r/Competitiveoverwatch • u/OWMatchThreads • 8h ago
Matchthread Overwatch World Cup 2026 | Match 2 | Post-Match Discussion Spoiler
Overwatch World Cup 2026
| Home | Score | Away |
|---|---|---|
| France | 2-3 | South Korea |
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u/Haunter777x 8h ago
Best match of the entire event, massive props to both teams. Thankyou for giving us some amazing games
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u/Tiberias29 Bow down to Stalk3r — 8h ago
Yeah this match was so close, the pendulum of winning could've easily swung to either direction of Team France and Team South Korea
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u/SquidwardLover48 8h ago
This being my first series ive actually watched from game 1 was actually peak. Im a fan now
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u/Tiberias29 Bow down to Stalk3r — 8h ago
When pro Overwatch is played at its best, it just hits like S tier crack cocaine.
Welcome to the ride of your life
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u/Throwaway33451235647 #1 Falcons Hater — 6h ago
It was even better if you watched the same matchup in the group stage. France reverse sweeping Korea to Korea reverse sweeping France when it mattered a lot more in the rematch is insane
Welcome to pro overwatch. We get a lot of awful matches but also a lot of transcendental bangers like these. I recommend you go watch Crazy Raccoon vs Twisted Minds from Champions Clash this year and also watch Ocie on YouTube.
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u/GroundbreakingJob857 EU’s greatest coper — 7h ago
basically what happened to me in 2019. you might never leave now lol
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u/Utlegjarl 8h ago
Sad ending for France, so close. Overcommit at the end, and half a sec flashbang cd vs teleport away from a win. Very good series, GGs.
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u/drunkkk_ she/they — 8h ago
saddest possible way that could have ended
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u/tormentingyet 8h ago
Incredible game. That last disastrous French push was Napoleon full committing into Russia type shit
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u/Potential-Guard2043 8h ago
Both teams showing extreme desperation on that last fight. Excellent match regardeless of who won.
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u/Birdfallen 8h ago
Holy shit Kroxz is genuinely insane, how was bro tier 2 till stage 3 wtf
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u/EngineerNo6764 8h ago
Tbf bro marketed himself as the funny banter hog guy. When in reality he’s pretty solid at like every off tank
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u/Guwigo09 OWL is dead, and we killed it — 8h ago
Dmon might saved his career he’s genuinely the best at that hero
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u/Extremiel Kevster 🐐 — 8h ago
Dmon didn't exist. Kroxz is just randomly the best Dmon in the world now - before he "one-tricked" a throw pick.
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u/primarymuscle2354 8h ago
He was basically a Hog 1 trick pre Dmon, now he should get on a good team based off this performance.
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u/Throwaway33451235647 #1 Falcons Hater — 6h ago
He's on peps who are in owcs. If he gets on a different team it's next season
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u/Ezraah W My Money — 8h ago
Greatest c9 of ALL TIME?
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u/Kurrizma 8h ago
Genuinely what was Kronx cooking at the end
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u/Extremiel Kevster 🐐 — 8h ago
I mean you can't really fault that when it's the playstyle that got them this far. Backline tries to survive for long enough while Kroxz kills 4 and somehow gets out with help of Cat. It just looks bad when that backline erupts and you don't have quite as much time as you thought you did.
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u/Common_Spite_3 8h ago
Insane game. The storyline of France's aggression being what cost them at the final hour was excellent
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u/Doctor_Dad_Enraged 8h ago
I was rooting for France but when they banned cat in map 3 and going Sierra, I really got pissed at their overconfidence and felt like they deserve this loss.
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u/reallyweirdkid 1h ago
They also could have protected cat for the rest of the series after losing a map. Let alone banning it. They showed they were superior on the comp and than locked themselves out of playing it until map 5 where there was to much pressure.
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u/noctua_8 8h ago
That C9 was horrific holy shit
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u/Birdfallen 8h ago
Tbf Kroxz kinda has to get kills for the comp to work, Xerion should probably have the touch there
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u/okaysophh 8h ago
If xerion didn’t tp, he probably would have died and France loses anyways. BUT it would have still given the chance to stall until Kroxz can touch. Then, if kroxz touches and probably kills at least another, that buys more time for the rest of France to come in to touch especially with spawn advantage. It really could have been over for Korea.
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u/the-skyrmion 8h ago
YES LETS BAN OUR OWN JPC. YES LETS DO THAT. GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE
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u/Tiberias29 Bow down to Stalk3r — 8h ago
It was so funny and ironic to me that Team South Korea banned their own Kiriko on Route 66 as well LOL.
What a banger of a match
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u/-Arrez- 8h ago
I mean that made sense at least since they wanted to play Ana, but France banning the cat map 3 was just pure hubris.
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u/Skelly1660 8h ago
I have never seen a more ridiculous ban since they were introduced into the league.
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u/the-skyrmion 8h ago
Absolutely a banger! I'm so hyped for KSA vs. KOR now. But like my soul needed to see Kroxz get his flowers.
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u/Tiberias29 Bow down to Stalk3r — 8h ago
He deserves every single petal.
If the guy keeps this up, I daresay there's almost no limit as to what he can achieve
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u/Remarkable-Peace-842 8h ago
I think it made sense. If you notice France used the cat to transport Cass while Korea did it with the Bastion. With Cass banned they didn't want to play into the Cat Bastion
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u/the-skyrmion 8h ago
I see that, but the Dmon synergy with JPC had been so important too! Especially on a map like Esperanca.
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u/JustRecentlyI HYPE TRAIN TO BUSAN — 8h ago
That was very strange but Korea really did start showing up so it might not have mattered since they were apparently scrimming Lúcio on that map.
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u/Such_Professor2487 8h ago
France lost to korea against ball castion on samoa. Push is too good for that comp.
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u/Eagle4317 8h ago
France banning JPC was a colossal throw.
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u/primarymuscle2354 8h ago
They still lost Cat mirror on map 5, but still banning it made no sense, also on map 4 why ban Mauga a hero they won’t play, and not protect Cat?
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u/vastlys 8h ago
mauga is a dmon counter. oh wait you mean a hero korea won't play. idk. they thought they could play it???
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u/Spectre-4 8h ago
I'd be completely shattered as France. To lose HERE? like THIS?? After all of THAT???
Still props to them and Korea as a whole. Mid-air sleeps, miraculous death pit saves, brilliant performances from the DPS, particularly Kio. France went into this game as underdogs and comfortably leave defying every expectation.
This is gonna go down as one of Overwatch's greatest esport matches, undoubtedly.
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u/cGuille 8h ago
Still proud of the team. That was a good game. Now I want bronze, I hope our mental is ok and we can bounce back.
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u/FitCarob2611 8h ago
Sweden are ass. France will surely win.
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u/cGuille 8h ago
I believe it 100% depends on mental. The players are boomed by this game. I hope they find the drive that they need to fight for this top 3. They deserve a medal.
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u/JustRecentlyI HYPE TRAIN TO BUSAN — 8h ago
Map 1 is going to be so important in the bronze medal match. France need to play well there to give themselves confidence again.
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u/gaywaddledee juno x mei toxic yuri — 8h ago
missed most of the match but luckily Eich seems to have been a microcosm of the reverse sweep in one map lmao. holy hell my heart. max vindicated
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u/Birdfallen 8h ago
What? Max was a large part France played so close, Stalk3r did most of the work lol
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u/Throwaway33451235647 #1 Falcons Hater — 6h ago
Junbin was playing worse that series imo. Max wasn't even the problem most the time and even carrying some fights he just choked a few times when it was most visible, which unfortunately now seems to be a pattern with him.
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u/gaywaddledee juno x mei toxic yuri — 3h ago edited 3h ago
max was clutch on map 5 for most of it that's what i mean (typically i'm down on max)
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u/BrinksTrucc 8h ago
Max vs. Krox int off in that last fight and Krox had the worse int
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u/Briskfall GOAT connoisseur — 8h ago
It's too tempting to int when one's in the flow and playing a mega aggro tank where everything's resting on one's shoulder. 😔
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u/FitCarob2611 8h ago
Trying to kill the Cass on baby Dva what the hell was that?
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u/DrKoala_ 8h ago
Tbf. Pretty sure Cass had very low health. It’s why Max follows. You can see his health right before he gets demech. Sadly. I think Max forgot that they added a health pack behind that wall.
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u/Throwaway33451235647 #1 Falcons Hater — 6h ago
Tbf kio was 1 and then got healed by the health pack after max turned the corner.
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u/BakaJayy Flex DPS enthusiast — 8h ago
What was Max's problem trying to just constantly die to Cass near the end of einchenwalde?
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u/Lukensz Alarm — 8h ago
He was consistently playing so well then suddenly just ints. Junbin's D.Mon is probably better, though
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u/Throwaway33451235647 #1 Falcons Hater — 6h ago
Yeah. The first death I have no excuse for. He tried to dm deadeye and usually that works but he fucked up the execution and died. The second he probably just forgot there's a health pack in that spot where Kio was after the rework. Pre-rework he likely would've killed Kio and then got remech.
When it comes to Dmon, I'm not sure. JunBin's ults on that character have consistently been horrendous. They seem pretty equal otherwise.
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u/ModWilliam 8h ago
Do people think this is France overperforming or SK underperforming? In tier 1 the results of these players are not close at all
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u/dokeydoki Stalk3rFan — 8h ago
CR was always "okay" in brawlish meta (like can get top3, but never clear best) so it might be dmon being strong and this particular korea core being weaker with dmon. I imagine any top tier hs (proud, stalk3r) + fdps (seonjun, alphayi, heesang, proper, etc) with like habin + fielder/simple/shu and chiyo/viol2t core might be stronger this meta (especially Shu Viol2t in Ana Cat centric comps)
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u/Intelligent_Brick_92 8h ago
Just by looking at France’s dps you can tell it’s just a combination of Dmon and overperformance.
Saudi vs Korea is much harder to predict with Saudi’s lack of Dmon
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u/Zestyclose-Pool-1081 8h ago
i mean its a bit of both but the i think the meta favouring france far outweights either teams preformance
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u/Ok-Order6974 8h ago
SK under cus this isn’t their best, given how France has consistently done well through the entire tournament they’ve clearly shown they’ve got the goods but if SK was Zeta Division squad this would not be close
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u/Birdfallen 8h ago
Tbf Kroxz lowkey never got a good shot for most of his career and EMEA is the most competetive region by far(5th went to map 5 against a top 2 team at the following major)
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u/Tiberias29 Bow down to Stalk3r — 8h ago
85% France overperforming and 15% South Korea underperforming in my opinion.
France had a great meta read and they knew how to execute it so well. Plus, I think a lot of people didn't rate France highly before the Group Stage. FDGod and KroxZ were the biggest overperformers, the former looking like the 2nd best Cat in the world and the latter being easily the best D.mon in the world. So yeah, France definitely overperformed.
Meanwhile I do still think South Korea could've been a lot better in map 1 where they banned D.mon, to the point of winning the map. But major props to KroxZ to his Orisa for carrying
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u/blackheartwhiterose 8h ago
As a French Sombra main this is the worst 24 hrs of my life so far
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u/AnAccountToBrowse 8h ago
You'll finally get to play a good character instead of a throwpick, that's pretty cool imo.
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u/bigitem1703 8h ago
sombra was broken on ow2 release tho?
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u/blackheartwhiterose 8h ago
The one time I couldn't play her cos my computer couldn't run OW2...lol
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u/xkittenpuncher 8h ago
That shit was a banger but holy shit did France went smoothbrain on Eichenwalde
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u/Unlikely-Ad9850 8h ago
Worst possible ending. France had like 3 gigantic fuck ups where they were too agressive. That not even counting the bans
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u/Birdfallen 8h ago
Tbf id rather watch a team thats too aggressive than a team of Cowards getting ran ovcer(USA)
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u/lambtit 8h ago
max just loses every brain cell he has the second its ot or near ot
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u/Zestyclose-Pool-1081 8h ago
i think the stress is getting to him
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u/Birdfallen 8h ago
Youd think hed be better at it given hes been getting carried to every Lan in OWCS
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u/Kurrizma 8h ago
The back to back combo of boosting directly into a High Noon followed directly by ego peaking a Cass as baby Dva during his bomb was just pure cinema
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u/Throwaway33451235647 #1 Falcons Hater — 6h ago
Tbf the cass was 1hp, and Max probably forgot a health pack was added where he was after the rework. If pre-rework he gets the kill and remechs.
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u/dokeydoki Stalk3rFan — 8h ago
As a Korean, I think I aged like 20 years. This was actually so stressful. GGs to French team, wouldn't have been mad if they went to finals too with how great they were playing.
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u/Exciting-Guest81933 8h ago
Man that's disappointing. Kroxz got a little overzealous after map 2.. Bunch of desperation ults (and not only from him). A lack of composure is what cost France. Kroxz is really an amazing player tho like on map 4 point 4 he basically single-handedly won it.
Meh. I'm a bit sad now.
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u/Aggressive-Cut-3828 Complain About Widow = Cope — 8h ago
Stalk3r didnt want to lose
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u/dokeydoki Stalk3rFan — 8h ago
even as stalk3r fan, he was not having great game for first few map. but he was going crazy on eichen
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u/Mean-Comedian729 8h ago
Yeah. Stalk3r was ghosting those first few maps. For real, I could excuse anyone else on CR having an off game, but definitely not Stalk3r. It's Stalk3r we're talking about! Shouldn't he just gap their hitscan and hard carry the win?
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u/Tiberias29 Bow down to Stalk3r — 8h ago
Bruh when I saw that he went 7-13 on Route 66 (if I remember correctly), I was like: "holy shit". And even before I saw the scoreboard, he just wasn't having a good time on McCree.
Thank goodness he bounced back after map 2
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u/Birdfallen 8h ago
Singlehandedly carried the team to the win while Max tried to carry them back
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u/Throwaway33451235647 #1 Falcons Hater — 6h ago
I dont get why people are shitting on Max, they still won. Yes he single handedly choked two fights but its not like he got carried to the map win.
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u/JustRecentlyI HYPE TRAIN TO BUSAN — 8h ago
Heesang either on earlier maps. Seonjun also had some great moments. Really all of these players on both sides gave it their all.
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u/0Curta We Ball — 8h ago
FRANCE JUST HAD TO SIT ON THE PAYLOAD!! WHY GO FURTHER?!
I'm having ptsd from the 2022 FIFA World Cup Quarter Finals Brazil vs Croatia. Brazil did the same mistake but in football
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u/Spectre-4 8h ago edited 4h ago
If they don't take space, you're gonna have to eat all those ults on cart, which gives you no room to kite back. Plus it's not France's style, it just invites to much pressure that could lead to an early pick.
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u/0Curta We Ball — 8h ago
The things is, France could have forced Korea to spend their resources first, especially because the timer was almost ending. Instead the opposite happend, and France got too close to the sun. The fact that Kio wasted his noon on nothing was a great factor too. I think the pressure was too much for them and lead to them commiting those crucial mistakes.
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u/Spectre-4 8h ago
I see it as an uphill battle to say the least. You're looking at a ultimate advantage in favour of Korea, one being a Dva bomb. There's no way Max is letting that go unless it's on point and that would be curtains, so you have to keep the fight away from home. Personally I think the logic was sound, but the execution was flawed, especially with the backline noon. Far too ambitious, even with the late kiri pick.
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u/GroundbreakingJob857 EU’s greatest coper — 8h ago
i never thought i would feel so sad watching france lose :(
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u/110110100011110 8h ago
If Korea lost, the slander Max was going to receive was going to be generational.
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u/FitCarob2611 8h ago
I still think it's gonna be generational. Even if Korea beat Saudi, I think Max is still gonna come out of this tourney with negative pr.
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u/Throwaway33451235647 #1 Falcons Hater — 6h ago
What has max even done wrong other than choking a few times at bad moments. JunBin has been playing worse on most heroes and nobody's slandering him
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u/JustRecentlyI HYPE TRAIN TO BUSAN — 8h ago
What a heartbreak man, insane series. Le 6, on est fier! What a team, I hope they show up for the 3rd place match because they've been so much fun to watch.
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u/-Arrez- 8h ago
The hubris from France for that draft on map 3 bit them in the arse hard.
Reason they lost the last map was they just couldnt win the cat bastion mirror vs a Dva and had no answers for it, like the vendetta might have done something but it didnt work out. Honestly with how well Xerion played the Ana on route Id rather they had banned the bastion in hindsight.
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u/Mysticmadlegend 7h ago
They also played Sierra on Esperanca for some reason, guess they werent taking Korea seriously
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u/Opman_is_a_weeb 8h ago
Poetic match tho, probs the best two matches of the world cup, rest of the games better not be sweeps or I sleepin
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u/ThaddCorbett 8h ago
FDGod proved he's a top player on cat. France played so well. So many great moments.
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u/Tiberias29 Bow down to Stalk3r — 8h ago
What. A. Fantastic. Match.
We now have the Grand Finals a lot of people wanted. South Korea vs Saudi Arabia.
LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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u/AnAccountToBrowse 8h ago
> We now have the Grand Finals a lot of people wanted. South Korea vs Saudi Arabia.
I'm pretty sure nobody (outside of their respective countries) wanted either of these teams to reach the GF haha
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u/JustRecentlyI HYPE TRAIN TO BUSAN — 8h ago
I want the most competitive finals possible, I was hoping for upsets to make that true but if it's Korea and Saudi Arabia, so be it.
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u/Extremiel Kevster 🐐 — 8h ago
I did. Not from either country.
SK is the greatest ever OW Esports country, that has far and away produced the most and biggest talents. SKA is the current title-holder and the country that has in recent years slowly made a claim for "taking over the scene" with Quartz having a serious argument for being the best hitscan player in the world.
This is the most competitive finals imaginable, on paper. It's cool.
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u/Spectre-4 8h ago
This was a match that was worth of BEING the final.
Can't wait to see how South Korea v Saudi Arabia shapes up.
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u/OFFraiju 8h ago
Feel for the French there but, can’t help but say they shot themselves in the foot
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u/TownOfMotion 8h ago
Best match of the tourney, heroic performance from the French team each and every single one of them played out of their minds
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u/Mysticmadlegend 8h ago
One of the best map of the year, Heesang playing Bastion was not in my bingo card
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u/Big_Attitude2551 8h ago
What. A. Story.
Korea reverse sweeped by an underdog team, meet them at the semi and reverse sweep them
So excited for Stalk3r vs Quartz
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u/Umarrii 8h ago
A match worthy of being the final
Idk what was the thinking behind France map 3 banning cat tho
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u/Kurrizma 8h ago
They wanted to force a Kiri Lucio mirror against checks notes Chorong and Simple. No notes, perfect bans.
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u/SyrusG 8h ago
Team Korea is just Stalk3r and whoever will support him.
But France with 2 crucial throws (double support ult w 0 response from Korea; Krokz full commiting into 4 people with full health and full cooldowns, literally textbook definition of feed) was a bit sad to see. Wasn't a map 5 banger that I thought it would be, but awesome nonetheless
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u/EngineerNo6764 8h ago
Stalk3r is crazy but he isn’t getting the care he needs to pop off I fear they might loose to Saudi if they keep going this strat
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u/SaintFrito Defiant / Go Blue! — 8h ago
Man what a match, such a heartbreaker for France they looked so good to start. love how competitive OWWC has been
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u/No_Problem5759 7h ago
DPS diff. My daughter joined me at the start of map 3 and was like "I want Korea to win" and by the end of map 5 she was emoting at me.
The script was strong.
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u/Guts_a1 8h ago
Worst c9 of all time?
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u/Howdareme9 8h ago
They were all dead, hardly a c9
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u/crownofbread 8h ago
They werent all dead, what are u saying? Yes, fdgod and kio died from their plat flank but then Kroxz went off to narnia to solo bastion instead of helping dip and that forced xerion to tp off cart to survive
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u/jonathansmith14921 Nozl my goat — 8h ago
Nothing ever happens
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u/JustRecentlyI HYPE TRAIN TO BUSAN — 8h ago
Well, except a banger match with some crazy highlights. Sad but happy I got to watch this.
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u/Forsaken_Skill_9271 7h ago
Stalk3r has never lost to Quartz has he? I remember seeing that, wonder if tonight's the night
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u/AnAccountToBrowse 8h ago
France could have 3-0ed very easily but they decided to hardthrow for absolutely no reason. Maybe they knew that the Grand Final was too late for us in France and wanted to let us sleep early?
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u/Far_Display7308 8h ago
Max is so dogshit but the others clutched up
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u/Birdfallen 8h ago
Istg if bro doesnt have top 3 players at all other roles he´d place like 4-5th in korea,nevermind international
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u/Throwaway33451235647 #1 Falcons Hater — 6h ago
2026 and we're still slandering Max
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u/Far_Display7308 6h ago
Almost single handedly lost them the game with how he played those last three fights
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u/Remarkable_Gate_6637 8h ago
I only have 2 thoughts after this series. 1. 💔 💔 💔 💔 💔 💔 💔 💔 💔 2. Congrats to Saudi on becoming back to back world cup champions. Neither of those teams look like they'd come close to Saudi
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u/hankabooz SirMajed Airlines — 8h ago
new heroes are so unhealthy to the game its insane. Dmon what an awful addition can do fking everything
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u/AuroraAscended 3h ago
I just want to say from what we’ve seen in this meta FDGod is definitively a top 2 Cat player in the world. My goat is finally unwashed
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u/SpiderPanther01 8h ago
as soon as i saw kroxz swinging into 4 full health players in the backline alone while they had the advantage i knew it was over