osu!catch World Cup 2018: Grand Finals Recap

Of our three fruit-obsessed finalists, only one team could be crowned this year's osu!catch World Cup Champions. Chile, China and the United States – through the fire and the falling, which would reign supreme? All the juicy details can be found within!

Greetings once again everyone, JBHyperion here for your final osu!catch World Cup 2018 update. The sun has set on the year's premiere fruit-catching tournament at last, and a team of worthy Champions have been crowned.

It was truly a tournament for the ages, as old gods fell, and new warriors arose to forever etch their names in history. There were ties and tiebreakers aplenty. Some crept by on the narrowest of margins, whilst others, sadly, fell agonizingly short. Needless to say, my expectations have been exceeded on almost every conceivable level!

There's no need to simply take my word for it though – naturally you can find videos of both Finals Week 2 matches (and previous' weeks if you need a refresher) on the osu!live Twitch channel. If you can spare some time, you absolutely will not regret watching all the action as it went down!

Finals Week 2

Having been defeated in last week's Winners' Bracket Final, Chile dropped to the Losers' Bracket at last, setting up a date with China for a spot in the Grand Final. China, who has themselves dropped to the Losers' Bracket after a Quarter Final tiebreaker loss to the United States, were in the ascendancy, having methodically crushed every other team in their path.

Rampant 6-1 victories over the Netherlands and Hong Kong, a 7-1 victory over 2016 runners-up Indonesia, and even a 7-3 victory over three-time Champions South Korea headlined their intent at both revenge, and consequently, a third osu!catch World Cup win of their own.

A comfortable opening victory on Memme - Goat Fantasia would not provide much solace for the Chileans, as the Chinese team strung together five victories on the bounce, including a humiliating triple fail capitulation for Chile early into the rarely-seen DoubleTime pick, nanobii - HYPERDRIVE.

Chile would secure a second point on Morimori Atsushi - Paradigm Shift courtesy of a typically gutsy one-miss from eldnl, but by this point the damage was done. China had secured victories in each of the four mod pools and left Chile nowhere to turn, eventually securing a 7-2 victory, as well as a rematch against the Americans for the ultimate prize.

China contesting for their third World Cup triumph after 2012 and 2016, the United States making their first ever Grand Final appearance. The final showdown between these two teams, widely tipped for the Grand Final before and during the tournament, was about to begin. Having come from the Losers' Bracket, China would have to win two best-of-13 matches, back-to-back to take home the crown.

The United States got off to the perfect start, winning the roll by a single point and settling the nerves with an opening pick victory on the punishing, old-style tones of YuFu - Holy Moon. China would immediately respond with a crushing DoubleTime victory as they have done so often throughout this tournament, but then the tactics begun.

United States' captain Zak sought to exploit this by picking Memme - Goat Fantasia, forcing China not only on to a pick they had shown to be weak on, but also to immediately adapt from AR 10.5 to AR 8 Hidden. This was a risky strategy that unforunately unsettled his own team more than the Chinese, who were allowed to obtain a narrow break-point victory and set the Americans on the back foot.

The teams traded blows for a time, China coming out the victors in DoubleTime and HardRock, the United States on NoMod. After an enthralling eleven thousand point victory on Morimori Atsushi - Paradigm Shift where one player from both teams failed and US player chickenbible revived on the final note, the scores were perfectly poised at 5-3 to the Chinese.

Unfortunately for the United States, their viable pick options were running out, and they were forced onto the previously unseen USAO - Boss Rush. Clearly beginning to falter under the pressure, the misses began to creep in and China were finally able to break the Americans' NoMod dominance, setting up a final point for themselves on KASAI HARCORES - Cycle Hit, securing a 7-3 victory, and forcing a crucial bracket reset.

The second match would follow a much more ominous trend for the Americans, as they watched China reverse the result of two of their winning picks from match one. Staring down a 4-0 deficit, the United States opted to return to Goat Fantasia, this time paying dividends as even the near-infallible Dusk succumbed to a fail.

The United States would record a second point courtesy of Guillotine's Paradigm Shift FC, but with the scoreline sitting at 6-2, China decided, perhaps ironically, to again finish proceedings with Cycle Hit and place the final nail in the coffin for the Americans. Though they fought valiantly through 19 games and over two hours at the keyboard, the United States would have to settle for second place as China reigned supreme once again.

Summary

Congratulations to China on their victory, the United States for their first ever podium placing, and Chile for their first return to the top-three since 2013.

I know I've said it a lot these past few weeks, but this really has been one of the most enthralling and entertaining tournaments in osu!catch history, and perhaps osu! World Cup history as a whole. The match quality was at an insanely high level, there were surprises, shocks and twists seemingly around every corner, and every match was played out in an incredible atmosphere and positive spirit.

It's taken a huge amount of effort to pull this off, so I'd like to give a quick shoutout to everyone who has helped to make this tournament such a success – to our streamers, schedulers and map selectors who lay the crucial foundations, the enriching efforts of the statisticians and my fellow commentary team, and of course, to the players for their skill, dedication, and passion for this great game.

Aside from that though, it wouldn't be nearly as worthwhile were it not for the hundreds (and in some cases, even thousands) of fans who tuned in to watch the tournament unfold with us, to share in the magic with us, and to encourage us all to perform at our best. Your feedback has been great to hear, and you can bet we'll continue working to bring you an even better experience next time out. The osu!catch World Cup may not be the largest, but we'll always aim to be the best!

All the details and statistics can be found on the osu!catch World Cup 2018 wiki page, but that'll be all from me and the rest of the team for the time being. I'm told that information on the upcoming osu!mania 4K World Cup 2018 will be materialising shortly, so keep your eyes peeled for that if you can't bear to be without us for another year!

See ya next time!

–JBHyperion