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Saturday, June 30th @ 7:00pm: San Francisco Shock
There’s an old saying that familiarity breeds contempt. For the Boston Uprising, who face the Philadelphia Fusion Saturday for the second time in two weeks, that means they’ll have an abundance of contempt to fuel them in this matchup. Don’t underestimate the power of pent up frustration. Look at last week. After losing to Paris two weeks earlier, Boston faced off with the Eternal again. We know how that ended – in a violent outburst only a soul crushing reverse sweep could cause. Can the Uprising go 2-2 in Stage 3 rematches?
Philadelphia Fusion
First, they’ll need to solidify the support line. With Aimgod and Kellex back on stage together, Boston was competitive with the top tier San francisco Shock, and reverse swept the Paris Eternal. Has Boston turned the corner and realized these two give them their best chance to win? Or does Huk want to keep playing with the toys in his war chest and see if he can build up more trade bait for other teams? While rumors, innuendo, and fake news crept around the internet about internal strife between Kellex/Aimgod, the two clearly give the Uprising their best chance to win.
Beyond the roster, Boston needs to settle on strats. In their last matchup, Boston played a lot of Sombra GOATs. We’ve seen all stage that Boston has slowly let go of living the GOATs life, abandoning it completely in both matches last week. They played a lot of Hackfist, PharMercy, bunker, and four dps. This played more to Boston’s strengths and caught Paris off guard. Only one of those is likely to be true this time. With Blase popping off on Fist, Fusions playing inspired Wrecking Ball/Winston, and Hex swapping back and forth between Zarya and Widow/Pharah, now’s not the time to lose your nerves. Lean in. All the chips in the middle. No hesitation. Live or die with these off meta comps as the sun sets on GOATs, and 2-2-2 is forced in Stage 4.
To win against Philadelphia every player is going to need to execute. Can Fusion avoid the focus fire and stand on his head? Will rCk avoid getting picked first and farm his EMP before their Sombra – Carpe? How will Aimgod and Kellex play when the internet’s rumor mill is on overdrive about them? Boston will need that synergy that we know they’re capable of. Only their best Overwatch will do it against a good team like Philly.
Outlook
I like Boston’s chances Saturday. As Blase said in this weeks Sights and Sounds video, these guys lost their confidence. Their swagger. Well if that’s the case, a patented reverse sweep ought to have given the boys some pep in their step. No reason to fear last year’s Grand Finals runner ups. Every reason to shove these zebra print wearing has-beens into a locker. No excuses.
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Welcome back to Team Fight Tuesday here at BSE. What a weekend for the Uprising huh? Sure they got smacked by San Francisco, but who really had the Uprising winning that match anyway?
You know what? I’m thinking it’s time for @BostonUprising to come back in a huge way. Calling my shot now, 3-1 Uprising over the Shock. I can feel it way down in my plums #OWL2019https://t.co/fTsejJR6Go
Yeah, you’d have to be really brave or really dumb to have the Uprising upset the shock.
The real story here is the amazing match against the Paris Eternal on Sunday. Starting the match 0-2, it looked like just another moment in rock bottom for Boston. Except the map that Paris had to win was none other than Boston’s home court – Eichenwalde.
Boston’s Second Eichenwalde Attack
Even though Boston is 2-2 on Eichenwalde, it has been the map where Boston likes to start their reverse sweeps. Against both Toronto and Atlanta, Boston was able to turn the matches around on this map. It’s only fitting that after a rough skid Boston would find their groove where they play best. And in true Boston form, the Uprising decided to wait till the very last moment to win the map.
The first attack was dominated by Colourhex and his amazing display of Pharah play. His 4 kills alone won them the point and left Paris reeling. However, it seemed as though Paris was ready for Chex the second time around. They opted for a Dva over the Sombra for their defensive setup. Though Sombra is quite the pain for Pharah, Dva brings much more utility and sustain in a high-pressure situation like this defense.
With an early sleep onto Colourhex Paris immediately halts the Boston assault. Shortly after both AimGod and blasé are killed. The attack appeared to have failed, and Boston would have to settle for another match loss.
That is, until Kellex revives blasé, who proceeds to put the team on his back. Time to track how hard blasé carries this fight.
blasé Punches His Way Through Paris
As blasé comes back, Paris makes the mistake of using a sleep dart to try and sleep Fusions rather than blasé. Sleep dart has an 12 second cooldown, giving blasé a large window of opportunity for aggressive play. Now the only hard crowd control Paris has left is Brigitte’s shield bash. Naturally, blasé is aware of this as well, and focuses NiCOgdh first.
Doomfist Hard Carry Meter
Low
The second mistake was trying to fight a Doomfist inside close quarters. As blasé escapes to wait on his cooldowns, Kruise and Finnsi attempt to finish off Boston’s low health Doomfist. What Paris did not expect, was for blasé to punch away Finnsi and one-shot Kruise.
blasé survives this.
Doomfist Hard Carry Meter
Medium
Meanwhile on point, BenBest uses shatter to stun Fusions and rCk in hopes to gain a player advantage over the Uprising. Altough rCk does die, Fusions manages to live and continue contesting the point. NiCOgdh swaps to Tracer to race back to point, leaving Paris no hope for a Brig rally.
Now that two of the supports are down, it only makes sense to focus down the last one. blasé catches Greyy off to the side of point, split away from the Paris tanks. A quick auto attack and an uppercut sends the Paris Ana back to spawn. 3/3 on healers for blasé.
Doomfist Hard Carry Meter
High
With the help of Kellex to keep him healthy, blasé then turns back towards point to pick his next victim. A half health Danye sits on the point, and blasé slams him into house behind point. blasé 4, Eternal 0.
Doomfist Hard Carry Meter
Gonna need a Chiropractor
Hackfist Demonstrating its Strength against GOATs
Keep in mind, this entire skirmish happens in just under a minute. It isn’t until blasé is hard focused by the two remaining tanks that his killing spree ends. Although they kill the Doomfist, the rest of Boston is back from spawn to clean up the mess blasé left.
This fight is a prime example of how Boston’s use of the Hackfist comp will propel them to the next level. As teams lean on GOATs to be their crutch, the chaos that Doomfist and Sombra create causes the GOATs composition to play sub-optimally. Spreading apart healers and tanks allows other DPS characters like Pharah to focus down isolated targets.
BenBest may have killed AimGod, but he left his own Ana exposed.
For example, as blasé punches Greyy away from the fight, he removes a healer so that Danye can’t keep pressure on Fusions. This forces Finnsi and BenBest to fall back onto point to defend the Zarya, but this rotation is too slow. Without a shield or defense matrix, Colourhex is free to deal damage to a defenseless Danye. By the time the Paris tanks reach Danye, he is already below half-health and is one-punched by blasé.
He Does it Again on Dorado
Just to prove it wasn’t a fluke on Eichenwalde, Boston runs back the triple DPS composition for point C of Dorado. After an ineffective barrage from Colourhex, blasé ults onto point in hopes to find a pick. Because rCk is actually able to hack Danye (who is also on Sombra), blasé is given a free shot to kill Danye.
Again, look how split apart the Eternal are in this fight. NiCOgdh is miles away because he was punched over a wall. BenBest panics and ults in hopes to hit blasé, but instead only hits Fusions. Finnsi is de-meched from the barrage earlier, and is running around trying to get his mech back. On the other hand, Boston is grouped around the cart getting heals from Kellex’s ultimate. The high mobility of Boston’s entire comp allows them to quickly flank and then group up again. Paris does not have that luxury, and severely pay for it.
blasé continues to hard carry Boston, as he goes to roll over Finnsi, BenBest, and NiCOgdh. Another fight, another four kills for blasé on his signature hero. Let’s check in on that carry meter once more.
Doomfist Hard Carry Meter
Please don’t sellblasé
Welcome Back DPS
While I may be highlighting blasé this time around, I can’t stress enough how well each member of Boston played. Even though the first half of the match was a wash, the second half had heroic plays from each Uprising player. Chex was insane the entire time on Pharah. Kellex and AimGod got an incredible amount of picks on the enemy support line. rCk hit some amazing EMPs on Dorado and Nepal. And of course, Fusions’ shatter on Eichenwalde was the reason he received player of the match from the OWL desk.
I love this team on DPS characters because it shows the rest of the world what Huk saw in these guys. With that said, that’s going to be it for Team Fight Tuesday! This week we have our last match up of the stage against Philly, so hopefully the momentum from this match carries into the next.
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It’s not exactly a hot take to say Boston hasn’t been great in stage 3. Going 0-4 so far, there hasn’t been much for fans to celebrate. That can all change in a heartbeat, and a win, this weekend. Next up is the San Francisco Shock and a rematch from two weeks ago with the Paris Eternal. With the fear of getting an 0-6 record looming overhead, how would the boys in blue respond?
In Thursday’s match against the Shock, you had Boston facing a surging juggernaut. San Francisco is coming off a Stage 2 golden stage, championship, and being the first team to deliver a loss to the Vancouver Titans. Unsurprisingly, they got swept. But there were positive signs. Boston played dps heavy team comps, made some solid plays, and showed much better coordination than they have all stage. Against a non-elite team like the Shock, there was hope they could win.
Then came Paris. Barely beating Boston two weeks ago, they wouldn’t be so lucky this time. And like it was drawn up by the coaches, the win goes to Boston in the form of a reverse sweep. More GOATs thrown into the mix, better job by just about everyone, and calm under pressure all added up to a Boston win.
A lot to digest here. Let’s break it down.
The Good
Nothing could start this more than the reverse sweep. Boston came out with a dump in their pants against Paris, but the magic was brewing as they started on Eichenwelde. The coordination between the triple DPS, supports, and tanks was firing. No one knows reverse sweeps and how to handle the accompanying pressure like Boston, so good for them. You could tell the pressure got to Paris and Map 5 was a formality as the W was locked in.
Blase was the best player for the Uprising this week. With Boston going full HackFist on Thursday and giving it plenty of love on Sunday, the dps man stuck in the Brig was the centerpiece of the team. He did not disappoint. Swapping onto Junkrat, Pharah, Doomfist and Bastion. This Pharah play was just ridiculous:
Hard to see who is doing what during an OWL broadcast. First, they have no idea what’s happening next. Second, they can only show one player/angle at a time. Therefore, we missed alot of what Fusions was doing the second half against Paris. What we did see, though, was the Eternal’s entire roster get knocked on their ass time and time again by his shatters. Clearly the Brit regrouped and hit his spots as he was in the middle of all the big plays at the end of the Paris match.
You have to have some balls to not play GOATs at all in a match at this point, and Boston did it against SF. Did it work? No. But would GOATs have worked against them? No way. I appreciate that the coaching staff was willing to go all in on the dps heavy comps – that will pay off as the team learns and grows from this experience.
The Bad
Pretty obvious that Fusions remains the #1 target for opposing teams. While SF somehow found rCk more often than you’d like, they and Paris focused on Boston’s shotcaller. He did better surviving against Paris, and the team seems to be able to deal with Blase on comms now. That needs to keep up if Boston wants to remain viable.
rCk did not have a good match against San Fran. While all teams at this point are focusing Fusions, there were too many team fights in Thursday’s match that saw rCk get picked first. He’s supposed to be invisible! Monte said on the cast that the Finn was taken 1:45 to charge his EMP. Worst thing a Sombra can do is die and be slow to get the ult. Not a recipe for winning.
I mentioned in my preview that Boston needs to settle on a support line. They didn’t. Boston continues to alternate their supports as we saw Persia/Alemao get the start Thursday and Aimgod/Kellex on Sunday. Is this the line going forward? What’s the big picture here?
Boston’s Paris defense on Point A against the Shock started off great. Bunker comp seemed to be working for them, but once they inevitably caved they got snowballed again. They can’t keep allowing themselves to fail at regrouping on Point B.
I can’t blanket praise the team for the Paris match. Those first two maps were ugly, particularly control. Blase on Tracer didn’t work out. Fusions’ Wrecking Ball is still questionable. There was no answer to the Paris Roadhog. It makes it that much more surprising that they were able to come back honestly.
Once Colourhex lost a Widow duel to Danye on Dorado, he goes on for a 3k. Brutal. Probably the only glaring loss I saw with Colour on the Widow.
The Uprising
I gave some love to Blase, but lets not forget Colourhex. He flexed onto Pharah and Widow all week to great effect. His Zarya has come a long way too. He may be the most unsung hero of the team.
Fun to see Amplification Matrix come out on Paris Point A for both the Shock and Uprising. While us plebes question how some heroes will be used, pros always find great uses for the seemingly obscure or useless abilities.
As Boston started Dorado, Paris whipped out some Mei stall defense by the first building. Never seen it. Love how Boston rode it out, building up ults and plowing the Eternal in a clean team kill. That may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, as Boston never looked back through the reverse sweep.
Aimgod. Need I say more? Ok, how about his sleepdarts? That pick on the Pharah where she slides down the roof – a masterpiece. His well timed biotic grenades, especially that one he tossed into a graviton on Map 5 against Paris – makes you wonder why anyone thought it a good idea to let him ride the pine.
Best part of that sudden death map was with Paris owning the point, 5 ults in the chamber, and the casters all but calling it for them. With ult economy and positioning against them, Boston dug themselves an early grave. Leave it to the boys in blue to come back. Next time you hear people doubt Fusions’ Winston, remind them of this map where he controlled all the space on the point. Just delicious.
Man that play at the end, in overtime, with rCk and Kruise (Lucio). With an EMP in tow, rCk goes around the point, manually hacks Lucio, then translocates onto the point and immediately deploys the EMP. Game. Set. Match.
Outlook
Well, where exactly does a 1-5 Stage 3 record put Boston? Stage playoffs are gone, but season playoffs are still on the line. Boston is a win below that 12th spot and well behind in map differential, so each match matters. They can’t afford to drop maps from hereon out. There are plenty of positives to take out of this weekend.
Boston is out ahead on the Sombra and HackFist meta. Blase is an S-Tier Doom and if rCk can play his best, I have no doubt Boston is the best dps team in the league. They need to play their best support players, which I believe to be Aimgod/Kellex. Lastly, they need Fusions’ best. It’s unlikely the Uprising’s support can keep him upright with the damage he gets, so the dps needs to peel and counter focus better. I’m undecided if Boston should abandon GOATs completely – it worked keeping it against Paris. I’ll leave it to Huk on that one.
Lastly, it’s the little things that bring me joy. Like seeing the Eternal’s Kruise slam and kick the desk after getting reverse swept. I could bathe in the tears of opposing, reverse swept teams. After a week that saw Vancouver and Houston go down, the league is wide open. If Boston can stay the course and iron out their inconsistency, they could shove a (Doom)fist right through everyone in the league.
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Thursday, June 20th @ 7:00pm: San Francisco Shock
Sunday, June 23rd @ 4:45pm: Paris Eternal
What better way to rebound from an 0-4 start to the stage then finding yourself facing the last stage’s champion? That’s where the boys in blue find themselves this week as they face off against the San Francisco Shock Thursday night. Following that, on Sunday they get a rematch with the Paris Eternal, who took out Boston just two weeks ago 3-1. Talk about a horror show wrapped inside a disaster. When life hands the Uprising lemons, can they walk out this weekend chugging lemonade, or will they be reeling from having lemon juice shoved in their eyes? Let’s take a look at what we can expect.
San Francisco Shock
After climbing the mountain, the Shock did what had yet to be done – beat the Vancouver Titans. With their Stage 2 championship, the Shock showed everyone that the top tier of the league had better make room for one more team. Since then, they’ve swept the Dynasty, won a hard fought 3-2 match against the Reign, and, surprisingly, lost 3-2 to the Outlaws. Clearly Boston can’t judge anyone for losing to Houston (see last week), but the Shock are certainly a team to be respected. What hope does Boston have?
Not much. While I quit the prediction game after seeing Boston shockingly get reverse swept by the Justice, it’s hard not to see the Uprising facing an insurmountable task here. Shock are on a rampage, and I’m not sure Boston has what it takes to counter it. Look for Fusions to draw most of the focus fire, and if SF play the Sombra, how the race with rCk to the EMP goes. I’d say those are your two keys to the matchup.
Paris Eternal
Stage 3 Week 1’s matchup between Boston and Paris was a nail biter. Now at 2-1 going into the final map, Gibraltar, the match was decided on who could make it further on their second offensive lap. As my colleague Brock broke down, Boston played well that map. It came down to poor ult economy management, not focusing on targets collectively, and poor positioning when it mattered most. Ending a winless opening stage weekend, Boston has plenty of motivation to seek revenge.
There was alot going on in that Paris match that fans can question. Will Aimgod and Alemao return to the support line? We’ve seen Persia, Kellex, Aimgod, and Alemao all get stage time. Will Huk and the staff finally settle on their support players? If it’s up to me, I stick with Aimgod and flip a coin on Kellex/Alemao. Aimgod has proven himself the best Zen on staff, and a more than capable Ana (if the situation calls for it). Meanwhile both Kellex/Alemao are great Lucios who seem to coordinate well with the other players.
Also likely to change in the rematch is the team comp. Their first encounter saw Boston employ plenty of standard 3-3, but this was not the way Boston played in week 2. Will they continue to bring out the hackfist comp? Maybe pull more from dps hero pools or bunker comps. I think, despite another two losses, last week’s matches showed Boston a road forward in the league that sees less GOATs and more dps.
Outlook
It’s not going to come easy. Nothing is given in this league. Boston has plenty they need to fix. We’ve seen this whole stage that Boston is more than willing to toss DPS team comps out into play. They’re a prominent OWL proponent of the new ‘HackFist’ comp. Sombra was used extensively last week. I think it’s time to throw caution to the wind and embrace the contrarian role.
Next, let’s settle down the support line. No more last minute lottery or outthinking themselves. Pick the best players and the ones that work best with the team (sorry Persia, you need more time scrimming before you’re stage worthy with the boys). I firmly believe Aimgod is our best support and Kellex/Alemao are a toss up for the second spot.
Third, rCk needs to prove his worth. While he has generally been good since he came over from Dallas after Stage 1, as more teams have embraced the Sombra the Finn hasn’t performed. He hasn’t been the best Sombra in the game. If he’s going to justify his position on the team (and alleviate frustrated fans still furious that Note is gone) he needs to step up.
If Boston cleans up these issues, plays tight, and executes their coach’s gameplan they can break their winless streak. I think this funk they’re in is escapable. But they have to get themselves together. Embrace the weird. Play their best. Tell the rest of the league to shove it. Lets go boys.
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Welcome back to Team Fight Tuesday! Even though the weekend as a whole was devastating for Boston, we finally got some winning team fights to discuss! For this week, we are going to talk about the Uprising’s use of the new-hotness going around both OWL and contenders – the comp known as “Hackfist”.
What is Hackfist?
The “Hackfist” team composition is based around the two characters Sombra and Doomfist. Popularized by the Korean Contenders team Element Mystic, this setup aims to create chaos against GOATs and capitalize on the disruption. The combination of Sombra’s hacks and Doomfist’s stuns create the opportunity for early fight picks. This is powerful against a 3-3 team, because 3-3 comps rely so heavily on coordinated group play. If a player in GOATs is unable to use abilities to save an ally, or is knocked away/stunned before they can ult, the rest of the squad is very vulnerable.
If things make more sense to you in video form, here’s a great video from Akshon Esports. They describe more of the intricacies and nuances of the comp.
Why Did Boston Run It?
One of the toughest aspects of a GOATs heavy meta is that talented DPS players are often pushed to the wayside or forced to play tanks. After a terrible string of losses playing with and against GOATs, Boston decided something needed to change. It was also at this time Boston remebered they have one of the premier Doomfist players in the league with blasé. With rCk’s Sombra on hand, it was only a matter of time that Boston would bust out their latest strat.
The comp also allows Fusions and Kellex to stay on their comfort picks in Reinhardt and Lucio respectively. Colourhex gets to gain more practice on Zarya for when the team needs to default back to GOATs, and finally Persia is given the duties of playing Ana.
Boston decides to run this on Illios most likely for a few reasons. First being Illios has plenty of high ground positions and natural cover. When blasé dives in he has the ability to get out safely, thanks to Doomfist’s highly mobile kit. His flanking routes can come from any of the tall buildings or alleyways behind Philadelphia. Second, Boston wants to punish the over-aggressive nature of Philadelphia’s main tank Sado. Catching out the Reinhardt in a GOATs comp is one of the best ways to win the fight. Using Doomfist’s Rocket Punch and Uppercut blasé should be able to displace Sado and create separation between him and his back line, leading to an easy kill.
The Final Fight on Illios
I love this fight because it demonstrates all the advantages Hackfist gives to Boston.
Hackfist in all its glory
Starting from the start of the clip, we can already see blasé setting up on the high ground looking for a kill on a support. He uses Seismic Slam to jump into the Philly Team, and an Uppercut to shoot Sado into the air. Once Carpe bubbles the Reinhardt, blasé jumps right back out to the opposing high ground to safety.
These first five seconds are why Doomfist can be so obnoxious to deal with. Not only is he attacking from a unique angle, he has an amazing quickness that enables him to make riskier plays but come out alive. After his first engage, blasé has now set himself up for another high ground flank.
All while this is happening Sado is hacked by rCk, forcing Philadelphia to commit resources to keep him alive. Eqo uses Rally to keep their team alive, and Carpe uses both bubbles before the fight even starts. Expending these abilities so early in a fight leaves Philadelphia in a difficult situation. Because these cooldowns are used, they have to make a difficult choice. Philly can either back up and wait for more ults (which seems bad because no one is close to one), or push hard and be the aggressor.
Surviving the the GOATs Aggression
For a moment, the aggression pays off as Philly is able to take down Fusions. Normally this would be a lost fight for Boston, however they aren’t playing GOATs this time around. The hidden benefit of Hackfist is that Fusions is no longer the focal point of the team. Of course him being alive is better than dead, but a Reinhardt death in Hackfist does not immediately signal “lost fight”.
10 seconds into the clip, Sado pushes towards Fusions to clean up the kill. But if you notice, Philadelphia is completely surrounding the remaining Boston players. blasé jumps onto the Ana, and rCk lands a hack onto Sado to essentially trap him between Kellex, Colourhex and himself. You can see the moment Sado is hacked and Boombox is killed, the remaining Uprising members collapse onto him. Boston splits him from the rest of the team, leaving him in a position to receive no healing or support.
Once Sado dies, the fight devolves into a series of solo battles between players. Poko runs off to the side to kill Persia but is pressured by rCk. blasé charges in to focus down Eqo, pushing him towards Colourhex and Kellex. Then finally rCk EMPs one more time to secure the point for Boston. Even though Persia is the only one that dies in the prolonged engagement, Boston’s comp is much better suited for this chaotic moments.
Own This Comp and Perfect It
As Boston looks forward to Stage 4 and beyond, they really need to find their style. With 2 stages worth of evidence, I am confident to say that Boston is not a GOATs team. While they may have the ability to run it and beat worse teams, GOATs itself is constantly evolving, and Boston has reacted too slowly to grow with the league. However, something like this can set Boston apart from other mediocre GOATs teams. Sure enough, Philly is one of those meh GOATs teams that Boston can beat with Hackfist. Unfortunately, the moment they swapped back to 3-3, Philly took over the series.
To make a point short – Boston needs to swap back to a 2-2-2 set up, specifically specializing in the Hackfist composition. Teams have discovered that Boston is significantly reliant on Fusions, resulting in Fusions dying first in almost every fight. It’s time for Boston to remove the pressure from their main tank, and place a bit of it onto their DPS stars.
If its any indication from their twitter, it may seem like the Uprising already have the right idea.
That’s it for Team Fight Tuesday! Next weekend we have a tough one against San Francisco and a rematch against Paris. Maybe one punch is all we need to turn this stage around.
Be sure to follow Brock on twitter for more breakdowns and analysis #BostonUp
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For this weeks player preview, I originally wanted to discuss Philadelphia Fusion’s star DPS Carpe. I wanted to talk about how the transition from a DPS meta to the GOATS meta has drastically affected Carpe’s play making ability.
But then Houston beat San Francisco so I threw all that nonsense out to discuss Danteh and his Sombra. I was sitting at the bar when I tuned into the games on my phone, and I could not believe what I was watching.
2-2? Is it that late that I would be seeing things? And did I just see the Outlaws of all teams, smack the Shock around on Illios?
Naturally I checked Twitter to confirm that I didn’t go off the deep-end, and sure enough it was all real. The lowly 3-12 Houston Outlaws, the same team that went 0-7 last stage, had beaten the Stage 2 champs. San Francisco’s win streak had ended at 11 games.
Houston’s Turnaround
What did Houston do that gave them the opportunity to topple a much better team? They did what most winning teams do for a change: minimize their own mistakes and weaknesses. Attempting to play GOATs against one of the best GOATs teams in the league is quite the feat. Realizing the massive gap between their skill levels, Houston brought out new and interesting team comps to combat the Shock. We even got to see the “HackFist” comp come out on Nepal. While they didn’t stick with it for the whole round, it showed how weak the Shock are to unconventional comps.
I would love to see Boston run Sombra/Doom like this. If Houston was able to beat down on the Shock with it, maybe its Boston's turn to try it out?https://t.co/DKN9oAGQHM
The real star of the match was Danteh on Sombra. His hack selection was incredible, starting almost all fights with a pick on a San Francisco support. In the crucial map 4, Danteh hit a 5-man EMP to relieve the pressure the Shock had at the Outlaws spawn.
This flank route allows Danteh to hack both Viol2t and Moth
Danteh also created openings for the Outlaws by focusing ChoiHyoBin to prevent the San Francisco D.VA from defending Super. The strength of the San Francisco Shock is their amazing tank synergy between Super, Sinatraa, and Choi. By taking one of the pieces away from that front line, Houston was able to punish the D.VA and allow Linkzr free reign on San Fran.
How Does Boston Stop This?
What does this mean for Boston? Well, in the past Boston has had some serious issues dealing with talented Sombras. A specialist like Danteh would certainly force the Uprising to play around him. The good news is that Houston is a team that makes a ton of mistakes.
In the same match against San Francisco, Houston played a DPS-centric comp that actually had the off-support Rawkus play Solider:76. While cheeky, the Shock won a single fight and took the map. The large mistake was thinking a single Mercy was enough healing to sustain against GOATs. Even though Danteh was able to kill several attackers in hopes to stop the push, the rest of the Outlaws failed to follow up on the advantage.
Boston needs to be ready to fight in these prolonged fights, because Sombra doesn’t deal nearly as much damage as other DPS characters. Even if Boston trades one or two players, fights are still winnable as long as Sombra does not have EMP.
Whats the key to defeating Danteh? A clear organized game plan, with communication that gets things done. In their back to back reverse sweeps in Stage 2, Boston was able to thwart other Sombra players, so I hope to see that same strategy come through Friday night.
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Friday, June 14th @ 10:30pm: London Spitfire
Sunday, June 16th @ 6:30pm: Philadelphia Fusion
With Stage 3 in full gear, the Boston Uprising look to earn what eluded them opening week – a win. After getting swept by the London Spitfire and only winning a single map against the Paris Eternal, things couldn’t get much worse for Boston. Another week brings a new set of opponents and opportunities to get things going in the right direction. Here’s what lays in front of them.
Houston Outlaws
For those not looking at other teams across the league, let’s get the basics down of who exactly the Uprising are up against tonight. Houston is 3-12 on the year. They haven’t won a match since March 17th. As of now they are 18th in the league standings. Back in Stage 1 on February 17th, Boston slipped by with a 2-1 win on Ilios for the 3-2 match win.
All that said, Houston opened up Stage 3 last Saturday with a near win against the NYXL, losing 3-2. Last night they beat the Stage 2 champion San Francisco Shock, highlighted by a full hold on Havana. That is quite the opening start to Stage 3 and does not portend well for the Uprising.
THEY'VE DONE IT!!! 😲
The @Outlaws pull off an INCREDIBLE upset and take the series 3-2! #OWL2019
All this amidst some chaos in their ownership group and a poor start to their season makes what the Outlaws are doing so much more impressive. Much of their success the last two matches has been due to Danteh and his use of Sombra. His ability to not just rack up the hacks, but to fatten up on the eliminations after the fact makes him dangerous. Houston has also benefited from Rawkus, who has shown a ton of versatility in support. Whether he plays the Mercy in combo with the Pharah or his pinpoint accuracy as Ana, Boston will need to focus fire on a tricky Houston backline.
Philadelphia Fusion
On the other side of the spectrum is the Fusion. Stuck in the middle of the pack like the Uprising, Philadelphia sits at 9th in the League Standings with an 8-7 record. While they are in season playoff position now, with so many teams bundled in the middle, no one can take a match off. As last year’s championship runner-up, Philadelphia has alot to prove.
In their opening week of Stage 3, Philly was swept by the Hangzhou Spark. They have seen their previously tough exterior slowly crumble throughout the season. Carpe has lost his edge on Zarya, often getting his gravs eaten. Poko, who used to have weekly highlight plays with his unpredictable Self-Destructs, doesn’t show up with those bombs like he used to.
How will Boston play them? We didn’t see much of Sombra last week – perhaps rCk will be let loose. Maybe we’ll see some more DPS heroes – blase on a Genji or Doomfist? Will we see Mei come back? Whereas last week saw almost all GOATs, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them go in another direction.
Outlook
What we’ll need answered right off the bat is who will be playing? Last week Uprising fans saw the premiere of Persia to the stage and Alemao play in Kellex’s usual role. Will they show up again? How about Axxiom? Or, as many fans have speculated, is this all posturing by Huk to dangle his players and increase their trade value? Is he looking to make a move?
Regardless of who plays, how will they play? Will they stick on GOATs or go off the 3-3 meta? When they play the Outlaws, will they fall prey to the Sombra? We all know their success against that comp has been mixed. Can Boston continue to pile it on to Philly? Fusions has always wanted that Fusion-Fusions matchup – will he show up in this marquee matchup? After recent losses I’ve quit the prediction game, but I’m optimistic getting shallacked opening week will motivate Boston to turn things around. They can’t be taking any matches off and need to focus. No more throw aways and no more feeding.
Lastly, is their anyone more unlikeable in Overwatch League as Jake? He’s been shipped around the press as an unofficial league spokesman of the players as if he’s the league MVP. Sorry bro, but you aren’t at that level. Granted, Houston has several Team USA members on their roster that I love (Rawkus, Muma, coolmatt) but right now they’re on the other side against Boston. After pumping up the Uprising against Washington and Paris in recent weeks and seeing that go horribly awry, I’m loathe to suggest any match is a gimme at this point.
Such a puncheable face
Also – Philly has hands down the worst new jersey. It’d be one thing to lose to the Fusion, but to lose to a squad dressed in umpire zebra-stripes would be an all time team low point. Don’t do that Boston. For all our sakes.
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Welcome to Team Fight Tuesday! In this segment we revisit team fights from the past weekend and dive into why this fight is worth watching. While this weekend was a particularly rough one to watch, I went back through the mess because there are still some good takeaways from lost fights. The London game was interesting as we saw the introduction of both Persia and Alemao, but it’s the Paris game that we are going to look at today.
The Surprise Early Fight
In a shocking turn of events Boston found themselves down 2 maps to 1, with only one last defense to go on Gibraltar. To add to the trouble, Paris finished their first push with almost four minutes in the time bank. Both teams have been running GOATs on this map, and it’s not surprising to see both default to it again. With so much time left, and momentum thoroughly in Paris’ favor, Boston was forced to shake up their defensive strategy.
Rather than attempt to hold high ground as many teams do, Boston elected to bring the fight to Paris early. Hiding in the staircase close to point, Boston hits the Eternal with a surprise attack leading to a pick on Nicogdh. A fight like this is one of the best fights for Boston to take. It is a low risk high reward strategy because if Boston were to lose the first fight, they would still have the chance to fight again but closer to the point. Instead of winning just one fight, Paris now has to win multiple fights.
Killing Nicogdh very early forces Paris to back off into their own spawn, thus preventing them from pushing the cart forward. Without Brig, Paris doesn’t have the sustain to continue the brawl for the cart.
Following the first fight, Boston wants to set up around either stairs ,where they started, or by cart. Setting up by stairs denies Paris access to the high ground and allows Boston an easy escape route. Setting up on cart gives Boston access to the mega health pack and natural cover from poke damage. Both are valid points of defense in this situation, but the important thing is to pick one. For GOATs, teamwork is key and staying as a unit means success.
The Unsettled Follow-up Fight
Boston decides to pick both at the same time, and the result is less than ideal.
A couple things don’t look right here. We have Blase and Alemao setting up near the stairs while rCk and Colourhex position themselves by the cart and left room. Fusions is left alone holding a weird off angle where he isn’t receiving heals from Alemao. The spread thin Boston defense can’t sustain themselves at this point and have to fall back, but rCk losing his mech mid-retreat is what costs the Uprising valuable resources. As Blase dies shortly after, Boston’s plan went from highly successful to terribly bad.
The last hope for the Uprising is holding the corner after the underpass. It’s this spot where Boston would have high ground that overlooks the point, as well as a tight choke point to contest Paris.
The Ult Bonanza
Having to wait for the dead members on their team, Boston retreats far off of point to avoid any more casualties. Then just as soon as both teams have six players, the ults start flying. Rally, shatter, transcendence, beat, and bomb, are all used in this fight by both teams. Result? Zero deaths on either side. Honestly both teams played this fight well, with Aimgod having an insane reaction time to trans Benbest’s shatter. It was this moment where Boston had the most hope for a hold.
With just under two minutes left after the fight, Boston looked poised to bring it to overtime. Seeing that Danye has the most ult charge, Paris’ win condition is his graviton surge. Everyone on Gibraltar knows this, so the focus becomes the mind-game between Danye and rCk. rCk has already eaten a few of Danye’s gravs, and serves as the best and truly only line of defense for Boston. Positioning for rCk is key, but unfortunately the worst happens. Boston’s DVA is focused and killed.
Watched this a few times now, still not sure how rCk got burst down so quickly. https://t.co/vKlHUdt4Bd
He appears to be taking a flank angle which would allow him to have sight on Danye to eat his ult, as well as pressure Paris’ back line. However, it looks as though Finnsi pushes rCk out of a safe position, forcing him to fly to the health pack under the bridge. Knowing the only thing stopping him from ulting is half a map away, Danye is free to press “Q”.
In the viewers seat, it’s tough to really know what went on in comms that caused this mental lapse. Could be something simple as “No armor pack” or “No bubble” that meant that the only way rCk was going to live was if he flew to the mega health pack.
I personally think after the previous fight, Boston just couldn’t keep track of the opposing Zarya ult-charge. Since Danye had started the fight with grav, he was able to build the next one during the entire fight. Since no one died, he was able to just continually deal damage to unkillable targets.
With such a promising start to this defense (and really the entire match) it’s heartbreaking to see it end in a loss. The best news about as loss is that it creates many learning opportunities. The mistakes in these fights were few but very costly. If there’s one thing I know about this Boston, I know they will bounce back stronger and they will come out on top of these fights next weekend.
That’s it for Team Fight Tuesday! Next weekend we have Houston and Philly, hopefully we can discuss a winning fight from our boys in blue!
All clips featured in this article are courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Be sure to follow Brock on twitter for more breakdowns and analysis #BostonUp
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Well that’s not how anybody drew it up. After a month long break to think about getting reverse swept by the lowly Washington Justice, the Uprising launch Stage 3 against the London Spitfire and Paris Eternal. One pretty great team and a fellow mid-tier team. What could go wrong? Turns out, everything.
The Good
For the same amount of work that allowed a production worker to purchase one basket of the 42 commodities in 1919, he or she could buy 11.73 baskets in 2019. https://t.co/tJbIMcKjKSpic.twitter.com/fQ0DaiOrcL
Thanks to medical advances, the global rate of stillbirth per 1,000 births has fallen by 25% in just 15 years. From 24 in the year 2000 to 18 in 2015 – with decreases seen in all regions of the world. https://t.co/0fvqh1P02l
I thought we’d turned the corner on winter, but the snowballing keeps coming. Against Paris on Paris (weird sentence) it seemed like Boston had no answer once they dropped point A. Letting Paris get on a roll like that gave them confidence it was a one point map, which doesn’t help when teams are going three laps a match.
I’ve watched that offense play on Horizon against London four times now (not hard when the whole map is 12 minutes long). Not sure what was worse – Fusions/Blase taking turns getting picked first, or Persia’s ill-timed Transcendences. Getting obliterated like that on the second map was not a good look. Alemao also got picked right as the tides were starting to turn. The two newbies need to pick it up.
Getting one point on Eichenwelde and the same on Dorado against London was soul crushing. Those offensive pushes were hard to watch. You could tell that London’s coordination and synergy were on point. Once Fury ate Colourhex’s grav after BU’s first cap, the sense of dread just filled the arena.
The Uprising
Was great to see some of the other players on the team get a start. Persia, who just landed in the US weeks ago. Alemao – who hasn’t been seen since Stage 1 Week 1. Wonder if Axxiom will get his due.
Weird observation here, but the Uprising’s social media team may have taken a nap this week – they usually post some plays from the games during the matches. All I see are score updates. Give me something!
Seeing as the Ilios was the only map the Uprising won this weekend, let’s appreciate what they did there. They focused the supports extremely well. I saw a lot of rotations from Fusions and Colourhex to pull away from the front line when their health dropped. Well timed ults. That’s what’s so frustrating – these guys know how to play – they just couldn’t do it through the course of two matches.
Boston plays Paris again in Week 3 of this stage, and has two matches against the Philadelphia Fusion. Other than Houston next week, there aren’t any gimme games. There is no time to waste if Boston wants to get it together. Making stage playoffs after opening 0-2 isn’t easy, but as I’ve written, the year end playoffs are the focus. Boston can’t get out of the top 12 or they are cooked.
For more Boston Uprising content and gameday banter, follow Loadscr33n on Twitter #BostonUp
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Friday, June 7th @ 8:45pm: London Spitfire
Sunday, June 9th @ 4:45pm: Paris Eternal
Finally! It seems like it’s been ages since we’ve gotten any Overwatch League action. In fact, it’s been 33 days since we’ve seen the Uprising in action. Given that the boys in blue were reverse swept against the lowly Washington Justice on that day, the break has been tainted by an extra sense of bitterness. Well, no more. What better way to start Stage 3 then a double header against London and Paris?
Before we get into the matchups, let’s shake out some cobwebs. At 7-7, the Uprising are standing at 12th place. For those that don’t remember the year end playoff format, 12th place is a dangerous spot to be in. Eight teams make up Overwatch League’s year end playoffs, but the path in is highly circumstantial. First, each division winner gets in. Second, the next four teams with the best match record (regardless of division) punch their tickets. Lastly, the seventh through twelfth place teams go through a mini playoff for the last two spots. Got it?
Thus any worse than 12th automatically gets you kicked out. Clearly Boston should be shooting to be a top 6 team. Is that realistic? Well, the 6th spot currently belongs to the Dallas Fuel, who sit at 9-5. The point is, Boston has to keep pace. They have to make up ground. They can still realistically get out of the play-in tournament and qualify for an automatic postseason bid. But the importance of each match can’t be understated. There are no more throw always. They have to start stockpiling wins. And that starts with this week.
London Spitfire
Last year’s inaugural season champions the London Spitfire are tough to read this year. At 9-5, they are seemingly where they need to be. But, they are 3-2 against teams with a record greater than 500. That means they’re feasting on lower tier teams and winning just over half their games against the top teams. Also, they haven’t played Vancouver, New York, or San Francisco, the near unanimously perceived top teams in the league. What happens when they get to that part of their schedule?
Ggs @Spitfire they were so much better than us today, luckily we have so much to learn from that game. See you tomorrow vs Titans 😊
But don’t start calling me just a homer. On 4/20 they broomed the Uprising right off the stage. Maybe some of the European players brought their free attitude towards pot with them and got everyone on board for the day. Perhaps Boston were just off on an early Saturday night game. Maybe London was on a three game winning streak and were just hot.
Either way, there is a tough history there for Boston. London is a team that has taken care of business enough to be where they are – automatic qualifier for year end playoffs. It’s hard to expect them to falter as we wind down to the end of the season. Uprising fans can expect any hope for a hot start to the new stage to meet stiff resistance.
Paris Eternal
On the other end of the spectrum is the Paris Eternal – a quagmire wrapped in an enigma, bounded in a puzzle. There’s been some flashes of brilliance (opening the season with a win against the Spitfire) but mostly it’s been turmoil. Losing their head coach (daemoN) and team manager (lizlin) are indicative of some chaos behind the scenes. While it’s laudable that the team is made up of all European players, the execution hasn’t hit the high marks many hoped for.
While there is much to hope for in the match against the Spitfire, Boston fans have all the reasons to feel confident against Paris. Given the month break, the boys in blue should have learned from the Justice loss to never underestimate their opponent. To take each match seriously. And to execute for all four maps. No reason to think they can’t do what is necessary to win here.
Outlook
How will the Boston Uprising start Stage 3? Will they be the team that stole an undefeated stage from the Los Angelas Gladiators or the one reverse swept by the Washington Justice? As mentioned, the Spitfire are a team seemingly reaching top tier but still not thoroughly battle tested. Paris is a team that all would expect Boston to steamroll – but expectation is the mother of disappointment.
Obviously starting off 2-0 would be great. London has shown signs of weakness and inconsistency all year. Paris seems like a dumpster fire. If the Uprising show they’ve taken the lessons they’ve learned all season long seriously, they could put the league on notice. But if they aren’t on their A game, if they pump themselves up too much, it could be a long weekend. Here’s hoping they come into the new stage with the fire burning in them.
Don’t forget the Uprising are hosting an official watch party!
We're giving away a Watch Party 🆙grade!
RT to enter to win a reserved table, team signed flags & $100 in food and beverage!
