In case you missed it, the Overwatch League has a development league akin to baseball’s Triple-A and basketball’s G-League. It’s called “Overwatch Contenders“, and the Boston Uprising’s team, the Uprising Academy, are having one of their best season’s to date.
New to Overwatch? Get caught up on everything Overwatch League by reading our introduction.
With their latest win against the Gladiators Legion, the Uprising Academy cemented their spot in the NA East Overwatch Contenders playoffs. Sitting at 5-2, the Uprising Academy have drastically improved the last time we saw them in Contenders. Back in Season 1 of Contenders, UA had finished 1-6, forcing them to fight for their spot in Contenders Trials – a season long promotion-relegation league where amateur teams can win a spot over the worst Contenders teams.
What I’ve come to realize recently is how little people actually watch Contenders as a whole. So I am here today to catch you up with the Uprising Academy, and help you become the best bandwagon fan you can be.
The Roster
Contenders has a different rule-set than the main league, and sometimes teams will bring in substitutes that aren’t on the main roster. Occasionally teams call in a ringer to fill in for a match, like UA had to do in their most recent game. For the sake of this introduction we will focus on the main roster for now.
| Player | Position | Country |
| Teetawat “Teetawat” Terrayosyotin | Tank | Thailand |
| Leyton “Punk” Gilchrist | Tank | Australia |
| Walid “Mouffin” Bassal | Tank | Canada |
| Cameron “Cameron” Watson | Tank | Scotland |
| Nicolas “Klaus” Ferrari | DPS | Argentina |
| Chris “MirroR” Trinh | DPS | Vietnam |
| Gabriel “Swimmer” Levy | Support | USA |
| Victor “Scaler” Godsk | Support | Denmark |
Season Recap
After finishing with an impressive 7-0 record in Contenders Trials, UA looked to start their redemption arc. Their toughest games came first, having to play Atlanta Academy and the newly-branded GRUNTo Esports (formerly Chicken Contendies) .
The Slow Start
For their first match, UA came out blazing hot against GRUNTo, taking the first map 2-0 on Ilios. But starting out strong doesn’t mean much without the ability to close out matches. The Uprising Academy would go on to lose the next three maps in a row to open the season with a loss.
After the loss against GRUNTo, the Uprising Academy began looking for a new off-support player. Hunter “Dino” Traupe’s contract had expired after Week 1, and the organization decided not to renew it.
Six days later UA signed their current support Scaler, just in time for the match against Atlanta Academy. Normally as teams pick up a new player, we tend to see some regression in a team’s play. But sometimes we see new faces bring vast changes to a team, even leading to some surprise wins. So maybe the signing of Scaler would bring success against Atlanta Academy – one of the top teams in the division?
Sadly that was not the case. The skid would continue further into the next match against Atlanta. Losing 0-4, Uprising Academy started their second season going just 1-7 in maps, and 0-2 in matches. After such a rough loss, it would be easy to fall into the trap of thinking this season would turn out like the last. But that would be incredibly naive of you. This is a Boston team don’t forget, they are extremely hard to keep down.
The Spectacular Run
The week following the brutal Atlanta loss, the Uprising Academy came back in a big way. UA put on a show, beating the Skyfoxes 3-1, only losing the last map in the series. They continued to prove themselves as the following week they beat Phase 2 3-1. In fact, Uprising Academy would go on to win four games in a row with the same score, with two more wins against Bermuda and Square One. Despite early success, Uprising Academy’s coach Raymond “Kolsti” Tea was not content to keep winning 3-1.
Last match of the season came against the fierce Gladiator Legion. Last season they placed 2nd, right behind the dominant Fusion University. In a barn-burner of a match, the Uprising Academy come through to win 2-1 and secure the 3rd overall seed for the playoffs.
Playoff Time
For their first game in the bracket, Uprising Academy have a re-match against the Gladiator Legion. GOATs was still the meta the last time these two played, but going into the playoffs role-lock will be enforced. Expect a coming-out party for Boston and their talented DPS duo, because they’ve shown flashes of brilliance in a meta where DPS was almost non existent.
Catch the game on Twitch August 12th at 10:30 est, and lets cheer on our minor league team!
Be sure to follow Brock on twitter for more breakdowns and analysis #BostonUp
