osu!catch World Cup - RO16/Quarterfinals Recap

A double recap is available this week for both the Round of 16 and the Quarter Finals of osu!catch World Cup! Read on to get up to speed on what to expect for the battle of the top 8 these coming weekends.

The arrival of the Knockout Stage saw our 32 teams of intrepid fruit catchers split in two, with only 16 countries advancing to this past weekend's Round of 16 in a series of head-to-head food fights for supremacy. Whilst the double elimination format of the tournament means that none of the remaining teams have been sent home yet, the battle lines have most certainly been drawn. Which teams remain in the relative safety of the winner's bracket, and which are clinging on by the skin of their teeth? Read on to find out!

The Round of 16 mappool ramped up the difficulty another notch, whilst maintaining a similar balance of specific osu!catch and converted osu!standard difficulties. Also, we saw a rise in popularity for Hidden and DoubleTime picks, the most popular being Spectator's Memme - Cherry Blossom +DT with 6 picks over the 8 matches. The players' catcher control was put to a stern test throughout, most noticeably on the Hidden pick M2U - A Bella!, which saw an average accuracy dipping down to 97.98%.

Hong Kong once again opened the show, this time facing off against one of the tournament favourites in South Korea. The Hong Kong team put up a valiant fight, narrowly missing out in their first two games, the second of which being decided by only 539 points, but as the cracks began to seep in, the Korean team stayed rock solid, convincingly winning each of the remaining games to seal the match 5-0.

Battle continued between Poland and China, who made the curious tactical decision to finish as runners-in in their Group G, in anticipation of an easier side of the draw. A similar series of narrow victories for the Chinese team opened the score up to 3-0 before Poland managed to land a return blow on the HardRock pick Koi Yomi Zakura (Full Ver.). Sadly for the TieBreaker hungry crowd, China would emphatically blast back in their next two games to finish 5-1 to the better.

Romania next looked to continue their impressive debut World Cup performance against last year's runners-up, Indonesia. After seeing a handy lead on their first pick, Kurobukko vs yukitani - Minimachita EVOLVED dramatically evaporate in the final moments to an incredible final spinner by Deceitful, the Romanian team appeared to lose confidence, and despite a couple of spirited attempts to fight back, their remaining four games fell to the Indonesians with a final score of 5-0. They will rue Deceitful in particular as a thorn in their side, who appeared almost unstoppable as he racked up a double S in all five games of the match. Yes - every single one.

A pair of crushing clean sweep victories by Taiwan and Japan over their respective opponents Argentina and Mexico, respectively, concluded the first block of matches, with the action returning in the afternoon session with the Chile taking on The Netherlands. The Commentators and fans alike were almost perfectly divided as to who would emerge the victor here, and these two evenly matched teams certainly did not disappoint, serving up a truly epic duel. Each team won their respective picks for the first three rounds of the match, with The Netherlands achieving a narrow escape of only 2,027 points on their third pick, the endurance-focused CLIFF EDGE feat. Nakamura Maiko - The Distance. The Netherlands finally achieved a break in the 7th game, but were unable to capitalize as Chile immediately stormed back to tie the game up at 4 points apiece. As if written in the destinies from the very beginning, the tiebreaker hype was finally realised, with the Dutch team narrowly emerging the victors.

After seeing Sweden capitalise on an inconsistent United Kingdom side to finish 5-2 in front, the final match of the day was a year in the making, featuring a hotly anticipated repeat of the 2016 semi-final between Germany and The United States. A freak keyboard malfunction for qebrus cost the United States' their first game on Reol - No title, but after this there was no looking back as Germany capitulated to a crushing 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Americans, who will no doubt be celebrating some hard-earned revenge at the expense of their long-time rivals. Of particular note in the match was an impressive "double double S" for United States' players Sponge and Zak on the tricky hyperdash-less Hidden pick Hecq - Dstrukt.

With the threat of elimination looming for those teams unlucky enough to have been caught in the Losers' Bracket, the Quarter Final stage spelled the end of the road for four more of our elite fruit catching teams. On the other side of the coin, four teams remain in the Winners' Bracket, each seeking to put the pressure on their opponents and secure a place in the Grand Final. Read on to peel away at the surface and catch up on all this week's fruity tournament action!

Once again the players were put to the test, sterner still in order to weed out the weak from the strong. There were mixed feelings regarding the NoMod pool, with dj MAX STEROID - Arabian Rave Night being picked up six times, more than any other map in the QF pool, whereas AKI AKANE - Kando*Reduction was banned twice but never picked. Hidden and DoubleTime were equally favoured, whereas HardRock saw the least of the action, perhaps owing to the length and technical nature of the maps chosen making it a sizeable risk to maintain consistency.

The first match of the day saw two of the pre-tournament favourites, Japan and China, sizing each other up, and produce a rather close result in nearly every game despite the final scoreline. After an early exchange brought the score to 1-1, China narrowly managed to break the Japanese side on the endurance DT convert pick Nishino Kana - Darling by just seventeen thousand points, and then won their next pick to take a 3-1 lead. Japan would claim another point in the following two games, but China would then break again to ultimately take a 5-2 victory and knock Japan into the Losers' Bracket.

The second match saw a indomitable South Korean team take a comprehensive 5-0 victory of Sweden, including a triple fail for the Swedish team on the AR8 Hidden pick SHK - Holic, who will now attempt to start on a clean slate in the Losers' Bracket. This was followed by the United Kingdom becoming the first Losers' Bracket team to be eliminated, as their impressive DoubleTime winning streak came to an end against Hong Kong, exploiting a crucial weakness on the Hidden mod.

Back in the Winners' Bracket, The Netherlands put up a spirited defense against last year's Runner Up, Indonesia. Like the UK in the previous match, The Netherlands also overcame a mauling in the Hidden pool to snatch a game and narrowly miss out on two others, the final two games going down to the wire at sixteen thousand and seven thousand points respectively. Unfortunately, Indonesia proved too strong and their rock solid consistency carries them through into the final four in the Winners' Bracket.

The final match of the first block saw the American juggernaut rolled on with a victory over a Taiwanese side who have definitely flown under-the-radar thus far in the tournament. That said, they reminded us all of their quality and class on the World Cup stage here, holding their own throughout the match and taking a point from all three of the available DoubleTime picks. The United States proved too versatile to conquer however, succeeding in the other available pools to eventually finish 5-3 to the good and claim the final available spot in the Winners' Bracket Semi Finals.

Argentina would meet an unfortunate end to their impressive run in the tournament, losing by default against Germany after being unable to participate in their match due to a lack of players. Romania would also see their aspirations for success in their first ever World Cup extinguished at the hands of an improving Chilean side, who again exposed their opponents' weakness to Hidden (emphasised by another triple failure on Holic) on their path to a 5-0 victory which keeps the hopes for a return to Finals Week alive.

The last match of the day saw a confident and rehearsed Polish side square off against the underrated Mexican team. Despite coming out of the blocks strongly with a victory, Poland would suffer at their own hands in trying to trip up Mexico yet again on a perceived Hidden weakness. Whereas Mexico stuck to their strengths in DoubleTime and HardRock, Poland oddly continued with Hidden, being narrowly defeated on the gimmick-laden Hardwell & Joey Dale feat. Luciana - Arcadia. Deflated by this second backfire, there was nothing the Polish side could do to prevent Mexico wrapping up a surprise 5-1 victory, and thus became the final team to depart from the tournament at this stage.

Twelve teams remain in the tournament, but only one can emerge victorious. If you want to find out who battles their way to the top, be sure to join us once again this Saturday the 24th of June at 11:00 UTC on the osu!live Twitch channel! China will open proceedings once again, this time taking on Indonesia in what could well prove to be a thrilling rematch between the two 2016 finalists. If you want to show your undying love and support for your team of choice, be sure to drop by the osu!store and pick up a profile banner before it's too late!

Until next time, happy fruit catching everyone!

—JBHyperion