2 great seasons of Apex are behind us but their presence is very much felt with this seasons final 4 teams. We have 2 previous winners and a runner up among the final 4, all battling each other for the right to meet in Busan. While the quarter finals ended up being slightly lackluster, we were still privileged to some great action and now we have the top 4 teams ready to go head to head.
After a month of intense competition, 8 teams have separated themselves from the pack. These teams now face off in a double elimination quarter final series, fighting for a chance to be the champion of Apex Season 3. During the first round of 16, we were privileged to a lot of action both on and off screen as well as an interesting evolving meta that has made the current competition season very exciting. Not to mention a lot of smack talk, teams disbanding, players leaving and big teams being eliminated. If the round of 16 is anything to go by, the quarters are going to be intense!
Last week I was lucky enough to finally attend my first Apex game live at the OGN e-Stadium. I was even more lucky because that night Lunatic Hai was playing and tickets are generally sold out to those games courtesy of Lunatic Hai’s raging fan girls.
Located in Digital Media City, in the western part of Seoul, the OGN e-Stadium sits on the top couple of floors of the S-Plex center and is really set up nicely. Seating for a few hundred people on the main level and more seating on the top floor gallery gives spectators a great view of the massive main screen set up above the stage. Player booths are set to either side and fans can easily see each team and snap pictures of them through the glass. The lights and set all work nicely as a center piece of this simple yet impressive stadium.
Continue reading “OGN’s SPLEX is an Awesome Esports Stadium”
New video up, this week I talk about my new home set up and my current plans for video streaming and the reasons behind it. Also a bit about how I am focusing on esports these days and writing about Apex and Overwatch. Things are coming together nicely
The first week of games have finished in OGNs 3rd Apex season and already we are seeing some big differences from the first 2 seasons. New rule adjustments and a change in the meta has seen a shift in the premier Overwatch competition. While the format remains mostly the same, the adjustments to the rules have helped even things out and provided some exciting new options for teams. The newer patch with the 1 tick capture (tie breakers) for assault maps has come into play (even if it was a day late). The patch also features the Lucio changes and Orisa is now available to play. Also the map pool has been expanded, meaning all maps are now available for selection in each map type, removing any map selection advantages some teams were able to enjoy in season 2. Read on to see some more takeaways from the early games.
Most sports fans are use to the preseason madness of big announcements and player controversies, most of which are usually forgotten once the first whistle blows. It seems Esports and OGN’s 3rd Apex season will be following suit. With an emerging match fixing scandal, players being ‘forced’ to step down because of fan outrage and the chance that esports is set to be a medal event at the 2022 Asia Games, this season is going to be anything but dull. And the icing on the cake, 3 more Overwatch maps will be coming this year, oh happy day!
Continue reading “Big announcements and controversies ahead of the Apex Season 3 opener”
Super Week is finally over and after 4 days of competition we have our 6 teams moving on to Apex Season 3. The format this time round was different than normal due to the need to promote 6 teams rather than the usual 4. This gave us a more lengthy series than you would normally expect. 2 groups of 4 teams would battle it out with the top 2 teams in each group advancing after a double elimination tournament. The bottom 2 teams from each group would merge into a single group and again play a double elimination tournament to select another 2 teams with the 2 losing teams heading down/back to the Challengers series.
The second season final was always going to be a blockbuster and having 2 teams with so much on the line coming in made it even more meaningful. In the pink corner you have Runaway, the amateur underdogs, faced with relegation at the start of the season living out their Cinderella story making it all the way to the finals. In the blue corner you have Lunatic Hai, one of the best professional Overwatch teams around, boasting an impressive line up of players but lacking the one thing needed to properly cement them as a top team, a big tournament win. Lunatic Hai also lost to Runaway 2–3 during the first round of the play-offs. Revenge was definitely on their mind.
In episode 6 of our podcast it’s the Day After Tomorrow. Donald Trump is now the president of the United States, but the show must go on! Today’s episode we recap on Blizzon, get deep into GStar (The E3 of Korea) and what Korea needs to do in order to resuscitate its suffocating gaming industry.
https://soundcloud.com/gangnam-gamers/ep-6-esports-elections
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_qWZ6LoFas
Welcome Jodi to the podcast and talking about President Trump
3:30 Blizzard and Blizzcon.
6:00 eSports at Blizzcon and Sth Koreas Domination
9:00 Why Koreans are so good – breaking moves down, practicing and the support of the country
13:30 How video game and geek/nerd culture has become the new cool
17:10 Is esports a sport or something else?
18:45 Psychology will be the game changer for esports teams?
21:10 Overwatch league and Africa missing out on Esports developments
24:40 Gstar preview and Sth korea game industry in jeopardy
27:50 How can Korea turn things around now that they no longer have the technical advantage
32:00 Korea operating in an uncomfortable middle ground and what does Korea need to work on? Korea should adopt the Free to Win model (we talk about how this model works)
37:40 Western games have stories and endings etc, Korean games are missing story
42:00 Games to look out for heading into G-Star
Check out our 3rd podcast installment as we talk Open World games
https://soundcloud.com/gangnam-gamers/ep-3-its-a-wonderful-open-world
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLCxbRTdPB4&t=13s
Podcast 3 Contents:
0:00 Jason joins us for his first podcast and we talk about the Red Dead 2 announcement
6:20 How we feel about open world games in general
8:40 Rick and Morty shout out and Open World VR and how Open World has changed popular franchises
12:00 Black Flag Shout Out
13:30 Types of things that could be turned into Open World Games
15:20 Defenders open world game would be awesome (Heroes for hire)
Also Stargate or Quantum Leap?
19:00 Is PoGo an open world game? Is AR open world?
21:00 Ramifications for your actions in open world games
22:40 Shadows of Mordor remembers you
24:00 Why is it a gimmick when it should be an obvious inclusion and organic to open world gaming
27:40 AI programmed into NPCs
28:16 Next COD due to drop Nov 2017 maybe set in Vietnam?!
32:30 Sudden Attack 2 flops… Horribly
37:30 Could the Sudden Attack Fail spell the end of Pc games from Korean companies (and how a PC Bang works)
40:30 Stories missing from Korean games
Note: Overwatch – was meant to say there isn’t a story mode for Overwatch
46:00 Samsung has a cry
49:00 Halloween is coming
53:30 Seoul Comic World Shout out
akadjblaze 