We’re hours away from the main event of the APAC Premier tournament, which will pit China’s best teams against a selection of elite teams from the rest of the world.
The main event of the APAC Premier involves six Chinese teams that came through online qualifiers and six world teams that were invited to the event. Unlike the recent Overwatch Open, we’ll be seeing cross-region play right from the get-go. With close to $200,000 up for grabs – and $75,000 for the winner – there’s a lot more than regional pride on the line.
The opening round will have three groups of four, each with two Chinese and two invited teams. Action kicks off in Group A as Chinese team Snake eSports battles Japanese team Unsold Stuff Gaming. ESL’s Jason Kaplan and UberShouts will cast the event live from Shanghai.
Start
October 6th at 9:00 CEST / 12 AM PDT / 3 AM EDT
Stream
Europe's Rogue and North America's NRG may be the teams that Western viewers will be most familar with, but there are plenty of other powerful teams in the tournament. The GosuGamers rankings have Group B team Skadi's Gift as Asia's strongest team. At #9 in the world, they're ahead of big names like NRG, Luminosity, Dignitas, and compLexity. Group C's NGA held the title of best in Asia for a while, and will certainly look to this tournament as an opportunity to take that title back. Invictus Gaming Fire, who open against Skadi's Gift, turned heads when five of their six players were selected to represent Team China in the Overwatch World Cup.
While a handful of Korean teams have tested themselves against North American teams in the GosuGamers weeklies, this is the first time we're seeing Asia and the West collide at a major LAN event. It could be anyone's game.
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