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The Uprising and the Fusion have been eerily similar teams this season. Both teams have extremely talented DPS players stuck playing tanks thanks to GOATs. Both teams have severely struggled to break themselves from the pack of .500 teams. Why? Because both team’s main tanks are almost always the focus of their opponents. While Fusions is focused due to his importance as a shot-caller, Sado is focused because his hyper-aggressive positioning makes him an easy target.
Previously on Philly vs Boston
Earlier when these two teams met, Philly was able to slow down Boston’s lightning fast start to pull out a 2-1 victory. After a definitive win on Ilios and a close tie on Paris, Boston moved to play GOATs in the following maps. Philly happily obliged, as it allowed Sado to play to his aggressive style
Boston was unable to keep up with fast paced-aggressive GOATs comps Philly brought. Several times Boston was far too slow to rotate or react to Philly’s advances. Whether it be pateience or just hesitance, Boston got rolled on Hollywood and Gibralatar. But that was two weeks ago now, and Boston is a more confident team now. The Uprising are in full control of the match, as long as they take advantage of Sado’s terrible positioning.
Taking Notes From Atlanta
Last week against the Atlanta Reign the Fusion had trouble closing out maps and had to go to a fifth map. The reason for this struggle was Sado’s almost tunnel-vision like play on Havana. Where Philly could have finished the match here, Sado decides to take matters in his own hands and fails.
On point B, Philly’s attack looked to have successfully broken the Atlanta defense. However, a greedy play by Sado denies them the point. Here we have Sado demonstrating why his play is so dangerous to the success of Philly.
After a grav from Babybay, Atlanta and Philly have found themselves in a long, drawn-out fight. Just mere meters from the payload, Dogman is able to nano-boost Erster in a last ditched effort to hold the point. While a nano’d Brig could be quite the threat, a coordinated team effort could put her down without an issue. Unless of course someone decides the Ana is a better target. Sado splits away from his back line in hopes to kill Dogman, but doesn’t realize two things.
- Babybay is on high ground with very high charge, able to melt Sado if he doesn’t hold his shield.
- Sado has no support from his back line because they are fighting a nano’d Erster.
Philly loses this fight, because not only does Ana live here, but the Philly supports die very quickly without a tank to defend them.
A minute later, we see Sado do something very similar.
A fight breaks out on the catwalk on point B. Seeing the opposing Rein get nano-boosted, Sado aims to charge Pokpo in order to mitigate the aggression. Despite the good intentions, Sado leaves himself alone against four members of the Reign. One failed shatter later, Sado is the first to die and Philly fails to capture point B. The unnecessary aggression caused Philly to take a fight they weren’t ready for.
Sit Sado?
Sado has been the focal point of a lot of debate among Philly fans. If you’re out of the loop, the Fusion have two main tanks on their roster: Sado and Fragi. Sado’s over zealous Reinhardt play has left fans begging for Fragi, a notoriously strong Reinhardt player, to play and instill some life into the Philly front line. The main issue however is Sado’s proficiency on Winston, and Fragi’s noticeably poor Winston play, leaves Philly in a weird spot. Playing Fragi would immediately signal a Reinhardt composition, while playing Sado provides an option of both Rein and Winston GOATs.
Boston’s Best Bet
Simply put, Boston’s best shot of beating this Philly team is to go back to what works. Hackfist allows Boston to solo out Sado and eliminate him before he can have an impact on the fight. The Atlanta game showcases how easy it is to bait out a wildly aggressive play from Sado. Punishing his position will put extra pressure on his off tanks to go and save him, putting them out of position as well. With the last game of the stage this Saturday, Boston looks to keep their momentum up from last weeks thriller against Paris.
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