Contenders Trials China—Day 1 Breakdown (Matches 1 and 2)

Contenders trials has started once again. China is the region to kick it all off with plenty of fresh faces and a few returning veterans. Trials will be a fierce competition to see who can win the two open spots in Contenders China 2019, season one.

Team for Victory vs Alter Ego (4-0)

Alter Ego recently played in Contender's China but were knocked out in the group stage, hence their participation in Contender's Trials. Team for Victory (TFV) recently finished top four in open division. Starting in Ilios, TFV took the map quite swiftly with a strong DPS showing. In Kings Row, TFV won 4-3 in a map that was far more one-sided than the score suggests. QingLi showed absolute dominance on Pharah, reigning direct rockets left, right, and centre.

On Volskaya, TFV once again ran Pharah and Jimmyman showed his excellence on the supporting mercy. Alter Ego attempted to respond with an Ashe. However, it was not enough as they were full held. Needing only one tick, TFV took the map on their third attempt at attacking. Unfortunately, the last second Bob ran past the point and was unable to stall for Alter Ego.

Going into route 66 it seemed that morale must have been lost by Alter Ego and it certainly seemed to vanish altogether during the map. Niko for TFV shut down play after play on Sombra, and there was plenty of follow up from the team. This was not a close series in any way, Team for Victory proved that they were not a team to sleep on today.

Zenith of Optimism vs nLw (0-4)

Zenith of Optimism (ZOO) finished last contenders season in the bottom four whereas, nLw are a top four open division team. nLw have one of the most notable names in trials, Undead, formerly of Shanghai Dragons and Lingan Esports. He played incredibly well in Busan on his comfort McCree pick. Giving the first map of the series to nLw, 2-0.

Undead remained on McCree on Kings Row where nLw defended fist. Zenith of Optimism claimed Points A and B blisteringly fast with over five minutes to cap third point. At that point, UnDead showed some flexibility by switching to Ashe. The move seemed to work out very well for the team, along with Alan's quick swap to tracer, the two tore through ZOO's attack and stopped the payload before it reached the end. On nLw's attack, they were very rarely halted. Once again, UnDead was on McCree. Despite getting Play of the Game, ZOO's Kirby could not make the wrecking ball work against the Cowboy's powerful flash bang.

Map three was Horizon Lunar Colony, with strong DPS and great discords from P1LY024 and nLw were able to hold ZOO to under a minute. Round one ended with ZOO failing to get a tick on B and giving nLw a very clear win condition to meet. Once again UnDead proved he is a class above trials and popped off on Widowmaker with his DPS counterpart Alan causing plenty of havoc. Soon enough the team could claim both points with relative ease.

In the final map, route 66, nLw continued to show dominance, keen to keep their map score as high as possible. They made fantastic use of Sombra to shut down powerful combinations from ZOO and to turn fights that already seemed lost.

There were many similarities in the first two matches, both matches were won 4-0 by the open division team. Both had huge carry DPS players and both were highly entertaining matches of overwatch.

Follow me on twitter, @FraserK487.