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Overwatch Contenders Playoffs: Tanks to Watch Around the World

Brandon PadillaBy Updated:8 Mins Read

Yesterday’s article gave you a great overview of the teams that we think will make the biggest splashes in Contenders playoffs this post-season. But which individuals will step up and create the moments we talk about when the dust has settled? Who will be the keys to their teams’ chances at glory?

Below lies a series of tank players from regions around the world. These front-line fighters have a real chance to change the landscape of the post-season as we know it – and will definitely enter the OWL conversation as a result.

While it would be easy to list players from the teams to watch I listed in yesterday’s article, we’ll do our best to spotlight players from playoff teams of all calibers – standouts can exist on any team, and are often what make those teams competitive in the first place.

 

Australia

BUS and Gus “Guzto” Scholz (Heist GC)

Heist GC has been a pleasantly surprising team for Aussie Contenders fans this season. Their 4-1, +6 regular season is good for second place in Group B, and while the gap between them and first place group-mates ORDER is a harrowing nine maps wide, ORDER’s only loss has been to Heist. The team has stayed competitive against the top talent in their group so far, and are set to potentially make a deep run through their bracket when they square off against Blank Esports (3-2, +4) on the 6th.

Leading the charge on that post-season push will be Guzto and BUS, who play off-tank and main tank, respectively. Together or apart, these two have been shredding teams to ribbons, and with tank-heavy metas staying relevant in the post-Ashe patch that playoffs will use, I could see Heist holding on to some major momentum when they hit the semifinals. Just as well, too – their match-up will almost definitely be against Sydney Drop Bears, who literally haven’t lost a game since March 26th. That last loss? Given to them by Masterminds GC, whose support player Declan “Dalsu” Selby now plays… for Heist.

One asterisk on BUS and Guzto’s potential chance to shine – their matches generally go pretty close to the wire. Two 3-2’s against FMC and ORDER, and a 2-2 draw against the Melbourne Mavericks shows that they’re far from perfect. BUS and Guzto will need to get this squad started on the right foot if they want to have any chance against the Bears – they’ll decide if they end up as another footnote in SDB’s legacy, or as the team that upset them after a year of championship performances. No pressure…

 

South America

Iury “agM” George Miranda and Thiago “TH7” Valente – UP Gaming

TH7 might be listed as a DPS on UP Gaming’s official roster, but in this meta, damage dealers need to do what it takes to survive – and for many, that means swapping to Zarya when your team needs a high-powered Russian lifting machine to throw some weight around. agM’s excellent bomb timings and Defense Matrix management supplements TH7’s aggressive, “Grav first ask questions later” style really well, and that leads to… well, plays like these.

If an ult combo can’t be arranged, one of these two will take matters into their own hands – as seen below. This play-making potential is what UP needs to have a chance in their playoff run, where they’ll be up against Caverna e-Sports (4-1, +3) before potentially going up against based tryhards (5-0, +20). Like the boys from Heist GC, agM and Thiago will need to bring their A-game against a squad that everyone assumes will dust them like Thanos in the middle of a catchy doo-wop song. Once again, no pressure.

 

Pacific

Jeong “InHyeok” In-hyeok Sung “Sakura” Yoon-chan – Global eSports Pantheon

Not as much footage for these two, but still a lot to look at when you take a look at this roster and its potential playoff run. A tank’s biggest job is making space for your team, and when you’ve got Brian “Kephrii” St. Pierre, AKA the fastest gun in the west, you’ll need to bring your A-game.

Sure, Kephrii hasn’t been an every-match fixture for GEP. Even so, he’s played a major role in their strategy and the team’s capability to disrupt game plans and take teams by surprise. With a 4-1, +5 season under their belt, you can hardly knock the idea.

One could guess that GEP’s plan will largely stay the same when PAC playoffs get started on the 10th. That means InHyeok and Sakura will remain hugely important components to GEP’s success – or its failure. An early match against Nova Esports, followed by a semifinal bout against Talon Esports if GEP survives, means that it’s time to kick it into a higher gear.

 

Korea

Ryu “Kaiser” Sang-hoon and Lim “F4zE” Jae-hyeok – StormQuake

This is a duo that really shows my bias, I’ll admit. Kaiser has juggled play time with Lee “ZEBAGMonster” Jeong-heon all season long. When he plays, though…

After all the tribulations he’s dealt with, Kaiser still has that little bit of magic RunAway dust he needs to propel his team to insane, impossible victory – as shown in the clip below.

He’ll need all that and more when KR playoffs get started on the 4th. Luckily for him, though, he won’t be alone. F4zE hasn’t been the flashiest off-tank in Korea by half – not with players like Dong-wook “BiaNcA” Kim or Jae-hoon “Hoon” Choi eating Gravs like they were going out of style – but he still gets the job done. While he might not light up the kill-feed very often, he’s usually the driving force behind some ridiculous barrage from Kim “Proper” Dong-hyun, or a crazy escape for Ahn “AMY” Min-yeong and Mun “Lastro” Jung-won. If he keep up that supportive play-style in playoffs, SQ will be in good shape. With a game against MVP Space to kick things off, and a match against the juggernaut that is Element Mystic to follow, StormQuake will need all the support they can get.

 

North America

???

Look, I hate to use this cop-out again, but man. NA has some of the greatest tank duos on the planet, and it’s really, really hard to pick just one. Do we mention ATL’s Xander “Hawk” Domecq and Blake “Gator” Scott, Open Division pickups-turned Academy stars? What about Gladiators Legion’s Byong-ho “Panker” Lee and Daniel “Gods” Graeser, the longest-standing duo in the region, and some of the longest-standing tank talent in the T2 scene? Or maybe First Generation’s David “nomy” Ramirez and Estevao “Hooey” Gama, who have used their experience across all tiers to create a crushing tank-line worthy to succeed the GOATS OGs that gave the team its legacy? I don’t know, man! I don’t know! They’re all so good!

Europe

Bastien “SuperPlouk” Klau and Zouheir “GetAmazed” Baba – One.PoinT

I lied, I’ll give myself TWO biased sections this article. Like NA, I could list off four different tank duos, or throw a dart, and show you something amazing. Unlike NA, I want to draw my line in the sand and say that One.PoinT’s tank line has been the most impressive we’ve seen in EU this season, and that GetAmazed has been one of the most consistently excellent D.Va players in the world at the Contenders level. Yes, really.

Before you light your torches and fetch your pitchforks, please understand that I genuinely feel that EU is one of the closest, most competitive regions in the world – and that a lot of that is due to the consistently excellent tank play. Deathball compositions have been the region’s bread and butter for well over a year at this point, and that’s given a lot of teams a lot of time to perfect their craft. Intelligent, handsome journalists like myself could argue the finer points of many tank duos in this region and their rankings within it, but I’ll allow myself this one moment to say that they’re all WRONG. Trust me when I say that One.PoinT’s tanks are the front line to keep an eye on this post-season. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of angry fans to start running away from…

 

China

Han “Silver3” Haibo and Zhang “Highbee” Zening – T1w

I don’t think I could survive an onslaught from two regional fanbases, so I’m gonna come back to center a little and talk about a team everyone agrees is amazing – T1w. One of the three perfect regular season squads – for now, anyway – The One Winner are on a path that seems destined to confirm their name’s validity once again.

As with any team in the GOATS meta, T1w’s success is largely thanks to some excellent front line posturing. And when they can’t set up a standard tank clash, well… a little subterfuge never hurt, right?

This flexibility and decisiveness is what’s putting T1w a cut above the rest in China right now. If they can keep it up, it’s no stretch to assume that they’ll finish this season with a trophy – and a perfect scoreline to boot.

 

 

 

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