OWL Week 3 Days 2-4

[got_quiet]

So many games, Jesus Christ. The May Tournament is next week and then there will a brief break where maybe I can finish up some of these Disco Elysium things I'm working on.

 

 

Week 3 day 2 (Friday)

Guanghzou Charge vs Valiant

Depressing. Valiant are clearly the worse team but Guangzhou was awful. It was just a bad match with two teams who didn't seem to know what to do. The Volskaya map in particular was painful to watch and felt like my quick play games, where both teams just didn't know how to get through the first choke. Charge won only because their individual play seems to be a little bit better.

Seoul vs NY

Was sleeping, and didn't bother rewatching.

Dragons vs Spark

Spark dumped its coaches after losing its first two matches and threw in Shy, their Chinese hitscan, which seems to have turned things around quick. Spark lost 2-3, but looked competitive. I woke up for this since it was later in the day, but can't recall much because I'm writing these notes two days later.

Boston vs. London

Kind of a sad game, because both teams are starting to gain their footing, but one team was guaranteed to come away from this stage with a winless record. That team ended up being London, after a 5 game tiebreaker. Boston does seem to be the team that is improving faster, but whether this is due to a level up or because London remains hamstrung by ping issues I don't know. Haadi is getting a lot of shit for his Rein decision making, but does he have a choice, considering his handicap?

Shock vs Mayhem

I want Mayhem to succeed, I really do, but they were completely rolled over by Shock this round. The meme on the street is that they were cursed to face down angry Shock after Shock had lost to Houston, and it did look like that. Mayhem couldn't punish the supports the way Houston had.

Washington vs Defiant

Don't remember much of this match. Was a sweep and Defiant seems to be solidly mid tier at this point. I don't think they were able to beat any top team this stage.

Week 3 day 3

Slept through the Seol vs Valiant game. Don't really need to see Valiant get taken apart, though it would be nice to see if Wya is at least putting up a good showing.

Woke up for the Charge vs Spark game and regretted it. The teams looked like they were at completely different levels. Shy just domed everyone, and Charge never set up a coordinated fight. Don't think I saw Rio and Choi dive together once. Anubis yet again proved be a terrible place for double bubble dive. Charge stood at the second point choke for what felt like the entire game. The loss basically solidifies the Charge as a bad team this year.

Went back to sleep after that sadness and missed the New York vs Shanghai match. That also appears to have been completely lopsided and probably isn't worth reviewing it.

Florida Vs. Paris

Don't remember it so well. Florida basically dominated except Paris somehow managed to full hold them at Anubis, which is proving to be the real killer. Can't win a match with one map though!

London vs. Toronto

Kind of a mirror of the Florida Paris match. European team lost (though London put up more of a fight) and was only able to take the 2CP. Not a surprising outcome, as usual.

Shock vs Atlanta

A competitive match, mainly because Atlanta seemed to be very tight with the rush, but they didn't have the stamina. After getting one map up on Shock they got stuffed on point one Havana and then couldn't win a point on Nepal. In hindsight maybe this was a messier game on both sides than it should have been.

 

Week 3 Day 4 - Knockout Rounds

Dragons vs Fusion

Insane match. 6 game series that multiple times came down to insane overtime fights. Multiple pop off moments from almost everyone. I opted to sleep so when I watched I knew the outcome, but I still was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Multiple times I was shouting, How did Philly lose!? They almost had it in the bag! Especially on Ilios, where Dragons got a contest by the skin of their toes and somehow turned that round to their advantage. That was the beginning of the end.

Dragons are just too stone cold. Carpe almost single-handedly sniped out everyone's head in Gibraltar and Rascal was assassinating everyone, but IMO Gibraltar is one of the Dragon's best maps, and after steam rolling Philly on both their attack rounds spawn camped Philly on Philly's second attack. A really sad end to what was otherwise insanely competitive match.

Chengdu vs Seoul

Slept and haven't had the time to review yet, but this one I'll have to see, not only because Ameng got put in, but because this win is sending them to the stage Tournament.

Toronto vs Florida

Toronto was starting to look good on the Rush, but Florida was just too agile, and took them completely apart. Toronto doesn't look like it's in the top tier at this point. There's a gap there and this match displayed that. Was rough to see how upset Heesu was when they got knocked out though, Yaki really gave him the business on King's Row when they almost had a chance.

Dallas vs Shock

Not only was this a remarkable upset, it wasn't even close. Shock looked somehow completely lost. Dallas was knocking them all over the map, and the tendancy for Shock to double down and turn lost fights fucked them over multiple times, because Dallas were actually able to absorb the aggression. Even when Shock looked like they were starting to find their feet on defense, they simply couldn't successfully get aggressive, and got knocked out 3-0. Pretty remarkable honestly. Even if Dallas had been able to win it it should have been closer than that.

Mayhem vs Justice

Mayhem are yet again looking like a dark horse contender. This was their qualification match. Beating Justice would get them into the tournament. Justice had a bye on account of their standing, and therefore were going in cold, which may had something to do with why they lost. It was a back and forth match, with Justice looking decent at times but Mayhem seems really good at their rotations and basically shut Justice out in their attacking rounds, despite pretty solid play from Justice on Volskaya defense at least. Dorado was one sided in the end. Justice couldn't get the first point and then couldn't hold for long enough to keep their chances going.

Dallas vs Houston

Final elimination game. Houston has not played since beating the Shock in Week 1, so they are actually a huge question mark. Yes, they played in Week two too, but it was vs. Paris and London, so it wasn't a test at all. Meanwhile Dallas beat Shock just a couple hours ago. There was a real chance for a upset here. The meta has mostly devolved into double bubble or rush, but Houston are abusing the shit out of Sym and it's a lot of fun to watch. Crazy shit happening first match

Houston throws point one but gets its shit together point two with some massive Sym plays and a Piggy flux that halted a Fearless charge. But they lost the last fight when Sparkle came in on doom.

Volskaya. After a sloppy first point defense on Houston they turned it around on second and got Dallas to over time. Happy's Echo and Danteh's Sombra was putting in a lot of work, and Jake's brig was somehow living for forever. Houston attack was similarly quick, but second point is just misery. Houston couldn't even approach point two as Fuel consistently pushed them out into the neutral. Pretty smart considering the spawn proximity.

The one massive push Houston hit Fuel ignored point entirely and just destroyed the backline while Jjangu and Dante stood there helpless. But the two ticks they got ultimately gave them the chance to allow for a frantic last minute overtime take, bringing them to extra rounds.

Dallas yet again rolled Houston over on point one. They won a team fight in right side room where the supports were somehow frontlining, took down Crimzo and Jake immediately, and then managed near 90% on the point two snowball before Houston stabilized.

Houston almost matched the pace, but in the end Dallas had a better disengage and were able to recontest after a lost fight. Fielder dodged a pulse and slept Danteh during a drop from high ground and the Jjangu got greedy and held primal in the hope of using it for 2nd point, but this gave Dallas time to stabilize, and that was Volskaya.

In Blizzard world Dallas somehow increase the aggression and kept the pace higher than I have ever seen in my life honestly. It's like Dallas saw Houston's Sym strats and said, yeah we can do that too. The teles, the walls, all of them the most aggressive thing I've ever seen in my entire life. The break the record I think on BW.

Houston responds with a fuck you Doomfist which works well for first point. But this just gives Dallas free rein to use Sparkle Doom. The Houston switch worked. They got 3rd point in decent time. But Dallas adjusted in second rounds and gave them just a tick on point one, then Sym TPed up to back high ground and brawled Houston to death to win the match.

It looks like the Sym strats that Houston had developed against Fuel and Shock in the first week were perfected and used against them in this match, and the Fuel Coordination brought them out on top in the mirror. Houston made it look competitive, but in the end there was no question who was the better team.