There was a wealth of history between teams and players of Overwatch prior to the Overwatch League. If you have been missing out some of competitive Overwatch’s past, or if you are a seasoned veteran but would like a nice trip down memory lane, look no further. Here is a brief history of competitive Overwatch.


The EnVyUs Fuel and the French Rogue

Did you know that Chipshajen, Cocco, Taimou and Harryhook were the highest earning players in Overwatch before the Overwatch League? If you have been following Overwatch League this season, this may seem odd as the Dallas Fuel did not have the best performance this year and both Chipshajen and Cocco fell off from the starting line up. However, at the beginning of Overwatch competitive history, this was not the case. In fact, EnVyUs was one of the top teams of the professional Overwatch scene. Not only did they beat Lunatic-Hai (Seoul Dynasty) but they were also OGN’s APEX Season 1 champions.

Even though, Talespin, one of the core members of EnVyUs, broke off the team unexpectedly in the middle of APEX, they were still able to complete it and be the first champions of APEX. This was largely due to their emergency back-up that was suddenly given a spot to complete the tournament: Mickie. Mickie was an off-tank for Team Thailand that caught the attention of many people and was given a chance to play for EnVyUs. With his upbeat attitude, and his incredibly D.Va plays, he completely stole the spotlight for the latter half of the tournament. Not only was he able to assist EnVyUs in getting their first trophy, he was fan voted MVP of the season.

However, EnVyUs weren’t the only team that were dominating the Overwatch scene at the beginning. There were no other Western teams in the scene that were as successful as Rogue. Rogue had many players that are currently making high impact plays in Overwatch League right now. Players, such as UnKoe, AKM, TviQ and even the analyst Reinforce (until they decided to go full French by adding players like SoOn) were part of Rogue and they were reigning champions at the time. What was special about Rogue? Rogue was basically innovators of the triple-DPS variant of the dive composition. With Tracer, Genji and Winston going for the dive, while Soldier 76 stuck behind with their support and provided long range firing support for the frontline. While many other teams tried to emulate these different types of dive compositions, Rogue was the most successful. At their prime, Rogue went on a 35-game win streak before they were stopped by Kongdoo Panthera.


The Beginning of Korean Domination

APAC Premier 2016 was the first “international” Overwatch competition where NA, European, and APAC teams were able to compete against each other in LAN. While Korea was able to put up a good fight, it was Rogue that was able to take the first championship against their final opponent Lunatic-Hai to continue the legacy of western dominance in Overwatch.

Then, there was the first Overwatch World Cup and that changed everything.

First Overwatch World Cup really showcased how strong Koreans could be. They were undefeated throughout the whole tournament and even beat Russia 4 – 0 in the Grand Finals. Not only the Koreans played better, but they had better discipline, coordination and good ultimate management. This was largely due to their coach, Tairong (coach of current Houston Outlaws), actually playing with the team as their Lucio shotcaller. They also had Miro who revolutionized the way Winston was played. While most competitive players used Winston as an all-or-nothing method to jump in and distract the enemy teams, Miro used Winston to walk towards the enemy and use jump to disengage when he was in trouble. Miro was also the MVP of the first World Cup. There was Zunba who is still considered one of the best Zarya players in Overwatch. Zunba’s rocket jump into the castle of Eichenwalde to throw in a Graviton Surge for Ryujehong’s Biotic Grenade + Arhan’s Dragon Blade combo was one of the most played Twitch clips in Overwatch history.

However, people were still not convinced that the Koreans were the best. Many people still believed that the Korean World Cup team would not be able to defeat full roster of elites like Misfits, Rogue and EnVyUs. When pros were asked about how they felt about the Korean scene, many still felt that NA and European players were individually better and would continue to be dominant in Overwatch. However, there was a player who predicted that it was only a matter of time until the Koreans will dominate Overwatch: Seagull.

As he stated in an interview, “[i]t’s not necessarily that the top-tier Korean teams are so good that they will dominate the scene what is the most threatening part about Korea is: one, they have more players than in NA and Europe… I went to Korea. Do you know how many teams I scrimmed that were really really good? There’s like 20 to 30. I come to NA there’s like 8 to 10. They like double to triple the amount of teams. Okay, double to triple the amount of teams [that are] same level of talent. How long do you think it will take until each of them has a star player and they all [emerge to] form a really really good team? [We’re] seeing it right now… Let’s talk about LW Red… they had two star DPS players, Pine and Nanohana (Flow3r)… put them on the other team that had really good supports and tanks and now they just rolled Rogue… and that’s the type of thing I’m more concerned about when it comes to Korean teams not necessarily that they’re strong right now, but they have the talent pool and the player base to be very unstoppable in the future.”

You can watch the full interview here.

And this is exactly what happened. Korean superstars that were dispersed in many different teams emerged together to form super teams and the one that would dominate the whole scene was none other than Lunatic-Hai.


The Lunatic Hai Dynasty

APEX Season 2 & 3 was when we started to see the real dominance of Korean teams. In Season 2, all of the NA and EU teams did not even make it out of the group stages with the exception of EnVyUs, who were eliminated in the quarterfinals; and in season 3, only Rogue and EnVyUs were invited and Rogue was eliminated in group stages while EnVyUs were wiped out in semifinals. This was very significant because Rogue was dominating the western scene at the time, and the Koreans teams were able to stop Rogue’s 35 game win-streak. It was clear that the Korean teams were far ahead in Overwatch.

There were many Korean teams that were playing at a high level. These famous teams included Afreeca Freecs Blue (Mano, Arhan) Kongdoo Panthera (London Spitfire), LW Blue (New York Excelsior), Meta Athena (Libero, Sayaplayer and NUS) and Runaway. Out of these competitive teams, Lunatic Hai (Seoul Dynasty) were the Dynasty of APEX. Being the back to back champions in Season 2 and Season 3, people had little doubt they were literally the best team of Overwatch at the time. Of course, it wasn’t easy for the Lunatic Hai. They had some formidable opponents they had to overcome. They were close to losing to both Runaway and Kongdoo Panthera in Season 2 and 3 respectively.  

Not only did they suffer through some of the toughest opponents in Korea, individual players suffered as well. And nobody suffered as much as EscA. EscA was the leader of Lunatic-Hai. He was mostly known for his impeccable aim with hitscan heroes like McCree and Soldier 76 in the first Overwatch World Cup. However, when the meta shifted to a dive-heavy composition meta, he was forced to play Tracer, which he wasn’t very used to yet. He was still an excellent Tracer player, but there were times when he would make small mistakes, and completely whiff his pulse bombs, sticking them on walls where nobody was near it. Naturally, when things went south for Lunatic-Hai, EscA was often the first players to take blame and thus gave birth to “EscA LUL” memes in Twitch chat.

However, team members of Lunatic-Hai saw it differently. As a matter of fact, all members of Lunatic-Hai stated that their strong performance was due to their leader, EscA. Not only was he a charismatic shotcaller, but he was their mental caretaker. Calming them down when they were tilted or when things weren’t going their way. If you have seen Lunatic-Hai at its peak, they are quite different from Seoul Dynasty now. Lunatic-Hai had amazing coordination and aggressive dive formations. They worked like a team and had excellent ultimate management and it is possible that it was EscA that brought the team together. Some even went as far as saying that maybe Seoul Dynasty needs him back because of how different Seoul Dynasty have been without him despite having a superstar like Fleta. Unfortunately for fans of old Lunatic-Hai, EscA seems happy with PUBG as he is, again, one of the stronger players of OGN PUBG equivalent to APEX.

Lunatic-Hai had other notable players from the first Overwatch World Cup. Players such as Ryujehong, Miro, and Zunba were the core members of Lunatic-Hai. They also had Tobi, one of the best Lucio players at the time and WhoRU, a star Genji DPS player (turning 18 this year) that is currently playing for Fusion University. This formidable team has given some pure scenes of excitement with their hyper-aggressive dives and incredible individual plays. The finals in both season 2 and 3 were probably the top 5 best matches in Overwatch history. In Season 2, Lunatic-Hai were completely wiped by Runaway until they completely reversed swept them to become season 2 champions. In season 3, Lunatic-Hai faced off against Kongdoo Panthera which had notable players like Birdring, Rascal, Fissure, and Void. It was an epic 7-map match with 2 draws that were decided in Lijiang Tower. While, Kongdoo showed dominance in control maps, it was Lunatic-Hai who were able to take Escort and Hybrid maps.

Season 3 of APEX Finals probably had the best intro videos of all time.

The Tragic Story of “Runaway”

Under the shadow of the Lunatic-Hai Dynasty was a team was never given a chance to be champions of APEX: Runaway. If you have been paying attention to the competitive scene of Overwatch, you must have heard of Runaway one way or another. They were the crowd favorites because they were consistently the underdogs that made it to the finals both in Season 2 and Season 4. What was so likable about Runaway were its members, especially their shotcaller/owner of the team: Runner. Runner was a famous streamer in Korea until he was sent to serve his mandatory army duties last year. According to TISrobin311, a prominent member of Competitive Overwatch subreddit, Runner started his streaming career with League of Legends before moving onto Overwatch. He was responsible for introducing League of Legends God, ‘Faker’, into the LoL world. In terms of Overwatch, Runner is responsible for introducing players like Miro, Ryujehong and EscA. He is very passionate about eSports, and his keen eye for talent gave many underrated players a chance to show themselves to the world.

It was only a matter of time until his passion would lead to making his own team. His keen sense of finding talent gave him a chance to make a formidable team of his own. His team, consisting of Haksal, Stitch, Kaiser, Bumper, KoX and Runner himself, made it to the finals of season 2 against Lunatic-Hai. This was incredible at the time because most of the members of Runaway were lesser known and Runner was just a streamer. But, fans in Korea and abroad loved Runner and his passion and the team with bright pink sweaters that were good enough to challenge one of the best teams in Overwatch.

Runner can’t hide his excitement.

However, Runaway never had a chance to have their way. Despite their explosive beginning with a 3 – 0 lead with Lunatic-Hai in Season 2, they were completely reverse swept by Lunatic-Hai. They were eliminated in group stages of Season 3 and lost against GC Busan in the finals in Season 4. Despite being an incredibly strong team with one of the biggest fan bases in all of Overwatch, they were never able to take the championships. It wasn’t long until many of the players started to lose hope. Kaiser, Runaway’s main tank, was one of the first players to drop by joining Cloud9 to play alongside players like Surefour and Xepher. Soon, KoX announced his departure, and with Runner going to the army, many believed that this would be the end for Runaway.  

However, Runaway is still very active in the Korean scene. They participated in the first season of Korean Contenders with core players like Stitch, Haksal and Bumper. However, they haven’t shown much success as they were eliminated in the quarterfinals against X-6 Gaming (Season 1 Korean Contenders champions).

The future of Runaway is unclear. The team is looking for a spot in the Overwatch League. Some of its members were individually offered spots in the League (from teams like Houston Outlaws); however, refused spots unless they can go to the League together as a team. Season 2 of Contenders may well be the very last chance for Runaway to get bought up as a team as GMs will be aggressively scouting out players for Season 2 of Overwatch League. Hopefully, with their recent signing of Hooreg from London Spitfire, they will be to finally take the first win in South Korea and be represented in Overwatch League.


The Royal Road to ‘GC Busan’

The current roster for London Spitfire is a combination of Kongdoo Panthera and GC Busan. GC Busan was immediately offered a spot in the team as soon as they took Season 4 championship against Runaway. Even Lunatic-Hai or Kongdoo Panthera weren’t able to challenge them, as they were both 3 – 0’ed and 4 – 0’ed by GC Busan respectively. As a matter of fact, Lunatic-Hai (Seoul Dynasty) were not able to take a map off ‘GC Busan’ until Stage 3 of Overwatch.

It was a massacre. GC Busan was absolutely destroying both Lunatic-Hai and Kongdoo Panthera, and this was in large due to GC Busan changing the way they dove on enemies. GC Busan’s dive relied on Profit being able to melt enemy’s Zenyatta before the D.Va was able to come and help with its Defense Matrix. If that failed, then GC Busan was able to jump on D.Va-less Winston with the Gesture, Woohyal and Hooreg.

If you were watching APEX at this time, this was pretty amazing stuff. Only team that was able to challenge GC Busan was Runaway. Runaway was a team that was prominently known for a scrappy team, meaning that they relied more on their mechanical skills to get kills rather than perfectly executed strategies. While the latter could easily be dissected and countered, the former needed equally strong mechanical skills to beat and Runaway was probably one of the strongest ‘scrappy’ teams at the time. However, GC Busan was able to take the match in Game 7 and being the first team to complete Royal Road. Starting from Challengers and being APEX Season 4 champions.


Second Overwatch World Cup and Cracks in Korea’s Indestructible Armor

While ‘GC Busan’ were showing cracks of the mighty Lunatic-Hai, the Korean Committee for the World Cup had to choose members of the Korean Overwatch World Cup team. The Committee was dedicated in repeating 2016’s success. However, they made a risky decision that could have put their reputation in jeopardy, and it was a decision to drop Miro out of the World Cup.

This came as a surprise because many still considered Miro to be one of the best Winstons at the time. However, the Committee was convinced that Mano (from Afreeca Freecs Blue) was statistically better, and he was also a better Reinhardt. Many Lunatic-Hai fans were obviously very disappointed by the decisions and the committee faced a lot of hate. However, they stayed firm and added as Saebyeolbe and Flow3r as the DPS duo for the same reason.

Despite controversies, Team Korea decided to go ahead with the roster and the second Overwatch World Cup commenced. Not surprisingly, they dominated the group stages. Teams and players that scrimmed with the Korean teams reiterated how frightening it was to play against Korean teams.

However, there were some people who weren’t convinced that Team Korea was as strong as everyone thought they were. Team USA, which consisted mostly of players from Houston Outlaws, believed that they had a chance to beat Team Korea in the quarterfinals.

While, many were skeptical at first, some people started to believe that this could be a possibility. This became even apparent when Team Korea was demolished by Element Mystic that was only merely an APEX Challenger team (tier 2 scene) at the time. With Fearless from Shanghai Dragons leading the charge, Element Mystic gave Team Korea run for their money.

And then, the final matches of Second Overwatch World Cup were played in Blizzcon. The first match would be Team U.S.A. facing off against Team Korea. A match that should have been the finals if it weren’t for the current seeding. And it was nail-bitingly close. Team USA was the first team to take a map in Nepal and then Korea was able to tie it up with a win in Eichenwalde. Probably the best map of the series is when USA and Korea ended with a draw in Hanamura with a score of 4 – 4. Team USA swept through first attack with Jake’s Junkrat absolutely destroying Korea’s defense. However, the best highlight of this match was when Korea responded on their attack with Flow3r’s widow.

This wasn’t the end of Korea’s struggles. They had difficulty beating Team France (Rogue) and also Team Canada (Surefour and xQc). It was as if it was an omen of the beginning of the end of Korean dominance, which became clearly evident in the Overwatch League. It showcased that non-Korean players were equally talented and brilliant. Players such as Klaus, eQo, and AKTM (from Team Japan) got a lot of attention.

Where will history take us next? A lot of Overwatch’s narratives were based on battles between regions, but it is slowly becoming apparent that these types of narratives are slowly becoming irrelevant. Now that both the Korean players and western players are in a same playing field, the best teams of the league right now are a combination of both Korean and western players. Overwatch League, now, is about which team has the better support and coaching staff. Dominance is about which team makes less mistakes and which team can capitalize on opponent’s mistakes.

Or so that’s what some people say…. NYXL is a full Korean team that went 34 – 6 this season and they are clearly above other teams. Will this region-based narrative continue, or will we see a new narrative in the future of competitive Overwatch? We’ll just have to see.

Bonus: Here’s a Gambler-Saebyeolbe Collabo for the Finals of APEX Singing Contest