RadoN’s thousand is a series of articles in which I give my opinions on a topic of my choosing in about a thousand or less words. This one was triggered by MonteCristo and DoA’s live broadcast discussion on the hype that surrounded Afreeca Freecs Red, even after the group draw of the tournament occurred. For it, I retraced Red and Blue’s history trying to figure out where did the -- in my opinion -- unjustified hype come from.

Imagine inspecting the results of a professional Overwatch squad. Earlier in its lifetime said squad gets some good online finishes and draws a decent amount of attention to themselves. However, in their first attempt at LAN they fail to live up to expectations and, in doing so, squander a chance to qualify for their first premier event, whilst a number of lesser or no-name teams succeeded.

Following that, they go on to play in a secondary online league. Initially they perform excellently; outside of a single loss they drop only three maps in ten Bo5 (Best of 5) matches. In the second season of the aforementioned league however, they record barely more wins than losses. Eventually, they qualify for the next premier event in another, but not before losing in a clean sweep to a squad that was the worst in their group and also beat them in the previous qualifier.

Now let's picture another team; initially they have similar results. Not before long, however, they start getting even better online finishes and that is followed by succeeding in the qualifier for the premier event in which the first squad failed.

After that, they perform decently both online and offline against a range of opponents, culminating in a second place in the aforementioned premier event. All the while they start an interesting streak of losing tournaments only to the eventual champion. When the streak is stopped, the squad quickly replaces their two worst individual performers and obvious weak links.

Which of these two would you think public boards visitors rank higher in the context of the scene and deem better?

Well, let me tell you. If you haven't figured it out by yourself already, the first team is Afreeca Freecs Red and the second one is Afreeca Freecs Blue. The latter one has outperformed not only their sister-team, but also expectations, multiple times, while the opposite is true for the former.

Right after a roster change, in which they changed their DPS (and second best player) in the attune-Recry trade, Blue beat NGA Club twice, for a total map score of 4 to 1-- a squad that had swept them 3-0 previously.

In APEX's playoff most fans expected them to fumble to the, at the time, top European squad, Reunited, but they came out on top after a close 3-2. In the Ro4 against BK Stars it was the latter that was favored by most once again, yet Recry and co. took the series easily in 3-1.

Meanwhile, Red, despite often being quoted as a top team and the better of the two, failed to qualify for APEX S1 at the same time when squads like Flash Lux, Mighty Storm, MVP Space and Rhinos Gaming Titan made it through. Note that those are just the names of the teams who haven't showcased any trace of an ability to compete with top teams. Conbox T6 (cur. Spirit) and RunAway are two more names that are nowhere near a top team who outperformed Red in the S1 qualifier; RunAway even did so in a direct head-to-head.

In addition, after finishing top2 in APEX Challengers S1, Red also failed to perform up to expectations in the second season -- losing to not only Meta and LW Red, but also MVP Infinity, Mighty AOD and Rhinos Gaming Wings. The last being a team that is completely irrelevant to the top professional Overwatch scene, outside of not Mano, currently support for AF Blue, being on its roster at the time.

The most recent disappointment from Red came in the APEX S2 qualifier in the form of another loss to RunAway. Admittedly it was with the latter debuting its new roster, but also playing without their leader and team founder (Runner). And while the RunAway's final group stage match is yet to be played, the new roster is well on its way to finish last in their group, just like the previous one. It is certainly possible for RunAway to have a stylistic advantage over Red, but even if that is the case, a top team shouldn't lose consistently to a bottom four finisher.

To put it bluntly, while Red have had a mixed bag of results versus second and third tier opponents, Blue have consistently beaten all, but the elite teams they've faced. Almost all their losses, since qualifying for APEX S1 and recruiting Recry in September, have been to an opponent who is one of the best in the world at the time. The single loss defying that is one to KongDoo Panthera in an online tournament, environment in which EVERMORE and co. have consistently overperformed, compared to their offline play.

Putting results aside and looking at it from the gameplay side of things, there's even less of a reason for the trust in Red's abilities and the lack in Blue's. Strategically both squads are similarly limited, although by different factors, but the latter has displayed more tactical versatility and higher skill level, even with the borderline feeders (at the top pro level) Dayfly and Yesman present. If anything, I would have expected an increasing hype surrounding Blue after they replaced their old support duo, especially when Mano has been praised by other top Korean players.

When I set out retracing the two sister teams' steps -- from their inception under the MiG banner until the start of APEX S2 -- I assumed there was something that has slipped my mind about Red and that's why I don't understand the hype surrounding them and the low expectations from Blue. What the research affirmed for me though is that Blue clearly has not only the more skilled and versatile star players, but also a playstyle that can enable those surrounding them to be as effective as their skillset allows; on top of achieving considerably better results.

Rather than answering my question, this confused me even more. The (APEX S2) group draw put Red in in the company of two elite level squads and one that is very likely to distinguish themselves as such in the near future, compared to Blue's opponents being only one elite level team and one squad with potential. Yet if public forums were to be believed, at the time of the draw, Red was not only the better of the two but also had better chances of advancing through the groups.

In the end we all saw how that turned out, as Red ended their group stage winning zero maps. Is that representative of their level? Absolutely not, considering the seemingly hopeless CONBOX and Flash Lux have both picked a map. Nonetheless, it affirms the conclusion that they're not and hardly could have been mistaken for a top team, let alone a championship contender.

What about Blue, are they an elite level squad? Definitely not! However, their repeated wins over anyone but the elite have earned them the position of a top team in my personal ranking.

I might have not figured out why was there so much hype around Red to begin with, but in at least I came to the conclusion that I was right. And really, at the end of the day, is there something more important than that?

Photo credits: OGN.

About the author: Hello readers! I go by the ID RadoN and probably similarly to many of you, I’ve been playing video games for years. My introduction to esports happened in 2009 and ever since, I’ve been following different titles within the industry. Other games I currently follow are CS:GO, LoL, QL with the occasional SFV and DOTA2. If you wish to provide feedback, support and follow future content, or simply know more about my thoughts on gaming and esports, follow me at @RadoNonfire on twitter.