The Koreans also surpassed EnVyUs in the rankings.
Lunatic-Hai vs. Meta Athena has been one of the most hyped APEX matches ever since EnVy’s championship run last season. Rich in storylines, the semi-final would either push Athena closer to the royal road dream, or give Lunatic-Hai, runner-ups from two major championships already, the chance to contest a gold for the third time.
The two teams also played vastly different styles, with Meta Athena being quirky, creative and cerebral and Lunatic-Hai being the embodiment of perfect aggression and smart ult management. One of them was going to play RunAway in the APEX grand finals.
RELATED: The cerebral warfare of Meta Athena
Absolutely overwhelming, Lunatic-Hai stormed through Meta Athena on both Nepal and Eichenwalde, the latter being one of Athena’s favorite hybrids. On Eichenwalde defense, Athena went for a Sombra pick, similar to their Sombra/Reaper composition vs. Afreeca Blue in the round of eight. A few positional mistakes and unconvincing Winston and Roadhog play cost Athena the point, however, and even despite some struggles along the cobbled streets, Lunatic completed the three-point attack to beat Meta’s own push.
Hanamura and Dorado were the maps which saw the return of the familiar Meta Athena. Athena achieved a blistering two-point capture and held Lunatic-Hai on Point B to get on the scoreboard and used a very creative Mei wall boost—a signature move of theirs—to surprise LH on the streets of Dorado. Clutch defense against LH’s own attack at the last inches of the payload push equalized the score.
On Hollywood was the fate of this semi-final decided. Athena struggled to complete two points after a shaky Point A attack and even shakier streets phase, which gave Lunatic-Hai quite the advantage. Round two of Hollywood saw Jeong-Woo “Sayaplayer” Ha drop dead immediately, making it an easy capture from LH and from there—an easy victory for the IEM Gyeonggi silver medalists.
Having ended the Royal Road dreams for Meta Athena as well as their 21-match win-streak, Lunatic-Hai will now face the massively improve RunAway in the APEX finals. The pink jerseys have come a long way since their relegation days and have made strong arguments for the championship title between the Reinhardt threat of Sang-Hoon “KAISER” Ryu, the shotcalling of Dae-Hoon “Runner” Yoon and the DPS talent of Hyo-Jon “Haksal” Kim.
The finals are in a week and a half on April 8, but more APEX action will be broadcast just this Friday, March 1, as Meta Athena and LW Blue contest the bronze.
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