In this issue of Scouting Ahead, we have the storylines that surround two semifinalists for the most prestigious Overwatch tournament to date. 2016 was a pivotal year for Overwatch as an esports, but more importantly, it ended in the culmination of APEX Season 1, where Team EnVyUs performed above expectations and took home the gold.

KongDoo Panthera, on the other hand, has been a staple since the inaugural season of the APEX League. Riding on the potential success of a new roster, Panthera started Season 3 with a big question mark, but they find themselves reinvigorated, rejuvenated, and reignited as semifinalists. That being said, let’s jump into some of the storylines that are the most prominent.

As the only foreign team to go to Seoul, South Korea and defeat them on their home turf, Team EnVyUs looks primed and ready to sprint straight to the Grand Finals. Yet, the question remains: can EnVyUs repeat the impossible and win another OGN APEX title?

Luckily enough, Taimou managed to snatch up the first round pick. As he stood and mulled over who he would pick, Taimou finally settled on X6-Gaming stating that “I think X6 is the easiest from all of them. I think CONBOX is more of a ‘wildcard’ team because they play really random stuff. They are really hard to strategize against. But against X6 we know they are a full dive team and we are the best against dive.”

As the Group A started to fill out, they did not show it, but EnVyUs had to have been grinning to themselves. Afreeca seeded themselves in Group A and chose Meta Athena as their first round opponents. EnVyUs had dodged KongDoo Panthera and LW Blue, both powerhouse teams who could threaten their run during playoffs. They also skate by last year's champion Lunatic-Hai, who looks to retain their title and defend the homeland. EnVyUs looked poised to not only make it through to the playoff bracket but to take the first Seed in Group A.

After an uncharacteristic loss to X6-Gaming, EnVyUs had to regroup. The western hopefuls took the loss in stride and placed second in their group with relative ease. Meta Athena did not stand a chance and X6-Gaming was quickly dealt with in their rematch.

The next check mark on their hit-list is a colossal one, but nothing that EnVyUs can’t handle. Can Team EnVyUs topple the powerhouse that is KongDoo Panthera and can they capture lightning in a bottle once more? This easily will be their toughest test yet, but Taimou thinks they are set up for success.

As the group drawings were coming to a close, the OGN casters inquired about EnVyUs’s state of mind leading into the second phase of the group stages. They quickly asked about EnVyUs’s newest ace in the hole, EFFECT. Taimou spoke incredibly highly of him, saying “Before EFFECT, we never, ever had a Tracer player, nor a Genji player and now that we actually have that in our arsenal, we have [an] unlimited number of compositions, and it’s a massive improvement from Season 2.”

Within his first rookie season, EFFECT, the self-proclaimed best Tracer in the world, has been someone of the utmost importance to Team EnVyUs. He has been largely in part the vehicle to their success in Season 3 of the OGN’s APEX League. This being his rookie season, can his own personal Cinderella story continue or will it all be in vain? EnVyUs is not the only team with two DPS players that can break a game wide open.

Enter Rascal and birdring.

The harbingers of KongDoomsday, the devil’s favorite demons, and the backbone of Panthera, Rascal, and birdring as a DPS duo have run wild on APEX Season 3. Even with their rocky start in the regular season, they still looked to have amazing potential. To understand the scope of the team and how they got to the semifinals, we have to start at the preseason.

KongDoo as an organization allotted “full reign” to Panthera and seemed to go all-in with them as a team. They searched and scavenged through their sister team to see if anyone was able or willing to make the move up to the main roster. They found and moved Unica’s rising star DPS player, birding, up to the main roster. With the addition of Fissure, Void, and new coach, Kim Jeong-Min, Panthera was set to become one of Korea’s tier one teams.

Speculation followed them into the beginning of the regular season as rumors of poor scrimmage performances started to flow down the grapevine; many people started to question if making such a huge roster change was a good idea. Now, let’s remember Panthera’s sister team, KongDoo Uncia. They not only lost one of their most talented DPS players, but they lost a long time support player, Lucid as well. As Uncia is now hamstrung, Panthera has to succeed at a grand final run. Does a defeat in the round of four spell disaster to both KongDoo teams? Will there be more roster changes? The two aces for Panthera are quite determined to not let that happen.

Rascal and birding have been amazing DPS prospects since the OGN APEX League began back in October of 2016. Both players played on separate teams but under the same umbrella organization. It seemed that the KongDoo company had pulled the trigger on the idea of “KongDoomsday.”

Rascal was a mainstay of the Panthera team. Formerly partnered with EVERMORE, they struggled to find synergy and team cohesion. Where, on the other hand, birdring and Uncia had been doing quite well for themselves placing 4th in Season one. By adding birdring to the Panthera roster, he filled the shoes of former DPS player, wakawaka, as he moved to a more supportive role. With the combined forces of birdring and Rascal, will they be enough to halt a surging Team EnVyUs in their semifinal match?

If we start to look at the figurative “tale of the tape” and start to measure each of these teams with some of the statistics graciously given to us by Winston's Lab, these statistics help paint the picture of where some of the strengths and some of the flaws come into play, but does not show the entire photo. Let’s start on the frontline.

Limiting the stats to just Season 3, we can start to peek under the veil a bit.

Here, we start to see some interesting trends that could be surprising to some people. The tanks differential isn’t that large. Mickie, on average, has slightly higher stats across the board compared to Void on D.a, and Fissure has slightly better stats, on average, than cocco. The largest factor that this statistics and this table cannot show is experience. Team EnVyUs have been champions before—Team EnVyUs have found footing under the spotlight, whereas the Panthera frontline is completely new to the stage. When these two teams clash, which frontline will stand above their peers? Can the tenacious veterans conquer the wiley rookies?

Now let's take a look at the support line for both teams. This is where things start to get interesting, and again, I will preface this with: statistics do not paint the whole picture, but help to show where improvements can be made.

Taking a quick glance at the table, Chipshajen is large in part an amazing support player. When paired back to back with KongDoo’s Ana player, Luffy, we start to see why. Chipshajen spends less time dead, which is an attributing factor when looking at a the kills/10min and the PTK.

Statistically speaking, Chips, on average, is better across the board compared to Luffy. The only question mark when comparing them is in terms of what heroes they can play.

Where Chips spends most of his time on supportive heroes like Zenyatta and Ana, we have seen him dabble with Sombra from time to time with relatively good success, whereas Luffy has broken out the Soldier 76 for a brief time and had some explosive performances; however, we do have to be wary. 17 minutes is not a large enough sample size for Luffy, so take that stat with a grain of salt. You also have to remember what opponents each team played during the second phase of the group stage.

This is where HarryHook comes in. Compared to wakawaka, who was formerly Panthera’s DPS player in Season 1 and Season 2, HarryHook has lapped the new support main in terms of offensive potential but tends to die a bit more, on average. Another factor you cannot ignore is that, compared to wakawaka, HarryHook just has more heroes in his wheelhouse. With these support statistics in mind, this is where the match will hinge on and where EnVyUs finds an edge. Yet, Kongdo Panthera has had a nice break away from the heat of competition as they seeded early in Group B. Has wakawaka sharpened and honed his skill to combat the overwhelming nature of two of Overwatch’s strongest supports, Chipshajen and HarryHook?

One thing is for certain—a rookie will make a grand finals appearance. The only team in the round of four that does not have a rookie on the starting roster is Afreeca Freecs Blue. Gido, Fissure, Void, and EFFECT all have their sights set on the first prize. Imagine the happiness when someone is accepted to join one of these awesome teams. Now imagine the pure joy when that team then goes on to win the entire tournament. One of these players will have a chance at proving that they are green, no more. The have a chance to prove that they are here to stay. This tournament will end up being a watershed moment not only for a handful of players but how teams view the metagame.

Will the chiseled veterans best the plucky rookies? Which freshman player will find success on the grandest stage of them all? Will we crown our first two-time APEX winner, or will KongDoomsday run wild on the competition? These are the storylines leading us into the colossal match between KongDoo Panthera and team EnVyUs.

Line up to place your bets, because their opponent moving into the grand final will be the true test.

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, Team EnVyUs, KongDoo Panthera, and Winstons Lab.