Friday’s OGN matches will be played on a tournament realm

OGN Overwatch APEX season two is trying to hold off the Bastion meta for a little longer.

Blizzard released a new patch to the game on Feb. 28, giving Bastion a serious buff. Roadhog, Winston, and D.Va all saw various changes, too. It’s the Bastion adjustments—and a D.Va bug—that’s likely the reason for OGN’s hesitance to play official matches on the new patch.

According to Timo “Taimou” Kettunen of EnVyUs—the last international team remaining in the OGN Overwatch APEX season two—Friday’s matches will be played on the “old patch,” meaning the version of the game before Bastion got reworked.

Bastion’s reworking is on track to significantly change the competitive Overwatch meta, and professional players likely haven’t had enough time to practice with the changes. Taimou declined further comment on Friday’s matches. Dot Esports has reached out to OGN for more information.

Tournament matches for the OGN Overwatch APEX season two have recently switched over to a special tournament server, allowing for a much more stable environment for competitive play. Overwatch casters Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles and Erik “DoA” Lonnquist confirmed the new server during tournament broadcasts last week. These special servers, supported by Blizzard, are likely the reason OGN is able to reverse patches to benefit tournament play.

EnVyUs will take on Lunatic-Hai on March 3 at 4am CT. KongDoo Uncia versus RunAway will follow.

UPDATE March 2 at 5:24pm CT: Blizzard has confirmed to Dot Esports that Friday’s OGN Overwatch APEX matches will be played on patch 1.7. Called the Overwatch Professional Region, the tournament realm will be open to approved professional teams for scrims.

“We’ve been excited to leverage the Overwatch Professional Region at OGN APEX to maintain consistent levels of competition, and we’ll continue to use the Overwatch Professional Region at select high level competitions moving forward,” Overwatch esports manager Trevor Housten told Dot Esports.

“Among many things, it will allow us to choose which patch the tournament is played on, giving the professional players time to adapt to changes before competing in a tournament environment. This Friday’s OGN APEX matches will be played on Patch 1.7. The Overwatch Professional Region will also be made available to approved teams for scrims.”