China and South Korea take no breaks when waiting for the Overwatch League to start up next year as the next Nexus Cup was announced to round out the year. Starting on Nov. 29, 16 teams will compete for a ¥150,000 CNY (roughly $22,718 USD) prize pool. Eight of the competing teams will be from South Korea, taking on eight Chinese teams in an intense competition. The group stage will last from Nov. 29 - Dec. 5. The bracket stage will last until Sunday, December 17.
Group A
RunAway (South Korea)
Kongdoo Panthera (South Korea)
LGD Gaming (China)
LinGan e-Sports (China)
Group B
X6-Gaming (South Korea)
Seven (South Korea)
Team CC (China)
LaoYinBi (China)
Group C
RX Foxes (South Korea)
Meta Athena (South Korea)
ViCi Gaming (China)
Lucky Future (China)
Group D
Lunatic-Hai (South Korea)
Element Mystic (South Korea)
Miracle Team One (China)
Miraculous Youngster (China)
While fans of OGN APEX may recognize familiar teams such as Lunatic-Hai and Meta Athena, many of these rosters have changed due to Overwatch League teams signing on several players. However, these rosters aren't void of familiar players, there are just a lot of newer names to watch.
Fans of RunAway can rest easy because the gang's still together. While investors may have missed their chance to sign on the team, RunAway will continue to compete together. The roster is the same as before, but with the addition of Yoo "Lucid" Jun-seo. Formerly a support for Afreeca Freecs, his addition to RunAway is a trial period for now.
Kongdoo Panthera will be making its first appearance as a new roster, featuring both old and new. While fans will still see the likes of Moon "ChangSik" Chang-sik, they will also see An "wakawaka" Jee-ho and Kang "Void" Jun-woo stick together. Some newcomers the team picked up include former support from Flash Lux, Son "CoMa" Kyeong-woo and Gye "r0ar" Chang-hoon from LuxuryWatch Red.
Lunatic-Hai will also be attending the Nexus Cup, but with most of its players being picked up by OWL teams or moving onto competitive PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds instead, only Lee "Whoru" Seung-joon remained from the legendary roster. Joining him will be Jeong "Nenne" Yeon-kwan from LuxuryWatch Red, as well as Park "iDK" Ho-jin from Afreeca Freecs.
Following the trend of important pickups, Meta Athena acquired Jeong "Recry" Taek-hyun and Jeong "ArHaN" Weon-hyeop from Afreeca Freecs, blessing the troubled roster with two DPS players with a lot of experience under their belts. While ArHaN is only confirmed as trialing for the team, this could be an important turnaround. After MA's impressive entrance into APEX, it slumped far below the expectations one would have of a team that won over 20 matches in a row, and a new roster was necessary to begin fixing the problem.
From China, Miraculous Youngster returns to Nexus Cup but for its final run. Miraculous Youngster has claimed its share of first place titles this past year, including the Premier Series 2017, and this past Nexus Cup title in the summer, but the organization posted an announcement on weibo that it will temporarily cease operations in Overwatch. While not clear if the roster itself will disband, it's implied that the players will switch to other games. This could be the last chance to see an excellent Chinese roster grace the stage in Overwatch, marking for some exciting games.