No one could have predicted the results of the first semifinals match of OGN Overwatch APEX Season 4. While newcomers GC Busan shook the ground with every step it took toward its potential Royal Road, Cloud9 Kongdoo seemed like the perfect test that would go -- maybe not the full length of a Best of 7 -- but certainly not a 4-0 sweep. GC Busan crushed C9K underneath the might of its fist and secured its place in the finals.
Map 1: Oasis (Control)
Map 2: Hollywood (Assault/Escort)
Map 3: Horizon Lunar Colony (Assault)
Map 4: Route 66 (Escort)
The beginning of the set began as expected, with both points on Oasis going up to 100 percent to 99 percent, both teams fighting back-and-forth for the point. Taking Oasis set the tone for the rest of the set however, as GC Busan turned the notch up, while C9K lost its footing and morale with every passing second.
Hollywood started off on the right foot for C9K as it took the first point with a decent timebank. Kim "Rascal" Dong-jun dove into GC Busan with Doomfist for the initial success, but the moment they got the payload to the streets phase towards point B, everything fell apart. It was Lee "Hooreg" Dong-eun who returned the pain threefold, demolishing the offense along with the rest of his team. On top of that, Hooreg and Park "Profit" Joon-yeong on Tracer bulldozed right through C9K's defense and took Hollywood for GC Busan as well.
That set the tone for the rest of the series. Rascal and Kim "birdring" Ji-hyuk would attempt to take control of the map together, but Profit and Hooreg were there to send them flying. On top of that, the rest of C9K were out of sync and playing poor compared to its usual standard. Baek "Fissure" Chan-hyung and Kang "Void" Seung-tae died repeatedly, feeding meter to GC Busan and just weren't able to protect the DPS or Supports of C9K. Lunar Horizon Colony was an absolute stomp for GC Busan, and Route 66 as well.
Not much separates the tales of these maps other than the question "how hard did GC Busan dominate?" With this 4-0 victory, GC Busan knocked C9K out of APEX and advanced to the finals where it will meet either NC Foxes or RunAway for the championship title of APEX.