GUANGZHOU, China, March 30th, 2023 – Call of the Abyss (COA) is Identity V’s top annual global e-sports event, which is conducted in six Divisions: Chinese mainland Division, Japan Division, NAEU Division, Southeast Asia Division, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Division and the Republic of Korea Division. The competition is divided into the in-game audition stage, the online qualifier stage, and the global final stage. Players can build their own clubs to participate in the in-game audition stage, and the Top 8 clubs in each division will be invited to the online qualifiers of each division. The winner of the final qualifier from each division will be invited to the global finals to compete with the invited teams.
The 2023 COA VI global qualifier was officially initiated on February 17. Final qualifiers were organized in each division in sequence for the list of the final. After three weeks of fierce competition, the qualifiers for non-Chinese Mainland divisions have officially ended. NAEU Division, Republic of Korea Division, Southeast Asia Division, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Division, and Japan Division have respectively completed the online qualifying competitions with 8 winners for the competition of the next stage. They are going to compete with the winning teams from the Chinese Mainland and other invited clubs from IVL, IJL and IVC. There will be 20 teams together to compete in the global final of COAVI.
Great Games in 5 Divisions
The competition format of COAVI has been upgraded this year. There will be 20 clubs in the global final, allowing more clubs to compete. In the qualifying matches from non-Chinese Mainland divisions, we’ve seen many great games that are beyond the expectation. Players from different divisions also dedicated distinctive operations based on their understanding of the game, which brought us a number of wonderful games. The list for qualifying game winners is OM and B4U from the NAEU Division, MS from the Republic of Korea Division, RD from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Division, Zt, the winning club, and GH, the invited team from the Southeast Asia Division and AXZ, FL and RC, the winning clubs and ZETA and SZ, the invited team from Japan Division. For the Chinese Mainland Division, there will be 7 winners from the qualifying games along with the invited clubs Wolves and GG for the final. The champion of the global final will come from these 20 clubs.
The Game Where Everyone Brought Out Their Best
In the qualifying games of COAVI in non-Chinese Mainland divisions, players all brought out their best with excellent operation based on their understanding of the game and the competition.
In the qualifying game of Republic of Korea Division, all were impressed by the very first show of “Nightmare” the Hunter and Survivors excellent presentation of Doctor. Players from NAEU also have a unique understanding of the choice of the lineup, and in the competition, they are more inclined to choose the double player lineup to achieve higher stability of the club and more space for operation. In contrast, Players from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan division has similar operations to players from the Chinese Mainland in terms of lineup selection, and they focus more on the speed of decoding of Cipher Machine with 1 or 2 fixers in their lineup, which will offer certain advantages based on the current mechanism and the future operation. The tactics taken by the Southeast Asia Division is bolder with Lawyer replacing regular fixers in the lineup. We can see that Japanese players play a wonderful operation through close cooperation and strive for a higher upper limit on the premise of ensuring the stability of the game.
Republic of Korea Division: MS won the game.
The MS team, the winner of the online qualifier in the Republic of Korea Division, is a club with rich experience in the game. Last year, the club made it to the top 12 of the COAV knockout stage. It carries with a strong momentum in this year’s qualifier too, with outstanding performance from the Survivor and the Hunter. The Survivors from MS club delivered outstanding performance in the overall controlling of the game with rather average performance in the lasting time and the speed of decoding, from which we know that members of team are equipped with advanced abilities. MS Im So Ov O showed a high level in the seasoned use of skills in role and psychological gaming especially on mastering the Female Dancer’s Music Box and the splendid dancing steps. MS_M1TakE, the Hunter from MS is equally outstanding to attain 4 wins when the teammates are at a slight disadvantage, which lays a solid foundation for the final win of the game.
Southeast Asia Division: Zt won the qualifying game. GH will be invited.
The Zt club is also a traditional player in the Southeast Asia Division. They have participated in the Southeast Asia IVC and COA for many times. In this year’s qualifier, they have steadily displayed their strong strength. Zt_Sneaky, the Hunter, is good at mastering multiple roles, whether it is the dream witch, a popular choice of the competition, or Sculptor and Geisha who have strong personal features. The Survivor from Zt is equally outstanding who, through the individual containment ability of the players and the close cooperation between teammates, obtained 3 even 4 wins for the team. Zt_Mx who applies a strong retaining ability to work with Zt_Xizi, the Antiquarian, to get three Cipher Machine with the Lawyer’s feature of seeing Hunter through. It is also impressive to witness Zt_Potato, the Seer, escape through Cellar under ultimate situations. With a good cooperation with Survivor and Hunter, Zt club has won the qualifying game with no regrets for this year.
NAEU Division: B4U and OM Won.
With one more qualifying place in this division for this year, the competition has become fiercer. In the end, B4U and OM won the qualifying game and made it to the COA VI global final. B4U has been the traditional winner in this division, participating in COA on behalf of NAEU for multiple times, representing the strength for NAEU. Great cooperation among survivors disrupted the opponent’s Hunter’s rhythm with many good operations. B4U_Sprintzer, a star player, continued the good momentum from last year with a high 4-catch rate of 67%, bring their club to the stage of global final.
OM is a dark horse in the region this year. OM_Nico, the Hunter, with a superb performance of eliminating 2.86 opponents ever game, broke even in the final key round with the opponent. The good cooperation among Survivors from OM brought the team to the final with a stable performance. Now the team is known as the secret weapon from the NAEU Division.
Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Division: RD won the qualifying game.
In the qualifying match, RD club had a thrilling yet exciting experience, but luckily, they defeated powerful opponents and made it the final of COA. In the game with Bz, despite of challenges of Survivor being caught, the Survivor and Hunter still brought superb operations without being impacted by the previous situation and even achieved an outstanding comeback in the end. RD_PINPIN successful caught Hunter in the beginning for a very long time, which other teammates can use to crack the Cipher Machine. After that, in the competition with Esp, RD won the last place to the COAⅥ global final.
Japan Division: AXZ, FL and RC won the qualifying game. ZETA and SZ will be invited.
The Japan Division is not only the second largest professional division except the Chinese mainland Division, but also the second largest number of participating clubs and promotion places, so the competition in the Japan Division appears to be fiercer.
There will be 3 clubs from the qualifying games and the other 2 invited clubs. All the clubs are very seasoned not only in their personal operation but also in their understanding of the game and more experience in the lineup. Looking back at the qualifying game, we could find that there was no overlapping in the pool of Hunters in AXZ, representing more advantages and more possibilities in the BP stage. There were in total 25 players, ranking in the Top 3 among all clubs. FL has leveraged the pool to the most. A stable performance of Survivors with good coordination of supporting positions brought a very good result in three run or even 33% of 4 runs. On the other hand, RC had a more challenging journey where they focus more on stability. RC applied Embalmer more than once to improve the stability with a double ob of Prospector and Antiquarian, making sure that another teammate has a second chance. The winning rate of survivor was as high as 50%. It is expected that all these clubs will be able to bring a good performance of the Japanese division in the COA VI global stage and bring more wonderful games.
The final list is locked with all eyes on the global final.
The qualifiers of COA VI in non-Chinese mainland divisions has come to an end, and winners from five divisions from non-Chinese mainland divisions have been settled, including clubs that are familiar to COA audience and some new dark horses. These clubs have already shown their edge in the qualifiers and will also represent their respective divisions in the COA VI global final. The top clubs from the six divisions will step onto the stage of the Identity V together on April 7th to compete for the ultimate honor.
This year’s COA VI will set up two offline venues for the global finals: Hangzhou, China and Tokyo, Japan. All the players from non-Chinese mainland divisions will join the COA VI final in
the offline venue in Tokyo, Japan.
Identity V Call of the Abyss (COA) Global Final is about to begin. On April 7th, group stage is about to start with competitive players from each division. Everyone is going to bring out their best for the Identity V Worldwide E-sports festival. We’ll look forward to the extraordinary shows of each team on the stage of the global finals and stay tuned for the ultimate winner!
About NetEase Games
NetEase Games, the online games division of NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES and HKEX: 9999), is a leading global developer and publisher of video game IP across a variety of genres and platforms. NetEase Games’ development and publishing slate include titles such as Knives Out, Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, and Naraka: Bladepoint, and partnerships with major entertainment brands such as Warner Bros and Mojang AB (a Microsoft subsidiary). NetEase Games also supports the growth and development of its innovative global studios in Canada, Europe, Japan and the United States. For more information, please visithttps://www.neteasegames.com/
