Two stars fell from the skies as two fan favorites made their early departure from OGN APEX Overwatch Season 3, in Seoul, South Korea. Europe's Rogue were crushed beneath the heels of reigning champions Lunatic-Hai, while RunAway, the runner-up in APEX S2, ran out of steam and were debunked by newcomers X6-Gaming.
Rogue versus Lunatic-Hai
Map 1: Nepal (Control)
Map 2: Hollywood (Assault/Escort)
Map 3: Hanamura (Assault)
Rogue's only hopes for staying alive in the group stages and to pass through to the playoff group stage was to win with either a 3-0 or 3-1 score. For a team as talented as the french squad, that wasn't an unrealistic goal, but harder to do against the reigning champions.
Rogue were crushed on Nepal, where they had a chance to take the map but lost their control due to being greedy. They were decimated by Ryu "ryujehong" Je Hong's flex picks on Hollywood, as he showed off both his Zarya and his Widowmaker to blow through the streets phase, and the rest of his team helped hold Rogue to only one point. The final map, Hanamura, was so one-sided that it was just pouring salt into the wound for Rogue as they made their unfortunate exit from APEX S3.
RunAway versus X6-Gaming
Map 1: Oasis (Control)
Map 2: Eichenwald (Assault/Escort)
Map 3: Temple of Anubis (Assault)
Map 4: Dorado (Escort)
RunAway started the series strong by winning Oasis, but just like their previous sets in Season 3, it was not the same RunAway without Sang-hoon "KAISER" Ryu in the lineup, as he departed earlier for the chance to play with Cloud9 in the west.
In Eichenwald, Temple of Anubis, and Dorado, they were unable to make a dent in the defense of X6 Gaming, the newbies out of challenger. As a new team, they stood a foot taller than their compatriots who followed them into APEX from challenger. They weren't being crushed by top teams and showed clean teamwork and communication in this set, Having now bested the former Runner-ups of APEX, they're now qualified to pass the group stages along with Afreeca Freecs Blue from Group B.