Australia top of the table after Day 1 of OWWC Bangkok after sweeping host nation Thailand

Against host nation Thailand, the team defied the roaring crowds to give us the only 4-0 sweep of the day. The Australian diehards kept the chants going as Australia managed to constantly be one step ahead.

While the games today were close – closer than some would hope – there were some individual standout performances. Felix “Ckm” Murray, projectile DPS for Blank Esports and Team Australia, played superbly well on Pharah, Genji and Junkrat throughout the day. He was a menace against the GOATs-running Team Spain and a hyper-aggressive Team Thailand.

Blank team mates Hus and Ckm combine to keep Australia alive on Lijiang Tower against Spain.

I spoke to Ckm after Australia’s victory over Thailand about Thailand, playing at LAN and his performances today.

So, how’s Thailand been?

Good, hot and sticky. It’s pretty good to come over to play a LAN. We’ve been scrimming a lot while we’ve been over here, and I love the grind, so it’s been enjoyable.

How’s your preparation been like on the grind?

We have a lot of teams we can scrim – all 5 of the World Cup teams plus Talon and Cyclops from Contenders Pacific. We can share a few more cheesy strats with the latter, but we have to be a bit more reserved with the other World Cup teams. We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve though.

Your last LAN was for Season 1 Pacific, and that didn’t have a crowd. How does it feel to play in front of one?

It’s been great. For the Season 1 Contenders Pacific LAN, we would only play in a studio in front of 20 to 30 people. Here, you’ve got hundreds of screaming fans, which can be intimidating, but I love the adrenaline rush. I haven’t really gotten nervous – maybe a little shaky, but not nervous.

And that really showed in your play today – your Pharah was off the charts. How pleased were you in your performance today?

I mean, against Spain, they didn’t even look at me. Because they were running triple support, they didn’t really have much to deal with me in the air as Pharah. I thought I played terribly on Lijiang Tower but I brought it back. I had a couple of good plays but nothing spectacular.

My Genji on the other hand today was terrible for me. I didn’t have any decent blades, so I’ll be looking to brush up on that for tomorrow.

Your competition for tomorrow is pretty tough too – Denmark first thing in the morning and then Sweden. After getting today out of the way, how do you think you’ll fare with a couple more games under your belt?

Well, we’ve got scrims tonight so I’ll have a bit of time to practice my Genji. I think that we will go alright – we were the only team to 4-0 today so everyone is feeling pretty good. Tomorrow will be our toughest day that’s for sure.

Going into the World Cup, you’d suspect that Sweden would be tougher competition than Denmark, but I’ve been really impressed by them. We’ve scrimmed Denmark a few times and they play the same 1 or 2 deathball comps, and when they played today they played as expected, so as long as we play to counter them then we will be okay.

Well good luck in your scrim tonight, and best of luck on stage tomorrow!

---

Be sure to catch Team Australia play against Denmark and Sweden tomorrow, Saturday 15th September starting from 1pm AEST on Twitch.

Be sure to follow Ckm and Team Australia on Twitter.