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2022 OWL Week 2 Recap

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Raisin

Week 2 recap time, let’s do this.

Florida Mayhem 3-0 Vancouver Titans

The most lopsided match of the season so far showed just how far Vancouver have to go before they become a good team. Mirror’s debut was less than ideal, and False continued to look bad. Map 1, Colosseo, saw Mayhem become the first team to fully cap a push map as Someone and Checkmate ran all over Titans to set the tone for the series. Dorado started off pretty much the same way, with Mayhem setting an absurd time, capturing the final point with 2:36 remaining. Vancouver showed some fight on their offense, but by that point it was too late to make a comeback, and Florida took a 2-0 lead heading into King’s Row. King’s Row itself was a slaughter, with Mayhem setting a 3:16 full-cap time, and then Someone proceeded to spawn camp Titans as Florida full-held to finish off a brutal sweep.

Raisin’s MVP: Someone (FLA, Tank)

SF Shock 3-1 Houston Outlaws

Houston appears to be in trouble. No Winston, no win. It seems like they were figured out by Toronto and now every team just plays Tracer into Danteh’s Doomfist and kills him. Shock leaned into this strategy by playing Kilo instead of S9mm on all 4 maps and mostly using him on Soldier or Tracer. Danteh managed to find good value on occasion, but ultimately on symmetrical maps (Control and Push), slow starts by Houston doomed them to a loss. Map 1, New Queen Street, was the most one-sided of the match. Danteh and Pelican were unable to find any value on their signature heroes and Shock easily swept through and fully capped the map. Map 2 saw Piggy brought in for Danteh to play Sigma on Circuit Royal, and Pelican tried playing Bastion for some reason. Houston nearly got full held, but a timely switch off of Bastion to Genji did the trick for Pelican and the Outlaws were able to at least get the first point. That was as far as they were able to get though, as the hill on point 2 proved too difficult for Houston to climb. The Outlaws defense was going well, holding outside of Shock’s spawn on second point with 2 minutes remaining, but then a bad sound barrier by Lastro and some completely inexcusable stagger kills off of the payload let Shock push the payload the required distance to secure the map and a 2-0 series lead. Houston brought Danteh back in for Midtown, where his Doomfist combined with Mer1t’s Soldier and Reaper were able to outplay Coluge’s Winston and Proper’s Tracer to fully capture the final point in overtime on offense and then hold Shock short of point 2 to send the match to a map 4. Map 4 was, unfortunately for Houston, Control, where they have historically been awful. Ilios was a clean 2-0 for Shock, with Danteh’s Doomfist finding very little value and Proper’s Echo cleaning up on the advantages generated from Coluge being on Winston. Houston are now 5-1 on asymmetrical maps (Hybrid and Escort) and 1-5 on symmetrical maps (Control and Push).

Raisin’s MVP: Proper (SFS, Damage)

Washington Justice 3-0 Atlanta Reign
Coming off of an up-and-down week 1, Washington Justice decided they’d rather be up by dismantling the previously unbeaten Atlanta Reign. Map 1, Colosseo, was a great example of why the Push game mode is awful and desperately needs a rework, as Justice basically won purely off of the fact that they won the opening fight. Hawk’s Doomfist seemed to get a little less value than Mag’s Winston, but the real difference maker for Washington was Decay, who absolutely dumpstered Nero in the Tracer duel. Decay pulled off a Fleta Deadlift on Colosseo (admittedly a slightly less impressive feat in the era of 5v5), accounting for 13 of the team’s 23 kills. On Dorado, Hawk tried a switch onto D.Va, but in addition to Decay, Happy started to do Happy things. Pulling off a DPS diff on Kai is not an easy task, but Happy made Kai look silly trying to play Soldier against Happy’s Widowmaker. Washington fully capped Dorado with 3:21 left on the clock, a blistering pace that Atlanta could not hope to match. On offense, Kai decided he’d had enough and swapped to Widowmaker himself, a decision that immediately paid off with 2 headshots sending Happy back to spawn where he decided to forgo the Widow duel in favor of playing Soldier himself. The role of dealing with Kai then passed to Decay, who mercilessly pestered Kai on Tracer, preventing him from hitting any more headshots as Happy dealt with the rest of Atlanta. A full hold sent the series to Eichenwalde with Justice holding a 2-0 lead. Atlanta finally broke through with Hawk on Zarya and Nero on Reaper. Reign’s offense plowed through the map, setting an almost-unbeatable mark with 4:13 remaining after completing the map. Justice, for their part, had a good attacking half by most standards, finishing with 1:52 left after a beautiful boop from Opener forced a C9 at the end of the map. Nevertheless, Justice had work to do if they wanted to overcome the over 2 minute difference in the time banks. Thanks to a clutch Reaper ult from Decay and the weird quirks of Escort maps, Washington were able to find enough to close out the upset in 3 maps.

Raisin’s MVP: Decay (WAS, Damage)

London Spitfire 3-1 Boston Uprising

The continuing trend of London playing Rein everywhere gave us a very close first map, as Colosseo saw neither team reach a checkpoint in their push. Ultimately, Marve1’s Doomfist was the difference maker as Boston took an early lead in the series. From there, things went downhill for Uprising. Map 2, Route 66, had both teams play the meta Winston-Ana-Soldier comp, but for Boston, there was an unusual decision made to play Punk on Winston instead of Itsal or Marve1, who are more experienced on the hero. A close map ended in a London victory after a long overtime push on their second attack led by SparkR’s Soldier. On Midtown, Boston brought Marve1 back in to play Doomfist, and London went back to their trademark Rein. After a horrible C9 on point 2 on defense, Boston were unable to reach that point on attack giving London a 2-1 series lead heading into map 4. Map 4, Lijiang Tower, was just about a best-case scenario for London, as Rein can be very effective on that map. Strong Soldier play from SparkR and a good showing from Landon paved the way for a 2-0 victory on Lijiang Tower and a 3-1 series win for the Spitfire.

Raisin’s MVP: Backbone (LDN, Damage)

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Dallas Fuel 3-2 LA Gladiators (Game of the Week)

The showdown between heavyweights pitted a Dallas team that liked to use Reaper and Zarya against a Gladiators team that preferred Doomfist and Soldier. On map 1, Colosseo, each team produced a solid amount of push before a clutch play by Kevster on Tracer gave the Gladiators the edge they needed to go up 1-0 in the series. Map 2, Gibraltar, Dallas brought in Fearless in place of Hanbin as both teams were locked into the Winston-Ana-Brig composition for the entirety of the map. Dallas captured the final checkpoint with 1:03 remaining in their time bank. Not to be outdone, Gladiators, propelled by Skewed’s Brig and Kevster’s Genji, were able to cap with 1:04 remaining. While this created a situation that was actually advantageous for Dallas, I’m not going to get into the specifics of my whole payload map attacker's advantage rant here and just say that Skewed made the difference in propelling LA to a map win to put themselves up 2-0. Dallas, now needing to win 3 maps in a row to take the series, brought back Hanbin for Eichenwalde to play Zarya and put Edison on Reaper once again. From here, Hanbin took over the series. His Zarya provided a source of damage Reiner simply could not match on Winston as Dallas began their comeback with a win on Eichenwalde to cut the deficit to 2-1. Ilios was a back-and-forth affair, with the two teams trading rounds to set up a decisive round 3 on Lighthouse. Here, Hanbin made the surprising swap onto Winston where he put the team on his back and led Dallas to a win on Ilios, setting up a decisive map 5 on New Queen Street. Things were looking good for LA on the final map as strong play from Kevster and ANS gave them the first checkpoint and forward spawns, but key plays by Chiyo, Edison, and Hanbin allowed Dallas to fight back and take the lead with just 25 seconds left on the clock to secure the map and complete the reverse sweep.

Raisin’s MVP: Hanbin (DAL, Tank)

NYXL 3-1 Vancouver Titans

Another Titans match, another loss for the Breadstick Boys. Not much else to say, really. NYXL didn’t look great here but they’ll have to be happy with their first win of the season. Map 1, New Queen Street, saw Titans finally do what everyone had been wanting them to do and play Shockwave. His Soldier play proved to be the difference maker in an incredibly close map with each team having chances to win. Vancouver had to be feeling pretty good about their chances heading into map 2, Gibraltar, especially with Shockwave remaining in the lineup to play Widowmaker and Soldier. Any hope of Titans success, however, was immediately snuffed out by False picking Roadhog. Titans got full held. They then proceeded to C9, giving New York the map and tying the series up 1-1. Shockwave and Skairipa led a stout defense for Vancouver on Eichenwalde, stopping NYXL short of the 2nd point and giving some more fleeting hope to Titans fans, but then Yaki remembered he was more talented than the entire Titans roster combined and his Genji helped NYXL produce another full hold to put them up 2-1 in the series. Map 4, Lijiang Tower, was very close, and Vancouver seemed poised to send the series to a fifth map before some heroics from Flora on Reaper and Kellan on Winston kept New York in the map. From there, Yaki took over the game on Tracer, killing 4 players in the decisive final fight to finish off New York’s first win without Jjonak.
Raisin’s MVP: Kellan (NYXL, Tank)

Houston Outlaws 3-2 Florida Mayhem

A must-win game for Houston, who could not afford to start 1-3, and a key test for Mayhem if they could compete with the better teams in the region. Map 1, Colosseo, began with Outlaws taking a lead on the back of Pelican’s Echo, and although Mayhem were able to make a push to make the map close, in the end, it was a massive sleep dart from Ir1s onto Checkmate’s Sombra while he had EMP that gave the Outlaws the advantage they needed to take the map and go up 1-0 heading into map 2. That map, Route 66, saw Piggy sub in for Danteh to play Zarya. The Outlaws basically were copying what Dallas has been doing, with Zarya, Reaper, and Genji enabling a slower style. This strategy was working well for a while on offense, but a swap to Echo from Checkmate allowed Florida to shut down the Reaper and hold Outlaws just before the 2nd point. On offense, Mayhem stalled for a while on 1st point, but were eventually able to break through as Piggy died with 99% to grav, tying the series up 1-1. Danteh came back in on King’s Row, where Houston’s offense went reasonably well, fully capturing the map with 1:19 left in the time bank. Pelican’s Echo did what we’ve come to expect from Pelican’s Echo. Florida had a chance to match that, or at least come close, but then Anamo walked off of the map and Houston took a 2-1 lead. Map 4, Lijiang Tower, was Checkmate’s revenge map on Sombra, as he shut down Danteh’s Doomfist and Mayhem rolled to a victory 2-0 to send the match to New Queen Street. Houston were now playing a map 5, so hopes were not high, but Mer1t pulled out a miracle to save the Outlaws and keep their season alive.

Raisin’s MVP: Ir1s (HOU, Flex Support)

SF Shock 3-1 NYXL

A matchup between two teams headed in opposite directions, the only question here seemed to be if NYXL could take a map or not. On New Queen Street, they would not succeed in this task as Proper dueled Yaki to a draw on Tracer, effectively killing New York’s best chance at creating an advantage. An early lead in the map allowed Shock to coast to an undramatic 1-0 series lead. On map 2, Dorado, Proper and Yaki shifted to facing off on Genji, with Proper gaining the upper hand in part due to the pressure provided by Kilo and Coluge. Kilo in particular destroyed Flora in the Widowmaker duel on New York’s offense. Up 2-0, it looked like the Shock were in position for the sweep, but NYXL had other plans on King’s Row. With s9mm stepping in for Kilo to play Echo, San Francisco’s attack went well, fully capturing the map with 2:18 remaining. NYXL responded by swapping to the Zarya-Reaper composition, pushing through the map 43 seconds faster to set up more rounds. A sound barrier from Gangnamjin to counter s9mm’s nano-blossom provided the difference as NYXL took the map to force the Shock to finish the match on Control. SF brought Kilo back in for Oasis, and he and Proper took turns making big plays to lead Shock to a quick 2-0 map win to close out the series.

Raisin’s MVP: Kilo (SFS, Damage)

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Toronto Defiant 3-0 Paris Eternal

Toronto looked to solidify their place among the upper tier of teams in the West division against a Paris team in flux after having to cut Naga due to financial issues. In Wub’s debut, Paris would’ve like to justify bringing him in to replace their long-time starter, but unfortunately they were outclassed from the beginning by Toronto. With Vestola in to play the Zarya-Reaper composition on New Queen Street, Paris looked unprepared for Toronto’s aggression, as Muze and Twilight helped give Toronto a nearly insurmountable lead with 5 minutes left on the clock. At that point, the map was basically over and the last 5 minutes were just a series of messy fights with no clear winner. Route 66 started a bit better for Paris, as they were able to hold Toronto short of the final point, but on their offense Vestola overextended to use a graviton surge that was countered by CH0R0NG’s sound barrier, costing them time on 1st point, and Wub’s dragonblade got slept by Twilight at the end of 2nd to seal a Toronto map win and a 2-0 series lead. Finally, we came to Eichenwalde where Vestola did a bit of feeding early on as Muze dominated the tank matchup en route to a full cap with 3:25 in the time bank for Toronto on offense. On Paris’ offense, Finale was able to lock down Glister and Wub with his Echo play, and Muze cleaned up at the end of fights to secure the full hold for Toronto and a clean series sweep.

Raisin’s MVP: CH0R0NG (TOR, Main Support)

Team of the Week: Dallas Fuel

Player of the Week: Decay (WAS, Damage)

Power Rankings (With Changes From Last Week)

West

  1. Dallas Fuel (+3)
  2. LA Gladiators (-1)
  3. SF Shock (+0)
  4. Washington Justice (+2)
  5. Atlanta Reign (-3)
  6. Toronto Defiant (+1)
  7. Houston Outlaws (-2)
  8. Florida Mayhem (+0)
  9. London Spitfire (+1)
  10. NYXL (+1)
  11. Paris Eternal (+1)
  12. Boston Uprising (-3)
  13. Vancouver Titans (+0)

East (No changes)

  1. Shanghai Dragons
  2. Seoul Dynasty
  3. Philly Fusion
  4. Hangzhou Spark
  5. Chengdu Hunters
  6. Guangzhou Charge
  7. LA Valiant
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