The gauntlet of final group stage games continued as South Korean teams Flash Lux and Afreeca Freecs Blue were once again summoned to fight each other in the first match of the day. Flash Lux was crushed yesterday by Europe's Rogue, one of the best teams if not the best around. Today, however, they fared no better against Afreeca Freecs Blue, showing that their disappointing performance pointed to a lack of growth compared to other South Korean teams during APEX. Credit must also be given to the outstanding plays from match MVP Jung "Recry" Taek Hyun from Afreeca.
"The new patch seems favorable to Phamercy. I've played Pharah since we were MiG Frost, and Mercy looks to be coming up, so there was enough reason to try it out," said Recry in an interview with Inven Global.
Phamercy, the nickname given to the Pharah and Mercy combo, is something that's been around since the beginning of competitive Overwatch, but also died out with the rise of McCree -- who counters Pharah -- while Mercy got pushed out of the healer meta by Ana. On both Lijiang Tower and King's Row, it was Recry's incredibly bold Pharah Barrages that wiped out four to five people from Flash Lux.
"We focused on shutting down Haksal's Genji. ... The team had faith in my mirror matchup Genji," said match MVP Park "Saebyelbe" Jongryeol from South Korean team LW Blue.
Early on in the group stages, South Korean team RuNAWAY knocked Europe's REUNITED to the pavement with one of the most renowned Genji players, Kim "Haksal" Hyojong. Haksal walked away a star but returned to the spotlight only to be crushed by the teamwork of LW Blue. In the end, the better team conquered the better player.
RuNAWAY very obviously supports Haksal and relies on him, as he was on Genji for almost the entirety of the four games. LW Blue, on the other hand, only had to prepare against Haksal, with the rest of the dominoes falling in place. LW Blue defeated RuNAWAY 3-1, but the latter still has a chance to make it out of the group stages as they face off against South Korean team Kongdoo Panthera and potentially force a tiebreaker or overtake REUNITED for a place in the quarterfinals.