Mikogami Kotone’s Team Wraps Day 1 of Overwatch Tournament Scrims, With the Final Day Next

NIJISANJI — Team Wan’ope, a five-player Nijisanji Overwatch team made up of Mikogami Kotone, Hoshirube Sho, Yuuhi Riri, Onotora and Fura Kanato, played its first day of scrims, or practice matches against other teams, for the #にじEX_OW tournament on Oct. 23. All five streamed the evening from their own channels. The team’s name plays on *wan’ope*, Japanese slang for a job one person is left to do alone.

Yuuhi Riri and Hoshirube Sho started more than two hours before the others, going over replays of their own play with a coach. The advice covered spending Moira’s ultimate, which charges quickly, as soon as a fight began; where a support should stand on high ground to keep healing without being cornered; and telling teammates before using an ultimate up front so they could set up for it. “You explain it so well that I feel like I’ve understood all of it,” came one reply.

“We can still get stronger.” — Mikogami Kotone, closing her stream

The scrims began after the others joined, with a coach on the call for the team. Before the first match the players settled on their calls, and one said a plain call of “retreat” was one they could act on right away. Each opponent was played over a set of maps, and between sets the coach went through replays: placing a turret behind a wall where it could not be destroyed from the front, holding an ultimate when a teammate’s could cover the fight, and reporting to the main group when the side lanes were being lost. Onotora was moved onto Mei for practice on King’s Row, and Fura Kanato was praised both for an ultimate thrown after drawing out an enemy’s escape and for calling out enemy numbers.

Chat filled with “nice” in its busiest stretches, and one message called Onotora’s wall excellent. During what the players called a praise break, the coach said the team’s fundamentals were already in place, leaving fine details and individual aim to work on. Between maps the five switched their player icons to matching Japan national team designs, and on one map the team counted 36 kills.

With the players tired, the coach skipped feedback after the last map, saying payload maps were hard and showed big gaps between teams, and that playing them this way the team would not lose to anyone. Yuuhi Riri said the match had been dicey in places but that everyone was strong, so it was not a one-person job after all. Onotora said the day had given him confidence and that he trusted his teammates enough to focus on his own role. Kotone said what the team had practiced had come through in play, but that there was no room for complacency with the tournament ahead. “We can still get stronger,” she said. The final scrim day was set for that evening at around 9:30 p.m., with the tournament itself to follow.