Who won the Overwatch World Cup?

Russia. South Korea. Who would bring the title of world cup champions back to their country?

South Korea came into the Overwatch World Cup as the overwhelming favorites. They coasted through group, quarterfinal, and semifinal matches easily, undefeated. Would they continue the dominance, proving that South Korea is still the gaming capital of the world?

Russia’s appearance in the finals was surprising. They had to wade through some difficult opponents to get there, most recently Finland. They were the obvious underdogs, and everyone knew it, including Russia themselves. Would they be able to pull off the stunning upset?

Regular matches in the tournament were best of three. The grand finals were best of seven. Russia and South Korea started on Temple of Anubis.

First on attack, South Korea was able to take the first point in their first charge, despite two of their team succumbing to early deaths. This meant South Korea was able to start their assault on the second point with plenty of time on their side.

However, Russia then came alive on defense. Unlike in previous matches, they did not overcommit on ultimate usage, allowing them to always be prepared for the next assault with ultimates still in the bank. Russia’s Unfixed on Mei proved extremely effective countering several South Korea attacks.

Footage courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

Russia was able to whittle down South Korea’s time to less than two minutes. However, South Korea’s Arhan made a switch to Reaper and Russia proved utterly unable to handle that change.

Footage courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

After that, South Korea found their true rhythm. On defense, they contained Russia completely. They killed Russian players before they were able to use ultimates, and put down Shadowburn before his Genji was able to do any true damage. Russia was unable to take even the first point on Temple of Anubis.

On King’s Row, the second map, Russia attacked first. After a couple rebuffed advances, Russia pushed in and looked like they were on their way to taking the first objective. In most situations like this, the defending team would concede the first point in order to set up their defense at a strategic point along the payload route. But South Korea had other plans.

With Russia a millimeter away from taking the third tick on the point, South Korea picked off Shadowburn, who had pushed ahead, and rushed into point A. With the numbers in South Korea’s favor, Russia was pushed out of the point and would be unable to take the point again. South Korea continued to flex their muscles against Russia on attack, and were easily able to break down the Russian defense to capture point A.

With South Korea up 2-0, El Dorado was up next. Russia on attack was able to win a few engagements, but struggled to keep a man always on the payload. This caused the payload to slip back, forcing Russia to spend precious time regaining ground. And as they always do, South Korea came back with an excellent show of strength starting with Esca on McCree.

Footage courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

Russia was unable to push the payload fully past the first corner. Because of South Korea’s fantastic hold on defense, they did not have to push the payload far on offense and were able to take the third match easily.

Would South Korea be able to sweep Russia completely? That question became extremely real going into the fourth map of the match. On the control point map Lijiang, Russia would be able to get their foot in the door and some percentage up on the board. But South Korea would always come back to swat them away.

With South Korea one control point away from winning it all, Arhan made sure to seize the opportunity to show everyone exactly what he was capable of.

Footage courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

South Korea took the final point 100 percent to nothing. And with that, South Korea won the Overwatch World Cup without dropping a single match.

The end of the Overwatch World Cup does not mean it is the end of competitive Overwatch play. Blizzard’s Overwatch League is slated to start next year. If the Overwatch League can promise moments and players as fantastic as the ones we have seen in the course of this tournament, it will be a sport worthy of the anticipation.