Meta Athena is the most inventive team in Overwatch right now, and their unpredictability has made them unstoppable in the professional scene. Almost nobody had heard of them before last month.
In December, Meta Athena qualified for the second season of OGN’s Overwatch Apex, one of the most premiere Overwatch leagues in the world and the team’s first competition of that caliber. Since the start of the qualifiers, the team has been tearing through the competition, racking up seven straight wins in an undefeated run straight to the playoffs.
The South Korean team, which is primarily made up of high school-aged players, consistently manages to outplay and outmaneuver its opponents using strategies that nobody has ever seen before and it’s turning the pro Overwatch meta on its head.
In today’s match against KongDoo Panthera, Meta’s star player Kim “Libero” Hye Sung took everything you thought you knew about Sombra and threw it out the window, resulting in one of the most aggressive pushes toward the first point on Hanamura ever seen.
Typically Sombra’s Translocator is used to get out of danger in a flash but Libero used it to jump into the action. Libero hacked the enemy Zarya in mid-air and helped take her out while the rest of Meta charged forward. The method worked, primarily because no one would expect a Sombra to appear behind enemy lines like that.
During the same match on the earlier map Numbani, Libero assisted with yet another aggressive and inventive offensive strategy, utilizing Mei’s Ice Wall to give the team an advantageous boost to take the high ground above the payload capture point.
Meta Athena moves like a single entity as they push forward toward the point, moving at the same time in their perfectly coordinated advance. After boosting up the team, Libero used Mei’s Ice Wall a second time as the perfect cover as the team continued. The push is so fast and unexpected, KongDoo Panthera couldn’t help but stand there and get steamrolled.
Earlier this week, Meta pulled off a similar move against Afreeca Freecs Blue, this time on Eichenwalde.
Libero, playing as Mei again, used Ice Wall to boost the team up and around the normal first choke point toward the payload. The team moved around the back of Afreeca Freecs and engaged in a fight inside the house overlooking the payload, which is typically a pretty solid hold for the defensive team. After that move, that game was pretty much over.
Because the ever-dropping time limit is so crucial to Overwatch, these extremely aggressive and surprising plays to overwhelm the defense on the first point are key. The defense has a long walk back after they spawn and by then they’re likely too flustered to gather a strong defense, never sure of what shenanigans Meta might pull next.
Plus, Meta Athena is made up of a bunch of amazingly talented players.
The semifinals of Overwatch Apex Season 2 take place next week, and the finals wrap up on April 4. Meta Athena will definitely be one of the top teams to watch.
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