The YUN SPACE Baoshan Venue in Shanghai was the location for a stunning development in the world of eSports as, in an absolutely shocking turn of events, 1246 were crowned champions of the Overwatch Premier Series for Spring 2017.
1246 had struggled throughout the Group Stage, only securing a 3-6 record and ending up tying for 7th place out of 10 teams.
Meanwhile, LGD Gaming had dominated proceedings as they exited the Group Stage with a 9-0 record. They were followed by FTD Club (7-2), Oh My God (7-2), Lucky Future (5-4), iG.Ice (5-4) and Miraculous Youngster (5-4), who all had winning records. 1246 were joined in the playoffs by Black Ananas, who also had a 3-6 record, but this was still better than that of JHG.Gold (1-8) and the winless Team Celestial (0-9).
Seventh still good enough
With eight teams qualifying for the best-of-five playoffs, 1246 opened up their miraculous run against 2nd seeds FTD Club. After dropping Dorado 3-2, 1246 dominated Oasis 3-0 on the back of the Pharah-Mercy combination. Not consistently seen in the meta game today, the aerial prowess that two flying characters provide is incredibly valuable, with 1246 showing off their potential expertly.
Following this, once again Pharah-Mercy propelled 1246 to a win, this time on Route 66 (3-2). 1246 then showed their hero depth as they did not run Pharah or Mercy in their dominant win on Watchpoint: Gibraltar, giving them an overall 3-1 series win and the only upset of the quarterfinals.
1246 start to roll
The semifinals saw an even more impressive display from 1246 as they defeated third seed OMG in a clean sweep (3-0). Of note in this series was 1246’s ability to use a three DPS composition to success on Volskaya Industries. In general, teams will run a 2-2-2 setup including two healers, DPS and tank characters in order to provide a balanced team composition. However, 1246 were able to deal enough damage in a short amount of time to remove OMG’s backline (healers), giving them the advantage and eventual win.
LGD await in the Finals
This win put 1246 into the best-of-seven Finals against a team that had not dropped a series all tournament long: LGD Gaming.
The first map was Ilios, where once again 1246 utilized the Pharah-Mercy combo to secure victory in a convincing 3-1 fashion.
Then followed Watchpoint: Gibraltar where 1246 were just able to edge out LGD in Overtime (4-3). LGD took an interesting tactical gamble here by using the rarely seen Widowmaker, hoping her long range on such an open map would give them the advantage. However, 1246 stuck to their game plan of running Winston, D.Va, Zenyatta, Lucio, Genji and either Tracer or Soldier, which made for a very consistent and standard composition. That consistency would pay off as the win enabled 1246 to move forward with a two map lead.
The first setback for 1246 occurred when they were dominated on Route 66. 1246 were unable to get anything going on offence as they failed to capture the first point. LGD found little trouble in pushing the cart past the location 1246 had achieved, giving them an incredibly quick victory.
Tank loss turns out to be decisive
Map Four was Temple of Anubis, where each team successfully ran three DPS compositions on offence. However, while 1246 were able to capture the second (last) point with reasonable time remaining, LGD could not. This gave 1246 more time to capture the single point they needed on offence in Overtime to claim the map. 1246 did just that in an incredibly swift fashion, outplaying LGD when neither team had access to an ultimate ability. An early three for one trade (with LGD losing both tanks) was all the edge 1246 needed as they moved to within one map of being crowned champions.
It would, however, not be that easy as LGD closed out two consecutive close maps (3-1 on Dorado and 3-2 on Oasis), levelling the scores at 3-3 and forcing a final map with everything on the line; Volskaya Industries.
Here, both teams captured the two points, giving each of them leftover seconds to use in Overtime in an attempt to capture them again. 1246 had a huge advantage though as they had almost five minutes remaining compared to LGD having less than two. This saw LGD only being able to capture the first point, giving 1246 the edge they needed. Tracer player samsara stepped up in the Overtime period, first isolating Eileen’s Sombra and then taking him out for the early 5v6 advantage. After 1246 had secured the fight they quickly moved to the second point where samsara ended up being untouched as he picked up three critical kills. Those kills, coupled with the following team fight win, were just enough for 1246 as they took the point and with it the championship.
Such runs through the Playoffs do happen of course, but the total turnaround of 1246 from the Group Stage was stunning to see. Ultimately hero depth and the ability to deploy different compositions was the key to success in what remains a quite shocking result.
