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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
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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.
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The London Spitfire have so many talented players on their roster it’s insane. You could discuss Profit and Birdring for literal hours going back and forth about who can carry their team harder. Then you have Gesture creating all sorts of space for the back line, while Fury is having an incredible season eating almost a grav a game. But today we are going to breakdown how Bdosin, London’s off-support, surprised Boston and pulled the match into London’s favor.
The last time these two teams met, the match came down to a last minute push on King’s Row. Boston was able to hold London short of the last point, so all they needed to do was push 1 meter farther. The fight was shaping up to be a clean Boston win.
rCk looks for the game-winning EMP
Let’s Watch the full fight and see what happened.
Clip Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment and the Overwatch League
By just a hair, rCk missed Bdosin with his EMP and Boston lost the fight because of it. This one small play by Bdosin prevented another reverse sweep attempt from Boston. But after watching this series multiple times over, it’s obvious that this match wasn’t defined by one play. It was won by Bdosin having one of the cleanest games of his OWL career. I want to take a look at how that happened, and what Boston can do to stop him in the upcoming match against London.
Superior Positioning
Bdosin’s strongest asset he brought to the match was his incredible positioning. He constantly creates situations where Boston was left with an impossible decision. Does Boston attempt to attack the back line first in a 3-3 mirror? Or do they believe they can power through the front line and clean up the healers after? The usual answer is the latter – burst down the enemy Reinhardt or Zarya, and then quickly roll the rest of the team over since their main source of damage is gone.
Having seen his fair share of GOATs, it looks as though Bdosin decides to create as much pressure as possible from difficult to reach positions. By staying far away from the chaos, he is able to force Boston to take fights that are out of their favor. Take this example from the first map Busan – Meka Base.
Busan – Meka Base
As Boston approaches the point, London is posturing just for a moment to build ult charge and to allow Gesture to return to the point. In the meantime, Bdosin takes advantage of the high ground that overlooks the point. The strength of Bdosin’s position lies in the fact that he is both uncontested and able to see the entire point. Why is this important? From where Bdosin stands, he is able to generate ult charge twice as fast as Aimgod. Being able to have line of sight to heal as well as deal damage, Bdosin gains 55% ult charge in 27 seconds. To compare, Aimgod gains 41% in the same time span.
Bdosin overlooks point from a safe distance
Even worse for Boston is that even if they do decide to pressure Bdosin on the high ground, they would waste large amounts of time to force him to simply rotate back to his team. Because he plays near the ledge behind his team, Bdosin puts himself in a spot to be able to drop down and ult if needed. From this one fight, London is able to snowball their advantage into a map win.
Paris Defense
As a bonus example, I wanted to share this little clip from the next map Paris. London has given up the first point easily to Boston, and now face a large time bank to hold Boston from completing the map. It’s a brief moment, though I think it really defines why these players are pro and most people are not.
Bdosin avoiding unnecessary damage
Boston eventually pushes London out of this position, but Bdosin sets up in a spot with 3 forms of protection against the enemy Zen. Bdosin sets up behind Birdring here, but he has the option to stand behind the globe as well as Gesture. From this position, Bdosin also has two very easy escape routes behind him and to the right towards point. Small moments like these are excellent for showcasing how each position should bring value to your team, even if you aren’t in a fight.
The Clutch Factor
Just like physical sports, the attributes that separate a good player from a great player are the intangibles. During this series, Bdosin displays what it means to have incredible game sense. His plays on Paris and King’s Row highlight what exactly “the clutch factor” can do for a team.
Paris Attack
If you re-watch this series, you’ll start to notice a trend in Bdosin’s play. He solely focuses the Boston supports in the posture phase. The pressure he inflicts onto the Boston backline causes Aimgod and Kellex to position themselves in awkward areas.
On the second Paris attack, Bdosin turns on the heat and brings Aimgod to half health the moment he peeks the choke. The shock of almost getting one-shot forces Aimgod to back up and play safer around the small wall and Blase. This also forces Aimgod to use bio-nade, a crucial cooldown Boston needs in order to slow down London’s push.
Moments later, Bdosin ends the game with a pick on Kellex to break the stalemate. The death of Kellex creates a flurry of opportunities for the London attackers.
First and foremost – Boston no longer has a defensive ultimate because they had elected to play Ana in hopes to counteract Bdosin’s transcendence. Second, Boston no longer has the speed boost to control the pace of the fight, once Lucio is gone London is given the freedom to attack when they choose.
Without that kill, Boston has a shot at winning the map and gaining momentum into King’s Row. Unfortunately Bdosin had other plans.
King’s Row Defense
Down 0-2, Boston needs to create a spark to get the momentum back in their favor. Up until this point, Boston has not brought out their Sombra GOATS despite having resident expert rCk in the lineup. It only makes sense that now would be the time to lean back on “the crutch” that is Sombra.
Sure enough, that is exactly what we see from Boston on their first attack. Even though Boston is able to complete the map, it was obvious the match would boil down to Bdosin’s transcendence vs rCk’s EMP. You can guarantee both players knew this as well, but only one was able to come out the victor. When the dust settled, Bdosin dodged 4 out of the 6 EMP’s from rCk.
Just another dodge from Bdosin
How was the battle so lopsided? Bdosin knew that each fight he had transcendence available, he needed to watch and listen for Sombra. Understanding that Sombra is the Boston win condition, Bdosin positions himself in spots that allows him to either ult early or avoid a hack altogether. Most importantly, when the last fight came around, Bdosin was simply more clutch than rCk.
When you watch the clip at the start of the article, you can see rCk trying to line up his EMP. He looks to hit both tanks and DPS, but Bdosin knows he is out of line of sight. Staying in that room forces rCk to either commit fully to hacking only Bdosin, or hack the rest of London with Bdosin left able to use his ultimate. By taking a small step back, Bdosin ends the match with a bang. Bdosin’s clutch dodge leads to a disappointing loss for Boston.
Moving Forward for Boston
This time around, I believe Boston can beat the Spitfire if they neutralize Bdosin’s play style. It’s important to not let him become comfortable standing in the back line uncontested. Whether it be Sombra or a triple-DPS team composition, Boston needs to be more proactive against London. After Busan, Boston was down 31-12 in terms of eliminations. Against any opponent this is a terrible ratio, let alone a team as strong as London. As we watch the games this weekend, keep an eye out for the thrilling rematch of rCk and Bdosin. Hopefully this time rCk waits just one more second to use that EMP.
All clips featured in this article are courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
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Admit it. Down 2-0 at halftime against both the London Spitfire and Vancouver Titans, you thought Boston could come back and reverse sweep. You thought there was some magic left down in the well. That the spark that lit the fire against Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto was still burning. It’s ok, I did too.
We know how that worked out.
For the second time in team history, Boston’s weekend comes up empty as they get swept off the stage in both matches. It was ugly. While there were flashes of brilliance, it’s hard to draw something positive out of a double-zero on map wins in the span of two matches. Let’s break it all down.
The Good
There’s a good argument to be made that in a weekend where Boston doesn’t win a single map this space should be blank. But we look on the bright side around here on Boston Sports Extra – let’s go!
Fusions
What’s it say about you when the other team considers you prime target number one? Against London, the Uprising’s main tank was the clear go-to for focus fire. Conversely, the Brit didn’t get as much help from supports. Against London, where rCk played a good amount of DVa, his sustain seemed to be the team’s focus. That combination seemed fatal. Looks like Fusion’s notoriety from Stage 1 has made him many team’s go-to focus fire target.
He had his moments all weekend. Slaying Vancouver’s Lucio and Brigitte on Paris’s Point B on offense as Rein. His Rein was very good in both matches. It’s clearly still his strong suit. I also thought his Winston was much better. He still had a few times where he’d charge with no backup and get focus killed quick, but he also used his Primal Rages alot better.
Gotta stay away from @Fusions or he will knock you DOWN!
I’m not as convinced his play on Wrecking Ball is as legit. Too many times we saw him get picked first and early on the hamster. That may just be because the character’s kit isn’t meant to be played as the Uprising deploy him. But to my eyes, Fusions isn’t S-tier on him. Also – I thought his play on Orissa on both Paris and Gibralta, against Vancouver, was admirable. Those shields were right where they needed to be and his firing was well done.
DPS Comps – Against Vancouver?
In my weekend preview, I said that Boston should ditch GOATs and go DPS heavy. They didn’t do that against London, but they certainly did against Vancouver. Opening on Leijing Tower with Pharah-Hammond-Sombra-Widow-Ana-Mercy, Boston consistently played DPS comps. Bunker comps on Paris defense. A pirate ship on Gibraltar that got the third highest time on attack. They looked great! While they couldn’t get a win against Vancouver, they were clearly much better running DPS against Vancouver than when they did GOATs a few weeks ago.
Which makes you wonder why they didn’t play these comps against London. Why wouldn’t they use that as a formal practice for the Vancouver game? Heck, they could have won against an inferior GOATs team like the Spitfire! Why they felt restricted to the GOATs meta in that game is beyond me.
Blase
DPS trained, American born, Blase has been in the Brig all season. While he’s a good Birgitte player, you know he’s pining to get back on DPS where he’s comfortable. Didn’t happen against London, but he was let loose on Vancouver. And we were better for it! On Pharah, he was pog champ. For example, his ult on stage 1 of Leijing saved the team in OT against Vancouver. His Roadhog on Gibraltar against the Titans was even more pog champ. He even whipped out Doomfist. You have to wonder what it’d be like to see him play DPS full time.
Aimgod
I should put the flex support first. Far and away the most consistent player all weekend, Aimgod faired well against both teams. Playing primarily Ana and Zen in both matches, and had some great moments. His snipe on King’s Row Point A on London’s Bdosin single-handedly got London to flee the point both on offense (1st lap) and defense (2nd lap). While he didn’t have to dodge any EMPs like the Spitfire and Titans had to, he certainly held his own. Also camping the Titans after the rest of the team got wiped took balls. Especially with an emote.
The Bad
(This is an abridged version. A full itinerary of all the bad things that happened this weekend will be submitted for publication in the case we don’t make Stage 2 playoffs).
Ultimate Economy
All weekend it seemed like Boston couldn’t maximize the value of their ultimates. Now, that’s hard to separate from the myriad of other issues that were going on in the debacle of a weekend they had. But, time and again we saw London and Vancouver either make due with less, save ults intelligently, or counter what Boston threw at them.
We saw this on Busan against London. Up 77%-28%, London having control, and Boston with all 6 ults, the Uprising’s win condition was clear. Draw out any of the Spitfire’s 4 ults in one or two fights using as little of their own as possible. Swoop the point and win. How’d it play out? To start, rallies on both sides. Gesture Shatters and Fury’s Self-Destruct picks a demeched rCk whose own SD does nothing. Colourhex wakes up from the Shatter and shoots his Grav, but rCk’s SD isn’t in position or timed well enough to do anything. Profit hits his Grav which forces Kellex to drop his Sound Barrier to save the team. Now it’s 77%-48% and both teams are wiped of Ults. Would anyone say that was the best use of ults?
Boston also gambled playing strats that required post-point switches. We saw all weekend that London and Vancouver stuck with 3-3 all match while Boston switched. This gives the other team ult advantage from the start. Boston would play from behind, needing two team fights just to farm enough ult to compete. It’s a hard decision – go all in with a comp you know you’re going to switch off of, but do so knowing it gives you the best chance. It’s a bit of an all or nothing stat. Something for the coaches to chew on.
rCk
I do think every player had good moments and great plays at some point this weekend. But on the sum, if I’m putting one player in the bad category, it goes to the freshmen team member. While the Finn played a mix of Sombra/DVa against London, we saw him play almost exclusively the hacker against Vancouver. And the hacker didn’t do what we needed.
For example, on King’s Row against London, the payload is just about to hit the end when he tosses the Translocator. Then, he immediately EMPs – but he doesn’t hit Bdosin’s Zenyata. The Transcendence hits and he immediately gets picked and the team gets wiped. That should have rolled the Spitfire for a map win. Then again, in overtime, he clearly learned and stalked the back line to pick off Bdosin and Nus’ Lucio without dropping an EMP. But after holding onto it, he jumped at Bdosin and dropped the EMP. Except, there was a wall between them. Transcendence dropped. Boston wiped. Overtime over. Map – London.
This happened with Vancouver, too. You could tell what a difference the enemy team’s comp had on him. On King’s Row, his Sombra ruthlessly shredded Vancouver when they played the Ana. Fight after fight, he had no trouble dropping an EMP and having his team roll. Once the Titans switched to the Zen, he had trouble connecting to the omnic healer. At the final hour, he was unable to hit Twilight who immediately used his Transcendence. Boston’s attack was stimmied and Vancouver won the map.
As Uber said, you can hack the entire team but if you don’t get the Zen whose got a Transcendence ready to launch, what’s the point? If rCk is going to be as great as we know he can be, he has to focus his ult much more effectively in the matches to come.
Paris defense – Vancouver
Is the last minute choke defending Point A on Paris against Vancouver the worst ever? I’m not saying it is, but I’m not not saying that, either. Because with Overtime looming, the bunker defense running in high gear, the Titans took an unorthodox attack. Switching to a Sombra and Wrecking Ball, Vancouver got a last minute miracle capture. They snowballed it into an easy win. I think Boston will be watching tape of that whole exchange for a long time to come.
Colourhex
It was a mixed back for the kiwi on Zarya this weekend. His Graviton getting fed to Fury on Busan and King’s Row in critical moments didn’t help. I don’t think his Zarya is bad, but the lack of consistent team cohesion and synergy puts him at a disadvantage.
Of course, when he played against Vancouver and got to switch to a Bastion or Widowmaker, he proved himself again. He had some great kills on nearly all the maps as a DPS. Makes you excited for when the meta shifts more into his wheelhouse.
The Uprising
Valskyia Industries may be Boston’s official home base, King’s Row is their ninth circle of hell. The boys are now 0-5 this year on the hybrid map.
Vancouver opening their Paris offense with a pretty Symmetra teleport onto the point play was delicious. Seeing them run it was fun – especially when Colourhex shredded them all into oblivion.
That time on King’s Row against Vancouver rCk saw the Zen use Transcendence. You knew he was thinking, THIS IS MY MOMENT – LETS EMP AND ROLL THESE JERKS. He hits the EMP… but there is Lucio with a Sound Barrier. Vancouver gets the sustain, team wipe, point capture. Every Uprising fan had to be thinking – what is it going to take?
It may have been short lived, but I loved the Symmetra, Bastion, Baptiste, Orissa, Mercy comp to open Junkertown against London. Seeing them teleport the bunker comp around the map was neat. Except when they switched to 3-3 it was too late. The Junkertown curse continues.
Kellex got quite a few kills on Bumper. We see you Uprising OG.
Hexagrams called Boston a “resilient cockroach of a team” which he meant in “the nicest way possible.” Hmmmmm.
Love the tbag by Aimgod on Bumper – just down the street where Bumper did the same last time these two played. These two are getting quite salty against each other.
Hearing the overtime music refereed to as Hans Zimmer (from Inception) blew my mind.
What was with Junkertown starting with Blase on Sombra and Aimgod on Moira? Did they quit on the last map?
I really hate Bumper. This didn’t help.
For more Boston Uprising content and gameday banter, follow Loadscr33n on Twitter #BostonUp
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Saturday, April 20th @ 3pm: London Spitfire
Sunday, April 21st @ 3pm: Vancouver Titans
After a frustrating week which saw Boston narrowly lose against the Hangzhou Spark on the match’s fifth map, the Uprising are back at it. This week they face off against the London Spitfire and Vancouver Titans. Last year’s champions, the Spitfire, started off a surprising 3-4 in Stage 1. They’re off to a hot start 3-0 in Stage 2. Meanwhile, the Titans remain undefeated at 10-0. What can fans expect to see from the Uprising this week?
Ready Player One
Boston needs to go into this week forgetting the mistakes made against Hangzhou. Does the Uprising have to keep playing GOATs? Last week they certainly seemed to think so – and look how that worked out. This week they’ll be going up against the Titans – easily the best GOATs team in the league. They’ve been playing the 3-3 team comp since season 3 of Contenders last year. Why should Boston try to play a mirror? The boys need look no further than week 1 of the stage to see what works for them. Using DPS comps, playing surprise tactics, and playing to their strengths seem the clear path to victory.
For DPS comps, will Boston gamble and let Blase out of the Brig? We saw him on Hammond, Soldier 76, and Pharah back in week 1. Colourhex also put everyone on notice. The kiwi, he of 41% critical hit accuracy, showed he’s an elite Widowmaker. Will Huk and the coaching staff let the DPS players loose, or will they be fixed to their Brigitte and Zarya roles as they were last week?
Can Boston continue to deliver the set plays, unorthodox strats, and strong off-meta comps they have in weeks past? It will be fascinating to see which tank Fusions gets put onto. We’ve seen him stick to Rein when the team went GOATs, but have also seen him play considerable time on Winston and Hammond. Then there’s rCk – how much Sombra will we see? Boston could lean into Sombra GOATs or continue to play her intermittently? These small decisions will have major consequences.
London
A lot of people are buying low on Spitfire stock, and for good reason. A 3-0 start to a stage is nothing to smirk at, and their level of play has picked up considerably. While Stage 1 saw the defending champions of the inaugural season look sloppy, the Spitfire seem to be returning to form. But look how they got that record. They barely squeaked by the Florida Mayhem, winning 2-1, and then swept the Atlanta Reign, who seem to be in free fall this stage. London also won 2-1 against the Philadelphia Fusion last week. Needless to say, they haven’t played high tier competition this stage. Boston will be their first real measuring stick of where they stand.
Looking at the maps helps inform what we can expect to see. London are 3-0 this stage on Control, 2-1 on Assault, 1-1-1 on Hybrid, and 3-0 on Escort maps. In all those games, they haven’t played any of the maps they’ll play Saturday.
Boston, on the other hand, has played a few of these maps. They played Control maps 6 times in 3 matches, thanks to each going to a 5th map. They have a 2-6 record, winning only when it was the last map. This includes winning Busan against Atlanta to end a match, and losing it against Toronto to start a match. They have a 1-2 record on Assault and 3-0 on Hybrid maps, but have yet to play Paris or King’s Row. Lastly, the Uprising are 2-1 on Escort maps, including that horrible Junkertown they played against Hangzhou last week where they were full held before the first point. If Boston can’t fix the complete embarrassment they showed there last week, it’ll be a long night for the Uprising.
Prediction
You have to think London has an edge on Control and Boston has it on Hybrid. Boston thrives off of Hybrid/Escort maps because they operate in a highly coached, set-play driven style. They scrim with specific comps on different pieces of maps with well rehearsed strats. If Boston can hold their edge on Hybrid maps and split the Assault/Escort with London, I like their chances in a sudden death Control. They just barely lost last week on Leijing Tower against the Spark, and are well versed in playing under the pressure of a 5th map. London, meanwhile, has only played a 5th map two times this season. They beat the Washington Justice but lost to the Shanghai Dragons. There are clear paths to victory for Boston.
Vancouver
Stage 1 champion seems to be just the beginning for the accolades Vancouver may amass by the end of the season. They’ve looked even better in Stage 2, dropping no more than a single map in any of their first 3 matches. After rolling Boston 3-0 in the Stage 1 playoffs, does the Uprising have a prayer?
I think we’re going to see just how stubborn the Uprising coaches are in this match. No one is equipped to out GOATs the GOATs masters. If Boston runs something off-meta that Vancouver isn’t prepared to counter, they may have a prayer against them. Even if it’s swapping in a Moira or Ana if the map geometry accommodates it, that may throw off the Titans.
Prediction
Will that be enough? Probably not. Vancouver have shown they are a juggernaut that will need a complete meta shift if they’re to lose. Boston can either run GOATs to see how their 3-3 can hold up in a mirror, or throw some crazy DPS comp out there to catch them off guard. Either way, Boston is going to struggle to avoid the sweep. Hopefully they can keep the maps tight and steal one somewhere in the match.
Outlook
After week 1, Boston was the talk of the league. Three straight reverse sweeps will do that. But now we’ve seen that Atlanta and Toronto are dumpster fires. Then they narrowly lost on another 5th map against Hangzhou. Now the Uprising face a tougher path to Stage 2 playoffs. They likely won’t win against Vancouver, but have every reason to think they can meet the challenge of the surging Spitfire. Boston gets a bye next week then has a double header against the Gladiators and Justice. There aren’t any freebies. Time to clock some wins and pave a road to Stage 2 playoffs. It’s now or never.
For more weekly columns and gameday banter, follow Loadscr33n on Twitter #BostonUp
