The joyous cheers from the crowd slowly boil over like a kettle filled with water. Their roars and cheers are quickly cooled as the final moments of the game simmer away. “What an absolute heartbreaker for RunAway! For GC Busan, to sing them their praise, well deserved victory by them. They complete it, they go all the way to seven games.” OGN caster Seth “Achilios” King ends the spectacle verbally shaken.

“They’ve done it here. Remember, GC Busan played the comps that Runway are more famous for, the Genji the Tracer.” Another familiar voice chimes in to fill the silence. Wolf “proxywolf” Schroder captures the entire Grand Final incredibly succinctly.

“They’ve out ‘RunAway-ed’ RunAway.”

OGN’s APEX Season 4 Grand Finals has finally reached its climax in dramatic fashion. The staccato snaps of a sea of cameras quickly enveloped the large but intimate South Korean auditorium. Their respective lens flares revealed still images of emotionally charged fans, quickly exiting their seats. All of the photographs had their own silent story, but most sluggishly faded into a stale black and white saturation. The color palette matched the somber atmosphere that lingered in the air around them. Tears clashed against the sleeves of many of the attendees, saddened by such a nail-biting finish to a close match.

The majority of the crowd was spent, some in a silent disappointment. Others fanatically jumping around, frantically hugging their loved ones. The audience in attendance, as well as the droves of fans watching from home, were given one hell of a show, regardless of their exhausted facial expression. However, there lies a small contingent that had grown over the course of the regular season and the playoffs that would not relent in their unwavering support.

This is the tale of the APEX Season 4 Grand Finals.

Ohana means Family

The final moments of the Grand Final start to melt away as RunAway struggles to maintain control of the payload. The harsh reality slowly sets in. RunAway cling to their own personal mountain just as an unfortunate hiker tightly holds onto a cliffside. Character after character, RunAway throw themselves at the payload just in an attempt to savor the last few seconds of the final game in the hopes that a miracle happens. The payload mere inches away from breaching the gateway lies in mimic of RunAway’s achievements; they’ve come all this way, to stop right at the same gateway that Lunatic-Hai stopped them at during the APEX Season 2 Grand Finals. RunAway in their second Grand Final, during game 7 on Eichenwalde, have lost their grip on the mountain and fallen to GC Busan.

Twice now, RunAway has made it to the Grand Final. Twice now, they’ve failed at the same spot; right outside of the Eichenwalde castle. The gateway on Eichenwalde symbolizes the hurdle that RunAway has not yet overcome. The sweet victory of winning an APEX League and raising the trophy high. This daydream haunts them, but propels them forward without end, like jet fuel for a small wax candle.

* * *

“To me, APEX was a tournament that always provided me with new challenges. I am just so very grateful.”  - Dae-hoon "Runner" Yoon

* * *

“I think time flies too fast. It still feels like yesterday. We’ve started in Season 1 and it’s already Season 4. It’s also the one-year anniversary right?” Dae-hoon "Runner" Yoon recalls the blood, sweat, and tears spent on APEX in a small mini-doc produced by OGN. “I think the second season is what really changed us as a team. Everyone was trying their best as if their life depended on it. We began to realize the struggle of being a professional gamer.” The father figure to many of the RunAway youth was candid and stoic during the mini-doc. Like the ever excited father, Runner is the first to charge into the booth on a hard-fought victory with tears in his eyes.

These are his boys.

Even in the midst of grieving over a heartbreaking loss in the final of APEX, RunAway puts on a strong face and presses on. Their performance at APEX was not up to their standard and they look forward to China’s APAC 2017 to redeem themselves. RunAway will battle against MVP Space for the right to challenge the winner of Miraculous Youngster and Blank Esports. RunAway must maintain the foresight and the hunger to have an opportunity to rematch the team that defeated them in the APEX Grand Final; GC Busan. With reports of having very little time to practice the newest patch, will RunAway be able to adapt in time?

RunAway has the potential to prove many naysayers wrong. This is a team that has gone from elimination to being in the final of two different APEX Finals. This is a team that has gone from practicing online and working with what they have because sponsorships were hard to find. Now, they’ve become something more. RunAway now has the resources to foster the young talents they have on their roster. RunAway is not “just a team” anymore.

They are a family.

Like a Bullet Train

GC Busan has made history, becoming the first team in South Korean esports that has walked down the royal road. A  “royal road” victory comes when a team that, in their first appearance in a tournament, reigns victorious over their peers. It is so rare, that only a handful of players in a myriad of other esports have this moniker. Now, as the newest entry to this prestigious list, GC Busan becomes the first of their kind—the first “team” to ever manage a royal road in a major South Korean esport.

Two hours and forty minutes is an approximation of how long a train would take to travel from Busan, South Korea to Seoul, South Korea. Team GC Busan took this very train for months to compete at OGN’s Overwatch APEX League. Moving at the speed of sound, GC Busan has not slowed down since their induction to the OGN APEX League. After their strong performance in the APEX Season 4 Challengers league, GC Busan roared into the playoffs with a trophy gleaming in the distance. The team overall looked to be all operating with a single mind.

However, there was one man who was the standout player for GC Busan. The catalyst for their offensive success, Joon-Yeong "Profit" Park, has been the anchor for GC Busan since their Challenger League days. This fact remained constant right up until the last moments of the Grand Final. With almost equal time played on Genji and Tracer, Profit’s statistics reflect his in-game performance and he made it look effortless.

Profit’s Tracer play was business as usual, racking up the highest percentage of his team’s kills (PTK) coming in at 34.7% (+36%). As the offensive powerhouse of GC Busan, it should be no surprise that Profit also scored the highest kills per 10 minutes (13.06) and scored the highest amount of first kills (24.2%) in all of Season 4.

With 5 minutes of recorded playtime of Genji throughout the regular season, Profit’s Genji play was untested and relatively unknown.He stood toe-to-toe with arguably the best Genji in the world, Hyo-jong "Haksal" Kim. With this in mind, Profit still managed to score the highest kills per 10 minutes in Season 4 of APEX with approximately 12 (11.69) which was 35% above average.

During the Grand Final, I was treated to a colorful cast of different industry professionals that added their own commentary on the matches. “If GC Busan runs Genji [and] Tracer, I’m going to seriously pop a blood vessel.” Josh “Sideshow” Wilkinson chimed in at the start of the last game. As we approached the lush German forests of Eichenwalde for game seven, the time allotted for preparation for each team started to tick down. Profit maned the Genji and Hooreg piloted Tracer. Not long after the match begins, a long exasperated sigh creeps in from Sideshow’s microphone followed by a blood-curdling screech in pure rage.

This was the team was supposed to fight the dive with their long-range hitscan and Pharah play, not with their dive. GC Busan certainly was known to approach things in an intelligent and thoughtful manner, but was fighting fire with fire going to best the best course of action in the Grand Final? They certainly thought so. A team that played very little Genji and Tracer were slowly taking advantage of a team that was built up as the dive team.

Like a bullet train, it only took GC Busan one hour and forty minutes to beat the train home to Busan. One hour and forty minutes of in-game time played is how long it took for GC Busan to make dreams reality.

The dreamers hoisted their glimmering trophy high on their train home, not as rookies, but as champions.

Onwards and Upwards

In a few short months, the landscape with be forever scarred, and not just within Korean Overwatch Esports. The birth of the long-awaited Overwatch League will have global ramifications. As the last OGN APEX League before the transition into the Overwatch League, this may be the last time we see some of the best players in Overwatch compete in such a prestigious tournament on their home soil. They will all travel across the globe to play in the inaugural season of the Overwatch League.

A new hierarchy will be established as many teams sprint up the mountain hungry at the chance to reach the APEX. But, this was the tale of APEX Season 4 Grand Finals. These storylines from this specific final lay in a stark juxtaposition of one another; the tale of the second heartbreak of a band of brothers and the ultimate ecstasy of victory against the odds.

“Onwards and upwards.” or as they say,

“As a chapter closes, another begins.” We continue on with our tale another day.

Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLG’s of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel.

Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment and OGN.

Statistic provided by Winston’s Lab.