Favorites LW Blue and Meta Athena took the wins against promising CONBOX and BK Stars.
LW Blue did not look good on their very first map of APEX Season 3. On paper, the IEM Gyeonggi winners were the best team in the easiest group in the tournament, potentially with enough power to become the new champions all together. But their very first game, on Nepal against former challengers CONBOX Spirit, left much to be desired.
LW Blue played with Do-Hyeon “Pine” Kim, their new DPS who they acquired from their Red team and who had never played on the premier APEX stage before. It took Pine several games to get accustomed to the high-stakes world of APEX all while running heroes he clearly wasn’t comfortable with, including Genji and Pharah, before LW Blue allowed him back on his signature Widowmaker towards the end of the series.
While Pine’s stellar Widowmaker play certainly redeemed him of his shaky performance on the first maps, it was another LW Blue player who stole the show. The season 2 bronze finalists entered Volskaya Industries tied 1-1 after clinching a win on Numbani and had the Winston of tank player Joong-Hwa “Janus” Song abuse a juicy and previously underutilized gank spot.
Janus camped on the roof just right of the main entrance on Volskaya, waiting for the entire CONBOX Spirit to pass through the arch. When a fight would break, Winston would jump at the backlines, assassinating the supports.
LW Blue ultimately took the series 3-1, freeing the stage for the next match between Meta Athena and BK Stars. Although they missed the royal road in the previous season, Athena were still considered by many to be tournament favorites and it was going to be a classic David vs. Goliath battle between them and BK.
Athena didn’t use any bonkers Mei strats which won them a huge fanbase during season two, but they still managed to win the first two maps and getting on match point on Anubis. This is when Jeong-Woo “Sayaplayer” Ha showed just how far he had come on the hitscan heroes, giving a clinic on Widowmaker headshotting, rivaling that of Pine in the previous series.
Although Meta Athena ended up losing Numbani in the end, their characteristically strong Dorado decided the series in their favor. Athena will now have a two-week break before playing season one champions EnVyUs on May 23.
Speaking of foreign teams, #1 world ranked team Rogue is slated to make their return to APEX on May 12 against Mighty AOD. Rogue finished top eight in the inaugural season of Korea’s premier league and now have a difficult road lined up ahead of them, placed in the group of death with defending champions Lunatic-Hai, and KongDoo Panthera.
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