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The quarter-finals for the Australian Contenders League have just concluded, and there’s lots more to learn from these matches than simply which teams have made it to the next round.
A new patch brings a new hero into the mix as well as other changes, which make it a much smoother experience for spectators, bringing Contenders slightly closer to how we experience League matches.
Hammond aka Wrecking Ball has made his competitive debut and this hamster really seems to be shaking things up on certain maps. His ability to attack to a fixed object and swing at enemies to do damage to a group all at once has really put a damper on grouped-up compositions. He can also knock players back using this, getting some sweet environmental kills on maps like Volskaya Industries and Lijiang Tower, and his ultimate is possibly one of the most literal zoning ults we’ve seen.
It seems it’s currently player preference to swing above the enemy team and come crashing down on them in a choke point while also unleashing his mines. It’s incredibly effective and I’d be surprised if we don’t see this kind of thing when the World Cup kicks into gear later this week.
Photo: Blizzard Entertainment
I mentioned before that if you’re wanting to get into Contenders League, these finals are a good place to start, especially if you plan on watching them play live in the Melbourne esports open. Blizzard has just made this so much easier with the introduction of contenders skins.
For obvious reasons, this isn’t like league skins, where every team has their home-and-away colours. Instead, there is a generic green, black and white scheme for all contenders. For league fans, this does make it look kind of like the Houston Outlaws are always playing against themselves but it’s a small price to play.
Each match will have one team assigned the home skin and another the away, meaning that you can instantly tell to which team members belong. A team will also keep the designated skin throughout the entirety of the match-up so there’s no random swapping to confuse things.
Just like League, moves are also colour-coded to the team so there’s no question about who’s ultimate has just been used or if that Moira ball bouncing around is a good or bad thing for the clustered group.
Watching Contenders compared to some of the larger scale productions, it’s always been fairly obvious that this is a less funded effort. There’s a charm to it in the sense that it’s not the major leagues, but it could be a bit hard to watch sometimes, which probably doesn’t help on the numbers side of things.
This small change brings Contenders much closer in line with what we should see in spectator esports – it’s just so much easier to watch and it couldn’t have come at a more important time.
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In terms of what you’re going to see in the semi-finals, you probably won’t be surprised that the Sydney Drop Bears won their match against Serenity.
They did falter on one map and games weren’t as much of a snowball as we might expect from this team, so there’s some speculation over whether or not they’ll remain the powerhouse we’ve seen so far.
A bit more surprising was Kanga securing victory over Legacy – I had picked these two teams as somewhat even but Kanga dominated and from this have taken the favourite spot to take on the Drop Bears. They’ll get their chance in the semis, where these two are matched up and this will definitely be the game to watch. The potential for an upset here still feels slim but if it happens there’s no telling what we’ll see next.
Order (formerly Blank Blue) and Dark Sided both unsurprisingly won their matches without much fanfare, and are paired up for a semi-final playoff. Casters are predicting Dark Sided to have this one in the bag after their quick victory over Tainted Minds, but this match could also be close.
There’s a bit of a gap before we can find out what will happen, with these games being pushed back until September 1, so they can be held live at the Rod Laver Arena as part of the Melbourne Esports Open.
It’s shaping up to be closer than expected though, with teams really giving it their all.