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Team Australia knocked out of Overwatch World Cup by Canada

Roar Rookie
4th November, 2017
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Will this be Doomfist's time to shine? Probably not. (Image: Blizzard Entertainment)
Roar Rookie
4th November, 2017
0

Australia fought valiantly but could not prevent themselves being knocked out of the Overwatch World Cup by a resilient Canada.

Victories on Oasis and King’s Row put Australia in an excellent position to advance to the semi-finals in spite of their position as underdogs, but following the half-time break Canada emerged looking a rejuvenated and a more unified team and took the next three maps to earn a comeback win and a berth against Sweden in the semis.

Talk before the match centred around the unity of the respective sides. The Canadian squad could be described as disjointed, with its collection of individually talented members scattered across the Great White North and playing for different professional teams. The Australians were strangely more cohesive, having played together as Blank Esports in the Overwatch Pacific Championships and the APAC Premier 2017.

In the first map of the best-of-five series it was initially the Canadians who looked the more organised and in-tune side. The Australians, perhaps nervous at the scale and spectacle, were slow to gain traction on Oasis’ City Center and had no answer to Liam ‘Mangachu’ Campbell’s Pharah, who was left unchallenged to rain rockets upon the disoriented Australians.

Canada went 1-0 up for the map and were close to a second but made a vital error when Mangachu’s Pharah jumped into the air in overtime, leaving the point empty and handing the Australians an unlikely victory and tying Oasis 1-1.

The amused look on Ajay ‘Aetar’ Umasnkar’s face when he realised they had won the point was a marker for the confidence Australia had found. An effective Reinhardt-Roadhog combination gave Canada first dibs on the Oasis Gardens, but Australia retook the point without much difficulty and used their momentum to stagger the Canadians as they approached, winning the point and going up 1-0 in the series on the same map at which they qualified for the finals against Japan half a year ago.

(Image: Blizzard Entertainment)

Canada chose King’s Row for the hybrid map and Brady ‘Agilities’ Girardi as Genji executed a well-timed Dragonblade to wipe the Aussies and claim the control point. They followed up with a relatively uncontested first checkpoint but encountered much more resistance on the final push.

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Agilities died very early on with less than one minute remaining on the clock, his blushes spared only by a clutch resurrect on the payload of Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel’s Winston at the hands of Joe ‘Joemeister’ Gramano’s Mercy. A snowball push forced Australia back and allowed Canada the completion.

Australia took no time at all to retaliate, easily capturing the control point and displaying how important Mercy is to the current meta. Australian captain Andrew ‘Rqt’ Haws showed his APAC experience with the new Mercy, and consistently outshined his counterpart Joemeister throughout the match.

The green and gold had a straightforward push to the second point and cascaded right on through to get completion with three minutes and 14 seconds left for their sudden-death time bank. It proved unnecessary – an extremely defensive Torbjorn-Orisa comp was unable to stop the Aussies getting the first tick and claiming King’s Row, leaving them one win away from the semi-finals.

After half-time Canada advanced with a triple tank composition and forced their way onto the first point of Hanamura. Hero choice became crucial here. Ashley ‘Trill’ Powell of Australia switched from Winston to Reaper, rebuffing the tanks as they approached the second point, and predicting a Canadian switch, himself returned to Winston. His wise strategy wasn’t enough as the Aussies overcommitted in their defence and, trickling back one by one, were torn apart from the balcony by Lane ‘Surefour’ Roberts’ Soldier 76 as Canada earned the completion.

Although they managed somewhat shaky captures of both the first and second points on their own attack, the Australians had a significant time bank disadvantage in the sudden death round and could not hold off a resurgent Canada. Mangachu smartly used D.Va’s Self Destruct to keep the Aussies off the point and bring the score to 2-1.

(Image: Blizzard Entertainment)

Junkertown made its world cup debut, with the Australians electing to fight on their home turf. Jason ‘ieatuup’ Ho kept the Canadians at bay with Widowmaker, free to snipe on the wide open spaces. xQc’s Orisa then made life difficult for the Australians on the second checkpoint. He then undid his hard work with a terribly misplaced shield and with Joemeister still collecting mistakes as Mercy the Aussies rode through the second point with ease.

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They did not proceed too much further – a four-kill Dragonblade by Agilities was met with a Team Kill in retaliation, but the payload stalled around the corner and the Aussies were left wondering if they had done enough.

Canada needed to overtake the marker set by Australia to tie the series, and brought out the ‘pirate ship’ strategy by placing Surefour’s Bastion on the payload and protecting him with a Reinhardt and an Orisa. It worked like a charm for one and a half checkpoints, with Surefour ripping the Australian defence to shreds before the tight corridors allowed the Australians to finally tear Surefour off the payload. Surefour earnt his country the victory on the map, however, thanks to the time earned by their strategy and his double-kill Pulse Bomb on the final point.

With the series at 2-2 and down to a deciding control point, Australia chose Nepal. The result seemed a given when Mangachu returned with his deadly Pharah, landing direct hits and picking off two of the Australian heroes within fifteen seconds. The Australian squad seemed incredibly reluctant to switch to a Soldier 76, and it proved their undoing, with Mangachu cleaning house multiple times to put Canada up 1-0.

ieatuup did switch to Soldier for the Nepal: Temple point, but by this point it was far too late. With Surefour’s Soldier protected by xQc’s Orisa, the Australians had lost their momentum and lost the map. Surefour wrapped up the game, set and match with a four-kill Tactical Visor and sent Canada through to face Sweden in the semi-finals at Australia’s expense.

Despite a tremendous improvement on last year’s performance, the Australians will be disappointed in the manner of their exit having come so close.

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