got_quiet

More long winded notes about OWL matches, uninteresting to all but the overly invested.

Games for week two.

Chengdu vs New York and Spark vs Philly

Missed it completely but it appears to have been a blow out. Chengdu did not drop a single point. I may go back and watch it at 1.5 speed, since the thing didn't take too long to begin with. The other match was Spark vs. Philly. Closer but I only saw the last little bit and don't recall much beyond the fact that Guxue is insane but I guess the team play wasn't there. Still need to watch that one too.

West matches I actually saw.

Outlaws vs Eternal

A decent game. Eternal were not looking so hot vs. Vancouver yesterday, but they rose to the occasion here, and even though they lost 3-1 they looked a lot more cohesive than before and were able to punish some mistakes by Houston. Houston still looked strong, but did make mistakes. The most remarkable thing was their use of Symetra. Happy's teleports trivialized Mei multiple times and made Paris constantly worried about a flank. The teles were almost all very short range, only a few yards at times, and yet they were very impactful.

Boston vs LA

A one-sided match. Glads appear to be playing gate keepers again this season. They are looking decently strong against some teams after getting bodied by others. Messy play all around, and few solid "team fights" It seems both teams relied pretty heavily on individual pop off moments, so it constantly felt like things could go any which way, but in the end I guess LA had the better pop offs.

Justice vs Fuel

Fuel was scrappy but they seemed to force Sombra at times when she wasn't able to get much value, probably because they are still without a raw hitscan specialist. Like the Boston LA match it felt a lot sloppier than it could have been. The Echenwald map in particular was painful, with the dps constantly getting caught out on the Fuel side and second point a chaotic mess all over the map.

New York vs Hangzhou

A decently competitive game, and the sort of chaotic high pace that one usually expects in APAC. Jjonak was getting bullied the whole game and MCD was the most bloodthirsty support on the server, but it seems that for both teams they rely heavily on aggression. Maybe it's because I was watching at 1.25x speed but it was hard to see much peel. Seemed whoever fragged out best got the win, and that turned out to be NY. Though there was a lot of ball being played and that tends to lend itself to more chaos.

Houston vs London

It's still the Happy Show. Jjangu and Crimzo were also excellent, with significant nades and really good, patient monkey play supported by Piggy. Danteh was sick so KSF was in the entire time, and did well both on Mei and Tracer. His 3k pulse closed out Gibralter, but to be fair the game was essentially lost for London at that point anyway.

No one is really standing out on London as a player to watch. As much as I like Kellex the observers are never paying attention to the Brig, so I rarely know what's going on with him. And Shax isn't dying but he also doesn't seem to be able to turn the tide any.

On Hanamura London picked the fuck up and the old Hurricane power showed itself a little. There was an insane flashbang slam play on in the Houston attack that took advantage of Houston grouping to take tele. But Houston was still able to just outplay London and abuse a single death on the defense to flip what looked like a losing fight later on. And the second point was a snowball.

Houston also subbed Jake in for damage on Hanamura. So now he and Viol2t are in a class of their own as the only pros to cross roles like that this season. He held his own but definitely fed on occasion on Doomfist.

Dallas vs Boston

Was distracted and didn't see map one, but it appears to have been one sided. Boston were able to hold second on Havana but Dallas went with a Genji defense which was a little disrespectful maybe. Sparkle's Genji is always fun to watch and he got shit done for sure, but... how?

Last map was Volskaya and was a little more even. Was basically attack watch. No defense on point one for all four rounds, but Boston finally got stymied on 2nd and that was it.

Washington vs Vancouver

A stomp. Titans looked pretty awful. It was mostly rush and every time Justice managed to get in range Titans just died. That basically happened for two maps straight. Titans managed to get on their feet in Anubis and repelled Justice on point two almost to overtime after a blink and you miss it point one. They somehow managed a quick attack themselves and given a 4 minute time difference managed an actual win, preventing a complete sweep.

But they got full held on Blizzard World after stopping Washington on point two, and that was that. The way it looks, Washington is kind of sloppy and makes a lot of unforced errors, and Vancouver is bottom of the bracket with only occasional moments where they can take advantage of opponent mistakes. Neither team looked particularly impressive.

I didn't watch the APAC games for Sunday because I opted to sleep.

Week 3, Day 1 (Thursday)

I was so annoyed that there were Thursday games I didn't even know about. I was alone at work so I could have had them playing while I was doing my job, but the completely useless OWL app didn't even bother to ping me. So I had to watch the vods instead of live. I guess it's effectively the same thing, just no live r/cow chat, which is part of the fun for me. The silver lining is I could watch on 1.25x time and skip the downtime so I sorta kinda saved time? And also actually got to pay attention since I wasn't working?

Rein vs Eternal

Seems a bit uneven a fight. Atlanta keeps getting picks in the mid game which means Eternal breaks apart. And you'd think Eternal could play tightly with rush but they are getting caught out.

Hanamura was more Sym shit. Seems like that is no longer a niche strat on that map but the standard approach. Point two seems strong for massive shatters. Reigns first attack was met with no resistance. On their attack Paris struggled to get to point one but juked the absolute shit out of Reign on point two by porting to point while the Eternal Rein walked up stairs to slam from behind. It gave them the point immediately. Play of the match there for sure.

Actually that single play made me a fan of this Eternal team. I love dumb shit like that. Too bad they don't seem like an actually good team.

Rein looks like it's picking up right where it left off last year, as a team that dumpsters mediocre teams and gets dumpstered by good teams. They and Glads have yet to really collapse or break through.

Map three at least demonstrated a competent defense by Paris, who had gotten rolled on Hanamura. They weren't able to manage a hold, but their rush looked a lot tighter on this map.

But Reign's defenses were stronger and ended up spawn camping at first point, partially because Pelican managed to keep picking Kaan's Bap first somehow. In the end they managed to hold them off just at the end of 3 and won in a sweep.

Justice vs Uprising

A close game with some very good clutch moments. Boston didn't look too bad the first map. They have a lot of individual talent and seemed to be able to play at pace, but lost map 1.

Map 2 their first defense was also pretty decent and almost clutch, but they were on the back foot the whole second point after an over zealous last minute contest that could have worked if only Stand1 had gotten nano a split second earlier. A few surgical dives with Mag and Decay on 2 and they got rolled.

Their point one offense was a clown show. They almost won the team fight but Justice was able to kite them all the way back to their spawn and Fury killed two there, resulting in an actually successful re-contest on one by Justice. It actually fucked them completely over by chasing Fury for so long. It was practically a long con C9. They did complete the map but ended up full held in extra rounds and immediately picked apart on defense, giving Justice 2-0.

Decay, Fury, and Mag all seem to be playing at peak level. They're cohesion feels pretty strong. The support for both teams also seems to have their shit together.

Map three was King's Row. Boston yet again showed a willingness to really chase kills to the ends of the earth and played Justice to the edge. Valentine came out and showed a talented Doomfist, and IM37's coordination with his supports gave him multiple pop off moments.

Justice got held right past the point one choke. Their defense was just as strong as Boston's, keeping them at P1 through to over time and using fast, spread out rotations throughout the upper gallery to prevent engagements, but Boston eventually bullied their way on through and then the short trip to the golden box was effectively uncontested.

Map 4 was Havana. Boston broke through Justice's forward hold immediately. And again quickly won the rush engage at the turn, making for an quick point one take. Disengages in both teams were on point but generally it seamed Decay's Hanzo was just doing too much work and Boston got stuffed up at the end of Point 2, only completing in overtime and then getting held at Point 3 spawn to the end.

Boston's forward hold was a lot more successful than Washington. And IM37 yet again got more value out of dead eye than that ult usually is expected to. They yet again almost hold at Point 1 but Decay's Hanzo yet again finds Valentine's head and splits Boston with a dragon, getting them across in overtime.

Point two was a roll, Boston almost actually held it at three, but the economy was too strong for Washington, and they only needed a few meters. As they say, the 3-1 score doesn't really reflect how close this game was. Justice was just that one step ahead.

This was a match worth watching. It was won by inches, and is a real disappointment for Boston, which keeps looking better but can't seem to catch a break.

As an aside, Bren and Sideshow's commentary has gotten very good. They were always decent but I think they both upped they analysis game this year and are a lot of fun to listen to.