Meta Athena fly past Rhino Wings Gaming, secure quarter finals berth
The innovators dodged potential elimination, sweeping their final opponents in the last day of round of 16 play.
It took some tightrope walking but Meta Athena made it past the first group stage of OGN APEX Season 3. Fourth place finishers from the previous season and largely considered to be the most innovative and unpredictable team in South Korea, MA entered their latest match against Rhino Gaming Wings as the clear favorites, but they still had to be careful. A 3-0 loss would’ve sent them packing.
The score did stand at 3-0 at the end of the series, but decisively in Meta Athena’s favor. After struggling to make their triple tank compositions work against EnVyUs in the previous match, MA decided to play the meta for once. With Hye-Sung “Libero” Kim on Genji and supported by Jae-Hoon “Hoon” Choi’s D.Va and Jeong-Woo “Sayaplayer” Ha now finding his footing on Traver, MA faced no resistance from the former challengers to finish right behind EnVyUs in Group D.
Next door, Afreeca Freecs Blue became the third team in APEX history to finish the round of 16 with a flawless 9-0, following Rogue’s Season 1 and KongDoo Panthera’s Season 2 runs. Afreeca had drawn one of the arguably weaker groups in the tournament and their last match saw them blaze through KongDoo Uncia, a team which had suffered palpably from the inner KongDoo shuffle.
APEX Season 3 will now proceed with the quarter finals, played in double elimination groups of four. Western eyes are fixated on EnVyUs who are to take the local teams on their own following the elimination of Rogue. Hopes for the North American organization are high, too, seeing how Hyeon “EFFECT” Kim’s Tracer has been an integral part of team’s success.
EnVyUs have also drawn the seemingly weaker quarter final group of the two. X6-Gaming will be their first opponent, then moving to either the flawless AF Blue or into a rematch against Meta Athena. In Group B, LW Blue, CONBOX Spirit, Lunatic-Hai and KongDoo Panthera have formed another group of death, the competition in which is expected to be fierce.
