is the home team of the Shanghai Qualifier, along with Hong Kong, Norway, and Romania. In Group B is France, Denmark, Thailand, and Argentina. Which 2 out of these teams will make it to Anaheim, where BlizzCon is to take place? That is yet to be known, but perhaps an analysis of these 8 national teams playing in the Shanghai Qualifier will lead you to your own predictions.

■ Group A

▶ China- Top 100 players placed 1st for the average skill rating

China was placed 1st in the world with their top 100 players scoring an average skill rating of 4,550 during the qualification period. Being placed 1st for average skill rating means that their players have excellent capacity, and they are actually one of the teams expected to make it to the playoffs from Group A.

China had a unified team comprised of pro gamers all from iG.Fire play in the Overwatch World Cup 2016; this year, they will have 2 pros from iG.Ice, a brother team to iG.Fire, and 4 pros from LGD Gaming in a team. While they may not be as unified as France’s team, this team is still expected to have some great synergy of their own.

It’s interesting how they don’t have a separate flex player, but instead have 2 for each role: tank, offense, and support. We suspect their composition will have no difficulty making use of the standard 2/2/2 meta or dive meta.

▶ Hong Kong - No support? Will they make it to the playoffs this year?

As for Hong Kong, they are placed 16th for their average skill rating of top 100 players. In last year’s World Cup, Hong Kong was in Group B with Thailand and Japan for the Asia-Pacific Qualifier, but failed to make it to the playoffs, placing last with 2 losses.

Even though Hong Kong is placed 2nd for the average skill rating in Group A, their expectations for making it to the playoffs are rather low due to them not having many popular players. It is notable that they have 2 tank, 2 offense, and 2 flex . However, since they don’t have any support within their team, it seems that Mix and ManGoLongJai will take the support roles.

Mix and Hyper, who played in the national team for last year’s World Cup, will be playing again for this year’s, and notably, Moowe and Pandaren, members of the Overwatch World Cup 2017 Competition Committee, are also on their team.

▶ Norway - Dark horse for Group A, comprised of pro gamers with ONIGOD at the front

Norway was placed 17th in average skill rating, right below Hong Kong. Last year, they successfully made it to the playoffs by being placed 2nd in Group C in the European Qualifier, but were defeated by Russia with 3-0 and were eliminated.

This year, they appointed many pro gamers from the European region. ONIGOD is one of them. He once played for the EU pro team, Reunited, and played in Overwatch APEX Season 2. ONIGOD, Trob, and Invision are pro gamers who played in the Overwatch World Cup 2016, and were again selected for 2017 for their competence.

Since their team is comprised of all pro gamers, it could be said that their strength surpasses that of Hong Kong, the team placed 16th in average skill rating.

▶ Romania- 32nd out of 32 teams in total- desperately needs a change!

Romania has been placed 32nd out of 32 in average skill rating. In last year’s Overwatch World Cup, they were in Group D for the European Qualifier, but failed to make it to the playoffs with 1 win and 3 losses.

Meza, a tank who played for the national team last year as well as this year, is expected to be the key player of the team. Aside from Meza and mL7, the rest of the team aren’t professional gamers. As for Meza and mL7, they are special cases, playing as pro gamers while also being members of the Overwatch Competition Committee.

■ Group B

▶ France- The best team in Group B, and the favorite, ‘Rogue’ itself

France is well-known for being made up of players all from Rogue, a famous Overwatch pro team. They were placed 8th in average skill rating, and 1st in Group B. Even though they are 8th in skill rating, they are often referred to as the team to remain victorious in the Overwatch World Cup, as well as the team favored for 1st place in the Chinese region.

The Overwatch community went abuzz when AlphaCast and DeGuN, who also played in last year’s World cup, were selected for this year’s Competition Committee and decided Rogue will represent France. This made sense, as Rogue was comprised of only French players during the team rebuild. Actually, many players playing for their national teams from other regions also picked France as the candidate most likely to win.

KnOxXx, who is renowned for his Winston and the only player to be re-selected for this year’s national team, will be playing as the main tank for France. Also, their team has aKm, a great DPS famous for his Soldier:76 and McCree plays, SoOn, a Tracer master who has perfect Pulse Bomb control, and other players who are invaluable world players.

▶ Denmark - It will be different from last year! A powerful team comprised of pro gamers.

Denmark was placed 9th in average skill rating and 2nd in Group B. In the Overwatch World Cup 2016, they could not make it to the playoffs for the European Qualifier, but this year, all members of the team are newly appointed for their national team. Krytox, Nerfdd, and Lind, members of the Overwatch World Cup 2017 Competition Committee, will also play.

5 of their team members play for Team Singularity, Denmark’s pro gaming team for Overwatch, and only Fischer plays for Hammers Esports, an NA pro team. Fischer is a flex player who is also well known for his exceptional Genji plays. We look forward to him showing us why Denmark chose to add him to the team rather than make the entire roster from Team Singularity.

Because of this complete new change, many are referring to them as the dark horse of the European region this year. By the way, something trivial- dafran, the star player playing for the NA pro team, Selfless Gaming, is from Denmark, but wasn’t chosen for the national team due to his trolling incident in a previous tournament.

▶ Thailand - The ‘happiest team’, and the dark horse of Group B

Thailand was placed 3rd in Group B by getting 24th place in average skill rating. They made it through the Asia-Pacific Qualifier and to the Group Stage that took place in Anaheim, but unfortunately failed to make it to the quarterfinals, being placed the 3rd in their group.

However, they didn’t falter that easily when playing against China and France, and were regarded as a dark horse in the Asian region. Actually, Group D from the Group Stage had to hold tiebreakers due to Thailand’s extraordinary plays. One thing many noted was that regardless of if they won or lost, the Thailand team was always smiling; this eventually earned them the moniker of ‘happiest team’.

NzNr, Mickie, oPuTo, and KeRLos, who played in the last year’s World Cup, will be playing again this year, so we look forward to seeing the happiest team again! Notably, Mickie has played for EnVyUs and became a star player that brought victory to his team in APEX Season 1. oPuTo also performed excellent Genji plays last year and we can’t wait to see more of his carry potential.

Since NzNr, oPuTo, keRLos, and Teetawat are from MEGA Thunder, a professional Thai gaming team, it could be said that they have advantage in teamwork. Again, their ranking for the average skill rating may be low, but they are a team we should all have our eyes on.

▶ Argentina - On the bottom of Group B, will they survive?

Argentina is at the bottom of Group B by being placed 25th in average skill rating. In the 2016 World Cup, they lost to Chile and were disqualified in the American Qualifier. This year’s Argentina’s team is comprised of pro gamers playing for Hafnet e-Sports, Nocturns Gaming, and Furious Gaming. Only Ddx, a non-professional player, was appointed for support.

Since they are the bottom team for Group B, there aren’t any team characteristics or players that draw much attention. We expect this team will be centered around Battletoad, who was once again appointed as a national player this year, following his appointment last year.

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