Identity V COAV Non-Chinese Mainland Region Online Qualifiers Come To An End

From February 18 to March 13, Identity V Call of The Abyss V (COAV) non-Chinese mainland region's qualifying tournament lasted for one month and officially ended. Clubs from five regions: Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong & Macau & Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and NA-EU have concluded the online qualifying games.

Winners will compete with the Chinese mainland's winning clubs and each region's invited clubs in the COAV global finals on April 16, 2022. And the world champion of Identity V Call Of The Abyss V will be one of these 16 clubs.

Identity V COAV Tournament

This year's COA V is split into In-Game Tournament, Online Qualifier, and Live Global Finals. Players can choose their teammates in the In-Game Tournament, and the Top 8 qualifying clubs in each region will advance to Online Qualifiers in the region. The winner will move to the Global Finals along with invited clubs.

A total of 100,077 clubs worldwide participated in In-Game Tournament, and 4,598,912 matches were played out. In the end, the top 8 clubs (top 7 in Korea) were selected in each region. In the past month of online qualifiers, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong & Macau & Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and NA-EU adopted the single-elimination format, meaning you lose once, you lose the game. In contrast, Japan adopted a double-elimination format, giving more chances to clubs.

All qualifiers were online. Clubs compete for the only chance to advance, meaning each game could be the vital one. Therefore, the top clubs from each region spared no effort and played as best as possible.

All clubs were neck and neck. In the end, B4U from NA-EU, MS from the Republic of Korea, BL from the Southeast Asia Region, BZ from Hong Kong & Macau & Taiwan Regions, and AG from Japan outperformed others and earned slots to the COAV finals, together with SST and SZ from Japan IVC, GH from Southeast Asia IVC and Wolves and DOU5 from Chinese Mainland IVL in the Global Finals on April 16.

Identity V COAV Non-Chinese Mainland Region Action

Clubs in each region brought out their best in Identity V COA V qualifiers.

• South Korean clubs showed their high proficiency in less-known characters, winning competitors with unexpected moves in the global arena.
• Clubs in NA-EU played the game with their unique and innovative moves while keeping up the game's lineup.
• After the IVC tournament, the Southeast Asian clubs began to change their moves with preferences for more aggressive characters.
• Players in Hong Kong & Macau & Taiwan tend to be more conservative in the international arena and clubs like old characters with good performance records like the "former ace Hunter" Bloody Queen.
• As the most developed non-Chinese mainland region in e-sports, Japan showed equally powerful strength as mainland professional clubs. They were particularly innovative in the combination of characters to bring out the most special lineups and peculiar playing ideas.

Republic of Korea's "special play" was the secret to success. ImSoSexy from MS made a huge contribution to the club's victory with his/her master of Enchantress in the fight against the Hunter and was selected MVP of the region. At the same time, MS squad's Hunter papua presented a perfect play of Disciple. In the first round against DR of the first day, papua stopped the opponent's Survivor Painter with his/her excellent skills, keeping the whole game under control by accurately predicting the opponent's next move, laying a solid foundation for their club to win.

B4U from NA-EU, a regular in COA, has chosen to keep up with the regulation and innovate in this year's tournament, adjusting to the current international scene. Sprintzer, the Hunter of B4U, used the Dream Witch to kill the way out for its team within the region. In the first game of B4U's match against VAK, Sprintzer used the Dream Witch to find the Mechanic in the opening game and then used encirclement and interception to hold the Cipher machine and broke Survivors one by one while having the game over control, maximizing his personal strength on the field of play and helping the team win in the end.

Since Southeast Asia (SEA) participated in the IVC and IVS tournaments, they started to change the style in the international arena, giving up those "special plays" but following more closely to the version. The Hunters generally have a higher win rate than the Survivors in the qualifiers. Meanwhile, Hunters favor aggressive characters like "Breaking Wheels" and master at breaking the opponent's rhythm with high speed.

After GH won the IVC championship last year and was directly invited to advance to the COAV finals, BL got a place in the Southeast Asian qualifier. As a veteran team in Southeast Asia, BL's understanding of the game and its ability to respond to the field are unrivaled. On the first day, BL advanced to the next round with a score of 5:0 in two games, and in the final of the qualifier against LUV, it still mastered the game's rhythm. Hunter Sculptor from LUV completed triple kill in the defining moment in the first half of the first game, whereas Hunter of BL replied with a quadra kill in the second half with the whole game under its control. BL Hunter won the first half of the second round with a big heart and a good score of 5:0. In the second half, the Survivor player steadily and finally kept a draw, and the BL won the game with 13:5 and advanced to the COAV finals.

Clubs from Hong Kong & Macau & Taiwan prefer aggressive characters, paired with ever-changing strategies to enrich the lineup. The Bz club tends to play safe cards by choosing characters that they can manage with high proficiency. The club is known as resilient and robust. When fighting with RDS, Bz's Hunter played Bloody Queen so well that with only two cipher machines available, she managed Aqua Mirror to turn the "seemingly tied" game into Hunter's quadra kill, presenting the strong dominance of Bloody Queen. In the final player between Bz vs. Pika, in the first half of the first game, Bz's Survivor Entomologist went to the basement, and the Survivor Forward made the correct prediction and helped the team win three points.

In the second half, Bloody Queen, the Hunter of Bz, succeeded in blocking the opponent's rescue during the game, then quickly took it away. She brought away the last Survivor from the opponent's team at the last minute, completing the quadra kill and getting a score of 5:0. In the first half of the second round, UKG, the Hunter of Bz, once again used his ultra-accurate Mirror Image to complete the triple kill and scored three points. In the second half, the Survivor club chose the lineup to maintain a perfect draw in the second half, which eventually helped the club to advance.

The last station of COA V was in Japan, a developed region for Identity V's e-sports tournaments. Many Japanese clubs frequently play with Chinese clubs. Some are now professional players; for example, SST and SZ, who won the invitation tickets to the COAV Finals through IVC, have become professional clubs. During this year's qualifiers, the professional and amateur clubs in the Japanese tournaments competed against each other in high-level matches.

In the game ZETA vs. Jok, professional ZETA showed perfect teamwork with outstanding ability against Hunter and accurate prediction, beating the opponent with a 5-point advantage. The amateur team showed no fear and kept fighting back till the last minute. As the representative of the amateur team, the AG team had an excellent performance in the qualifiers. When against Dawn, AG's Supervisor Sculptor PiPiCha surprised everyone with his marvelous operation, leading the club to the final win.

In the last game between AG and WW, these two equally great amateur clubs tied in the first round of the fight of Survivors after each team took a brief lead. The tie wasn't broken until the second round when AG Hunter PiPiCha used the Breaking Wheel to win the first quadra kill with a good score of 5:0. Survivors of AG took the momentum and showed great teamwork in the first half of round 3. In the meantime, Entomologists blocked the opponent's view with a smart move, helping the team to win a 3-point advantage. In the end, AG Hunter PiPiCha used Naiad to achieve a perfect quadra kill to end the game with 5:0, advancing to COA V Global Final.

Identity V COAV Global Final Coming in April 2022

After COAV non-Chinese mainland online qualifiers, we now have the winners from five regions, including regulars in the international arena and the newcomers.

Through online qualifiers, these clubs have made impressive shows. And after that, they will compete in the COAV global finals, representing their region. We will witness clubs from all over the world in the Identity V international arena to fight for the supreme honor.