Overwatch World Cup Groups G and H, Day 1- Israel Being an Unexpectedly Tough Contestant

Seong Mo "Daram" Jeong, Junseok “Tonny” Bae

Aug 11, 2017

In the morning of August 11 (PDT), the Overwatch World Cup Group Stages for Groups G and H, Day 1 had begun. Among all the high-tier teams showing off their capabilities in the Day 1 tournament, Israel proved themselves quite an unexpectedly tough contestant.

The USA in the 1st match cornered New Zealand fiercely. The match was done in Hollywood, Nepal, Horizon Lunar Colony, and Route 66. Except in the Horizon Lunar Colony, the team managed to win against New Zealand by 4-0 without losing a single score.

Chinese Taipei with all players from a sole team called Flash Wolves, showed a couple of moments sharing their attack and defense with Brazil in the match, but they eventually managed to claim the victory by 4-0. The first battleground was King’s Row, and both teams succeeded the attack. Chinese Taipei managed to win in the overtime by 5-3.

The following match was held in Lijiang Tower. Although the team went back and forth a couple of times, Chinese Taipei won by 2-0, and they showed even more solid performances in Volskaya Industries and Dorado, and dominated Brazil as a result.

▲ The USA showed impeccable performances including sinatraa’s Zarya

The UK and Belgium from the Group H collided in the 3rd match. Although the UK found the 1st set in Numbani somewhat difficult as they only managed to score 3-2 against Belgium, they soon became quite stable by winning against Belgium by 2-0 in Ilios in the next set. Kruse’s Soldier: 76 and Genji showed the notable performance in particular. The UK also claimed their wins in the following sets held in Horizon Lunar Colony and Route 66, claiming the complete victory by 4-0 and they became No. 1 in the Group H.

The last match between Germany and Israel showed the most interesting and unexpected performance, despite the expectation that Germany would easily dominate the game. In the 1st set, Germany managed to win after intense battles by 2-2 in Numbani, but Israel turned the tide and made 2-0 against Germany in the following set in Lijiang Tower, making the general score of 1-1.

They tautly faced each other again in the 3rd set. After the score of 2-2 and an overtime in Horizon Lunar Colony, they still couldn’t come out with the winner of the set and had to eventually draw the set. The Route 66 was where the game was decided. Germany finally showed their capability as a high-tier team and managed to score 3-0 against Israel, claiming the victory by 3-2 in the end.