The Real Winners & Losers of OWCS Champions Clash

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Land number six in the history of OWCS is in the books. From former kings regaining their throne to chaotic compositions with twist in some of the hero picks to a map 7 grand finals to cap off the event. This was definitely an above average land. And thanks to this land, some burning questions about several teams and key individuals were answered as well. Here are the biggest winners and losers from the OWCS Champions Clash. Starting off with the clear-cut winner number one, it's Crazy Raccoon. And before even going into what this meant for them, I got to apologize.

[00:00:36]I wasn't familiar with their game. I didn't give Crazy Raccoon any chance of winning this tournament based off of the history. Just knowing how much they've struggled against Zeda Division this year. Just knowing how they've never beaten Twisted Minds before, knowing that they don't have Shu anymore, this felt like such an uphill battle for them. but they came in very prepared and played arguably the best Overwatch we've ever seen out of this group. It's clear that what happened at the end of the Asia tournament not that long ago was an indicator that this team was trending in the right direction. That's been the theme for Crazy Raccoon. Constant improvement. They started slow, maybe adjusting to having some new members on this team, the meta not being necessarily what they would have liked it to be, but over time, everyone on this team understood their role. They became better prepared for the meta and what may come. And when this cat bastion stuff came in in the eventual Mizuki, they were able to master it and look better than anybody else in the league.

[00:01:36]No longer were they held back by nerves, silly mistakes, being owned by Twisted Minds or Zeta Division. They were liberated. They were fully free from that. And they were able to clutch up in front of what is essentially a home crowd. And that is impressive because that mental barrier clearly had been impacting them for the last several lands. That is elevating through adversity. That is demonstrating growth.

[00:02:02]This was an all-around satisfying championship victory for Crazy Raccoon.

[00:02:06]And it gives them a huge boost of momentum as we head towards the half point of the season. But just as much as this was a big win for the team, it was also a massive win for multiple members of this Crazy Raccoon roster. The first of which has to be Junbin. This guy was a monster in this tournament. No ifs, ands, or buts. He split playtime with Max, but whenever he was in the game, just an absolute disruptor on that wrecking ball. He could do no wrong in this tournament. It was maybe the best we've ever seen Junbin play. And that's saying something because he has been an elite player since he first stepped foot on the OWCS stage back in 2024. But this to me was probably his greatest master class yet. Jun Bin completely changed the dynamic of a game any time he was subbed in with the greatest example of that coming in that grand finals against Twisted Minds. Down 32 having dropped the last three maps. All the momentum was on the side of Twisted Minds. It seemed like Crazy Raccoon were going to lose in heartbreaking fashion yet again.

[00:03:11]That was until with their backs against the wall that they called Junbin's number to try and bail them out of the hole. And he was able to do it. He played so great on those final two maps, including some of the greatest wrecking ball gameplay of all time on that Survivasa to close it out. That map was so intense. Neither team was making a lot of mistakes. He had to play perfectly and he was able to do so. He was able to disrupt UB Symmetra just enough to get that W and that is amazing and truly gives him a very welldeserved finals MVP. They don't pull this off without Junin. He was their hero. He is developing a legacy here. One of the greatest tank players of all time truly.

[00:03:54]And at the very minimum, he's got to be the best OWCS tank of all time so far.

[00:03:59]These last three years have been magical. and I'm very excited to see if he can continue this level of play heading into these other tournaments.

[00:04:08]Crazy raccoon have their eye on the finals. That's the big thing that they have yet to win. And if they're going to pull it off, they're going to need him to play just like this. But there's some more winners from Crazy Raccoon we can go over before we finally start talking about some losers in this video. Next up, I wanted to shout out Heang. This is another guy that I've had my doubts about recently, especially after last year's World Finals. I was wondering if he had what it took to be that true superstar flex DPS that can help this team win in the clutch. But at least for now, he has helped calm those questions cuz he played great throughout this tournament. He was one of the leaders by example. He showed great consistency across a wide range of heroes. Early on, it was the Tracer putting in pure domination even against the likes of Twisted Minds. But then later on, he'd show more flexibility. This includes showing flashes on May, which he didn't play too good on the year before in the World Finals, as well as, and more importantly, the Symmetra. Crazy Raccoon were not afraid to use that composition.

[00:05:11]They even broke it out against Twisted Minds when they were playing a sim of their own. And the guy was able to hold his own in more than one map. He even broke it out on the final map of the game, do or die, map seven, he showed nerves of steel against Yubie, and he held his own. That is incredible. What he put on display is the potential we've known he's had ever since the O2 Blast days, pre-Overwatch League. He showed it with how he played. He didn't make a lot of mistakes. It didn't look like the same guy from the World Finals last year where he'd panic and do something silly.

[00:05:46]He was completely locked in. That was vindication. He redeemed himself. He's given us some more reason to have faith in him going forward. And if he continues to play just like this, then the sky's is the limit for Crazy Raccoon. Truly, I apologize to Heang. I really thought maybe it was over for this guy and he'd never be clutch when the team needs him to, but he proved me wrong here. This was some beautiful gameplay. They needed every bit of those performances to get over the hump. So, congrats to Heang. Next up on the winner's list is Stalker. I suppose you could also throw Vigilante into here because he's also a new member of the team, but I want to more so focus on Stalker cuz this was really big for him.

[00:06:28]For a time, we didn't know if we'd even see him play again. After all the drama of Falcons taking the break and him being held hostage there for a while, we didn't know where he'd end up this season. We didn't know if he'd ever come back. But lo and behold, he ends up getting an opportunity on Crazy Raccoon and he has made the most of it. He transitioned into a new role as the full-time hit scan and he has been able to thrive and give this team some needed consistency. And that's saying something because he's filling in the shoes of Lip, arguably the game's goat. And that is why Stalker is one of the all-time greats himself and is multi-talented.

[00:07:06]This is a role he doesn't play as much, at least in recent memory. In fact, part of the reason he didn't want to play on Falcons is because he didn't want to play that hit scan. But for whatever reason, he decided to commit to it.

[00:07:18]Coach Moon said, "This is what we need to win." And he's been able to help this team thrive because of that newfound commitment, that newfound energy. And it's just great to see him back out there in general, right? This is such a big W for this man. The last time we saw him play at such a big venue like this was the previous Champions Clash in 2025. Since then, it's been rough. He hasn't been playing all that much. So, it's just cool to see him back to relevance like this and contributing to a championship level team. Stalker deserves this because he is that good of a player. But anyway, the final big winner for Crazy Raccoon I wanted to highlight. Everyone's a winner in this case, but the most major one would be Cho. This guy already plays at a position that doesn't always get the most appreciation, the most recognition, not always the flashiest, but I thought he played great in this tournament, and he was by far the best main support player. Although, I don't know if it's even fair to be calling him a main support in this situation. He played a lot of cat, which he was great on, of course, but then he played a ton of Mizuki. He played some Ari in some scenarios as well, and he made plays on all those characters. in particular. I was truly blown away by his Mizuki. This was a hero I was not expecting to see. I know he got a bit of a buff recently, but didn't think it was enough to make him relevant, but we saw quite a few teams actually practice him. And Crazy Raccoon were the ones who were pretty much playing him the most alongside Zedivision, I would say. And he was so freaking good on him. Literally, I think that he made such a big difference, especially in those matches against Twisted Minds. A problem that this Crazy Raccoon team ran into constantly, especially in that world finals, was TV just running over the squishies, running over the backline, the opposing DPS. He could just run free all the time. But with that Mizuki, you'd make him think twice. you made him be a bit more careful with his decisionmaking, not being able to play as aggressively as he'd usually like to because if he does, he's just going to get chained every time. He's an easy target. And that was the difference cuz that was always the disruption that get Crazy Raccoon off their game a lot of the time in that world finals. Now it's not as much of an issue. Your team has more room to maneuver and actually make plays. And clearly it was making a pretty big difference out there, especially in that first game, right? Nowhere in this world did I ever expect Twisted to get dominated like that against Crazy Raccoon. Remember that Kings Row on point B defense where they got held in the same spot for like 5 minutes? That felt like hell in a video game. That was insane to watch. They had no clue how to respond to that Mizuki comp. Cho is an absolute monster. But yeah, I think that's a long enough crazy raccoon glazing session for one video. So, let's talk about some of the biggest losers of this tournament. And the biggest of which has got to be Zeda Division. What the heck happened to these guys?

[00:10:21]Disappointing doesn't even begin to cover how we should be feeling about them. You were one of the clear-cut favorites to win this tournament. A lot of people would say you were the number one in the rankings going into this Champions Clash, but you just didn't play the part at all. Honestly, right from day two and onward, they didn't look that great. Even their matchup with Virtus Pro was a lot closer than it should have been. But then you go up against your rivals who you've beaten every time this year. You get 3-1 by them. Clearly, they look a couple of steps faster than you. And then you're just mentally boomed at that point. And I think that's the one concern a lot of people have had about this Zetta team going into this year. How fragile are their mentals truly. And I think we found the answer to that with how they played against Twisted Minds to not even make it to the grand finals in the end, finishing with a sad third place finish.

[00:11:15]Loki was a little nervous something like this would happen, just knowing that Crazy Raccoon were probably all the focus. Then you go down to lower bracket. We get the surprise of the century when Twisted Minds after being on death store break out the UB Symmetra. And again, that's just something a lot of these players are not used to. We've seen Proper and Shu get destroyed by it before. And it definitely happened again here. They were not ready for prime time. It's just tough to see this with all the hype surrounding this team, with how they had played up until the beginning of this tournament, dominating so many matches, putting the effort in to get this roster together, even just to see it come up short like this has got to be a major gut punch. Oh, and not for nothing, but did any of the major playmakers for Zetta Division show up when they were needed the most? Didn't feel like it to me. proper shoe. Violet kind of disappeared in the clutch. To me, it felt like the only guy who truly wanted to win out there, especially in that twisted match with their lives on the line, was Melgaru, one of the least experienced players on this roster. Why is he the one that is stepping up the most? That should not be happening when you have superstars like Shu and Proper.

[00:12:28]This guy, Meg Guru, did everything he could to try and win that game. I honestly felt bad for him at some point.

[00:12:35]He was putting the team on his back and it didn't even matter cuz no one else wanted to play with that same level of enthusiasm. Very unfortunate and I'm a little worried it's a sign of what could be to come with this Zetta team throughout the rest of this season.

[00:12:50]Their mental is weak and they've got to work on it. On the topic of Proper and Shu, they themselves are pretty big losers in this tournament and it's not only because they disappeared in the clutch. Yes, because of that. But more than anything else, it's because of the path that they took to get here. The reason they came to set a division, the reason that they teamed up with one another was to try and reclaim the throne. They thought if they put their talents together, they could be an unstoppable duo. The idea was to team up so they could take down a common enemy, Twisted Minds, someone that they both lost to in last year's World Finals. And yet, even together with their powers combined, it was still the same exact result. Still look lifeless against them, completely and utterly confused and very defenseless. But now you're also not able to beat Crazy Raccoon either, who Shu, by the way, willingly left to come join Zeta Division. That one's got to hurt, too. Your former team with your replacement ends up taking you down. That is rough. That is a difficult pill to swallow. no matter how you slice it, an all-around L for some of the greatest players of all time and this Zetta team as a whole. Really bad tournament from them. Very curious to see how they attempt to bounce back going into the mid-season. Loser number three of this tournament is the North America region. The Dallas Fuel and SSG were both letdowns. Dallas Fuel at least put up a fight in a lot of their matches. They weren't horrible or anything. Their matchup with Virtus Pro was definitely winnable. they just couldn't clutch out some of those close maps. But nonetheless, you're hoping to see a little bit more knowing the potential, knowing the hype around this team and some of the talent they had, but unfortunately they came up short.

[00:14:34]And now them and SSG have continued to help make North America the true laughing stocks of the OWCS. They can never seem to beat EMA or Korea teams.

[00:14:45]The last time they got a W, at least one that's somewhat significant, was in group D of the mid-season championship when sign were able to beat Twisted Minds, aka Nightmare. Of course, they'd go on to lose to them later in that group anyway, so it didn't even matter.

[00:15:01]But that's the last time, the summer of 2025.

[00:15:05]But, you know, I want to cut at least a little bit of slack to the NA teams.

[00:15:09]Dallas, again, they had a chance. They were disappointing in the end, but it's not like they played horribly. and SSG.

[00:15:15]You know, I didn't have any expectations. None of us did. We thought they were probably going to go home winless anyway, but they managed to play even further below the bar. And that's thanks to some pretty irregular practice. From what we've heard with the stories, Hawk could not make his initial flight with the rest of the team. So, practice was kind of scuffed. He'd have to be over ping with a weird time zone differential. I think I even heard that there were times where he wasn't there to practice with the rest of the team.

[00:15:45]So, they weren't exactly prepared for what came their way. And that led to two very uninspiring losses against teams that were clearly better. We've got to start by like beating China, beating a lower-end EMA team. We've got to try and build this up and get some respect back cuz it's starting to get bad down in those streets, man. Everyone is laughing at us. Please, NA teams, step up for the mid-season tournament. I beg of you. I'm starting to lose what little sanity I have left here. Let's switch back up to some winners here. And one I didn't anticipate myself discussing is Virt. I myself had very little confidence in this team going into the tournament. I thought a team like Dallas was probably better than them cuz they were so inconsistent during the EMA portion of the qualifiers. They were so clearly worse than Twisted Minds. I thought they weren't anything great and that this cat bastion meta might get to them, but they really did hold their own even in the matches where they were at a clear-cut disadvantage with. I mean, they put up a good fight against Zeda and even Twisted Minds as well. There were some pretty damn close matches in that Zetta game.

[00:16:52]For real, it almost felt winnable in a way. They stepped up to the plate big time. I was thoroughly impressed. They looked prepared. They didn't get slowed down by that cat bastion. They have their own way of doing things, playing around Kevstar's playmaking, using the psycho Symmetra to their advantage as well. They got a quality win over Waybo and Dallas Fuel as well. I was very satisfied with how Virtuous Pro played.

[00:17:16]And I never thought I'd be saying such a thing cuz it wasn't that long ago that this team lost a match to GK Esports and damn near got eliminated from competing in this tournament. And mind you, if GK were in this tournament, they couldn't even dream of looking competitive. So, all the credit in the world to VP for stepping up. You got to shout out Kevster, got to shout out Psycho, Landon as well. This guy always seems to perform well when the pressure was at its greatest. VP were great to watch.

[00:17:45]Very enjoyable. And on the topic of Kevster, he's a winner himself, right?

[00:17:50]He finally gets back to a land after being denied throughout all of 2025. And he made the most of it. He was one of the best players of the tournament in my opinion. A true hard carry for VP.

[00:18:03]Remember what he did against Waybo on that new Junk City on the Cassidy? He completely ruined them. He made Shy Leave look like idiots in comparison. He could not be stopped. He was Thanos in that lobby. Maybe one of the best Cassidy performances of all time on an individual map. Kev was excellent in this tournament, man. It was good to see him be unleashed on a land. Clearly, he had been saving that up for a long time.

[00:18:29]you took out his frustrations on the opposition and it's something you love to see because Kevster truly is one of the all-time greats. He had been getting a lot of slander the last year or so.

[00:18:39]So, it's cool to see him regain some relevance and put the haters in their place. Congrats to Kev and congrats to VP on a good performance. And with that Waybo matchup in mind, it's safe to say they are one of the biggest losers of this tournament. I had some hopes that Waybo could be a top fourish team, but they came up well short of the benchmark, just getting the one W over SSG and going home short-handed besides that. And that really sucks just knowing the talent they have and how they'd been trying to prepare for this for a very long time. They even put in the extra effort of not having any distractions, not being a part of the World Cup team.

[00:19:18]this core just decided to focus on OWCS and they still could not get it done when it mattered. Maybe it's just because they can't consistently practice against the top dogs and they're stuck in China, which is just weaker than a lot of these other regions. It's hard to say for certain, but at this point, I don't know if you can trust Waybo anymore. I think we're past the point of believing in these guys, even if they do have legacy players. This felt like a great opportunity to get top four. To me, it felt pretty open with the pre-ournament expectations in mind, but they fell well short of that benchmark.

[00:19:51]And at this point, with the cat bastion there in such a fast-paced meta, if they can't do well in that, what can they do well in at this point? Do they need a hard Winston meta? Do they need a hard Zarya Reaper? It feels like we're just asking for too much for this team to be relevant at this point. And until proven otherwise, there's no reason to have an overwhelming belief in this team. I certainly learned my lesson from this tournament and you should too if you haven't already. Sucks to suck, man.

[00:20:17]Really does. So, next on the winners list, it may seem a little weird to say this just because they lost and they're technically no longer defending champs, but I went with Twisted Minds. And I'm calling them winners for the simple fact that they were able to bounce back so strong after getting completely and utterly crushed by Crazy Raccoon on day two. After that happened, we were all wondering if they had what it took to even make it to a finals. But on that day three, they made the adjustments.

[00:20:46]They said, "We're not going to play Jaywoo anymore. We're going back to the old reliable and Yubie. We're breaking out the Symmetra." And immediately, they look so much better. It's great to just have that emergency pocket strap just in case things do go wrong. It's the in case of emergency break glass meme and inside is like UB and the Symmetra. It's just always the answer to all of their prayers. They can always play at the highest level possible on that composition and they showed that again by putting Zeda in their place and damn near beating Crazy Raccoon. But the important takeaway is that even when the meta isn't necessarily completely in their favor, they're going to find ways to win because this team is talented enough and they can always throw you off guard with that symmetric comp as well, which they just look so organized in.

[00:21:34]Even if they don't have a ton of practice on it, they're still going to make it work just fine. Twisted have to be one of the best teams in the entire world at making those quick adjustments in a tournament when anything goes remotely wrong for them. I truly was impressed. I heard that they did plenty of scrimming with Yubie on the Symmetra in case they needed him, but still to have him go cold after essentially not playing on the first two days and performing like that is one hell of a feat. And I suppose with this theme of Yub and Sim in mind, he's also a big winner of this tournament. It goes to show even when he's cold, when he's not playing that much, he can come in at a moment's notice and bail this team out.

[00:22:15]He's arguably one of the most important pieces to them. Whether you like the guy or not, his Symmetra just completely changes the game. His in-game leadership, that ability to help this team adjust even in the most difficult of times, he is a very important aspect of this team. And he's showing that maybe he is what they need at all times if they want to be at their best. Even if Symmetra isn't as of popular as a pick right now as she was at the end of last year, it's still sometimes just worth playing up to your strengths.

[00:22:45]That's just what Twisted Minds are known for. So, Yubie might have just earned himself some more play time going forward. For these big tournaments, they may just stick with him over Ju depending on the opponent because they know that the Symmetra is so difficult for the rest of the world to deal with when he is the one playing her. But, you know, as crazy as it may sound, Twisted are technically losers as well. It's strange to have them on both sides of the spectrum, but you can definitely make an argument here. Technically, they did lose their first tournament in a very long time. They lost their first games in a very long time. The last time we saw them take an L was in November of 20125. It's been a while to say the least. Granted, it clearly did not affect them going from day two to day three where they played even better. But still, they've lost games. The defending champs, they are mortal again. Clearly, Twisted Minds now have a new benchmark they have to reach. A new goal is in sight. Maybe some newfound motivation to catch right back up to Crazy Raccoon.

[00:23:47]And that is not in the best interest of the rest of this league if you know what Twisted Minds are capable of when they're motivated. But also, maybe this team needs to get back into the lab and learn some new compositions, maybe increase their flexibility a little bit.

[00:24:02]In particular, the support line could maybe use a little bit of help. They've relied heavily on that Lucio Kirao since basically the halfway point of last year. And obviously it still is a strong support line that you can run, but right now there's a bit of variance in what you can play. We're seeing a lot of that cat which Funny Astro maybe wasn't as strong on compared to some other main supports. Mizuki came into the mix. They weren't super prepared for that. Maybe he could learn a little bit of that.

[00:24:28]Maybe they could play a little bit of double flex with the Allari. There's options out there that I think could benefit them if they can pick it up. And we know they're capable because they picked up that Wuang Brigittita to counter Alcatia back in stage three of last year and it was very successful.

[00:24:43]So, I'll be curious to see how the labbing and testing goes for Twisted Minds if they believe that some changes need to be made. And while on the topic of some of these Twisted Minds individuals, there definitely are a couple of losers that you could take away from this group. One is probably funny Astro. Not to be harsh, not to be overly mean, but he didn't exactly play his best in this tournament. Usually, he's been very reliable for Twisted Minds. One of their best players on a consistent basis, but he didn't show up against Crazy Raccoon in my opinion.

[00:25:15]There are a lot of moments, especially on the Lucio, where he was getting caught out of position. I don't know if it's because of the difference in meta, seeing the Mizuki, the faster pace of play, but he did not play his best in this tournament, and there were quite a few fights where he got picked first, and it led to disadvantaged moments for Twisted where they just couldn't overcome the odds. He just has to play better. We know he can based off of how he's done in previous tournaments in his career, even going back to the Overwatch late days. He's always been clutch, so this was very unusual for him, and I'm hoping to see him bounce back going into the mid-season championship. And for the final loser of this tournament, I think I already made it pretty apparent based off of my UB section, but it's got to be Jwoo. there's a good chance his play time gets heavily diminished in the clutch or even just throughout the next stage in general cuz when this team was down on their luck, they subbed him out for Yubie and they immediately played a lot better against some ridiculously good teams. That's not to say that Ju won't be relied on. I think against some lowerend teams or if we see a lot of Tracer and Pharaoh, he'll still get plenty of play time. But a main takeaway for this twisted team, I'm sure, is how much better they played when they just focused on their Symmetra when they had their leader Yubie in the game. When they are in desperate need of a hero, that always seems to be who they turn to. So that could mean a bad sign for Joo's play time and his ability to shine in these big time tournaments. He had the opportunity, but he couldn't come up big. So maybe this is the turning point where we see less of him. Again, could just be a grave overreaction on my part, but something you at least have to think about moving forward, right? And so marks the end of the third annual OWCS Champions Clash tournament. Overall, it was really good. There were a lot of close games. We had a banger finals and the venue was amazing. The atmosphere was fantastic. Japan has so much passion for Overwatch esports and I'm hoping that we get some more events from them in the near future. But let me know what you thought about this tournament and who you thought the big winners and losers were down in the comments below.

[00:27:23]And if you enjoyed this video and you want more OWCS talks just like this, make sure to give this video a like and subscribe to the channel if you're new.

[00:27:32]I've been ATP and I'll catch you in the next video. Peace.