Lunatic-Hai vs KongDoo Panthera: Apex Finals preview

Season 3 is almost over and the final is a battle of two Korean Overwatch behemoths: KongDoo Panthera vs Lunatic-Hai. This promises to be one of the best finals out of the previous two seasons; not a David vs Goliath situation but a Goliath vs Goliath situation. The two teams to make it out of Group A are now facing each other once again in the finals.

How will this Bo7 play out? Will the reigning champs reign supreme or will KongDoo give us a new and third champion?

Lets break down the numbers and teams to see how this final will play out.

The meta and who is better

The final is going to be an interesting contest. During group stages, KongDoo beat out Lunatic Hai 3-1 but Lunatic Hai is a reigning champion and has been dominating the scene recently. They won last year by a large margin and have lost, only to KongDoo Panthera. After watching the match between Lunatic Hai and KongDoo several times the biggest difference between the teams is the DPS.

Lunatic Hai coach said that this meta is less about playing smart and planning tactics, but instead about which team plays better that day. This is the curse of dive.

However, which team tends to play dive better? It depends on the day.

During the match between the two of them, KongDoo was able to dominate on the back of their DPS duo. The style of the two teams are very different.

Lunatic Hai wins on the back of their support and tanks whereas KDP wins because of their DPS and tanks. This is not to say that KDP’s supports aren’t good, but rather that they aren’t used to make an impact on the game. Every team uses certain players to force win conditions and for KDP it is their DPS whereas for Lunatic-Hai it is their supports and tanks. Specifically, Miro and Ryujehong.

This matters only in their strategising sessions. If either team can shut down the other teams stars while enabling theirs, GG. Obviously, this is easier said than done. For KDP they need to consistently dive onto Ryujehong as soon as Miro jumps in.

For LH it comes down to shutting down Birdring and Rascal. Using Miro to shut down the space that these two could determine the match.

During the game between KDP and Lunatic-Hai it seemed like LH wasn’t completely used to the dive meta; but they have since adapted and look stronger than ever.

LH plays by punishing any engages on them. They like to have Miro jump between the diving tanks and their supports. Divide and conquer. LH will play map control and slowly rotate and force their opponents to engage on them, then delete their tanks. After that, the fight has been won.

However, this strategy might not work in a BO7. KDP has studied them, and if I can figure that out then so can KDP. They likely have a counter strategy to this.

The winning factor

These teams are so close that the determining factor will not be pure skill. It instead could come down to their coaches. The team that can come up with better strategies for a grind fest will be the team that comes out on top.

We noticed fatigue last season with Runaway vs Lunatic-Hai. Runaway wasn’t used to winning and playing a lot of games, and they didn’t have enough strategies. LH managed to outlast them and beat them on pure skill.

This final is a lot different simply because KDP and LH are both very talented teams. This could come down to whoever has enough plausible strategies for 7 maps. a BO7 is a long match. You have to win four maps. Not that you play four maps, but you have to WIN four maps. A tall order.

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