The stakes were high during Tuesday's games in OGN Overwatch APEX Season 4 in Seoul, South Korea. While X6 and CONBOX were both guaranteed a spot out of the groups, X6 secured first seed over the latter. Meanwhile, RunAway defeated MVP Space for a slot out of the group stage and subjected MVP's fate to the hands of Meta Athena's match against Lunatic-Hai.
Map 1: Nepal (Control)
Map 2: Numbani (Assault/Escort)
Map 3: Hanamura (Assault)
CONBOX's set told the same story it suffered all season. The team doesn't function well together without Yeong-jin "Gamsu" Noh on the roster. While each player is individually skilled, CONBOX as a whole has issues working in tandem. This gave X6 an easy set.
Nepal was cut and dry, but Numbani was where this power difference truly showed. CONBOX was almost unable to capture point A against X6's defense but X6 slipped up. It pushed forward greedily, which allowed CONBOX to take advantage of a scattered defense that allowed a capture of point A. Despite that, CONBOX was still held off of point C with a solid defense from X6. Unable to stop Kim "TimeBoy" Won-Tae's Tracer, CONBOX allowed X6's payload through the finish line.
Nepal and Numbani were one-sided and Hanamura was more of the same story. CONBOX launched good offenses occasionally due to the skill of Choi "Asher" Joon-seong and Park "Architect" Min-ho, but failed to take any meaningful objectives as a team. A 3-0 victory by X6 placed them as the first seed in the group while CONBOX safely passed through as the second seed.
Map 1: Ilios (Control)
Map 2: Eichenwald (Assault/Escort)
Map 3: Horizon Lunar Colony (Assault)
Map 4: Route 66 (Escort)
The set between RunAway and MVP Space promised to deliver. RunAway needed to win 3-1 or 3-0 to secure its spot in the Round of 8, which was a tall order given that it was up against MVP Space, a team that played phenomenally all season. Ilios was a back-and-forth affair, with the first two rounds going 100-99 on the control point; in the end, RunAway closed it out with a 100-0 for an Ilios victory.
With an advantage into the set, RunAway took to Eichenwald, hitting the ground running. MVP Space took point A, granting itself a massive timebank but Kim "KoX" Min-soo's Soldier 76 and Lee "Stitch" Choong-hui's Tracer fought back. KoX took complete advantage of the high ground, devastating MVP Space while Stitch blinked throughout the backline to relieve pressure from KoX. MVP was held to the streets of Eichenwald for the entirety of its almost six-minute timebank because it failed to make the decision of switching to a hard engage composition. It lost Eichenwald due to the stalwart abilities of KoX and Stitch.
Horizon Lunar Colony debuted a solid comeback from MVP Space as it prevailed in an upfront brawl for the first point of Horizon in the timebank stage. At the same time, it was able to defend its lead, moving the series from 2-0 to 2-1. Unfortunately, Route 66 would see the same story of Eichenwald, with an incredible defense coming out of RunAway. Grasping at straws, MVP Space was unable to repel the hail of bullets from both KoX and Stitch and was held to only one point. RunAway succeeded making it out of the group stage with a 3-1 victory.
Now, MVP Space's only hope for leaving the group stage is for Meta Athena to defeat Lunatic-Hai.