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First off, I’d just like to publicly admit I was wrong about how this series was going to go but the first two matches started out predictably enough.
Philadelphia took Dorado in a 3-1 victory which wasn’t too surprising. Both teams have a fairly even run of success on Dorado so it really was anyone’s game coming in. I didn’t think too much of it when Philly managed such a strong hold because this wasn’t Boston’s time to shine.
Oasis was up next and it’s another map both teams have similar odds on, with a slight advantage to Boston. The Uprising took it – a bit less decidedly than the Fusion’s win on Dorado – but it set the expected pace. Two incredibly even teams duelling it out and swapping wins back and forth.
The last three maps are why I predicted a Boston victory. The Uprising have incredible stats on these playfields and, after already having one of the toss-up maps in the bag I thought my prediction was safely in the bag.
Despite the impressive performances from Philadelphia, I really expected them to have to take the next few maps as losses and come back for the next game ready to try to make it up.
I was wrong.
Eichenwalde was close, at least. Both teams had relatively speedy efforts picking up the notoriously difficult first point before accessing the payload but Boston was a hair quicker initially and stumbled later in the map.
It went down to the wire with both teams playing a tiebreaker out in Overtime but Philadelphia took it 5-4.
At this point, everyone knows it’s going to a map five, because Volskaya Industries is up next and the Uprising have a near perfect record on this map. They had never lost and only drawn on it once.
That was until today.
The Fusion came out of nowhere, taking both points and then managing a full hold on defense against Boston which I don’t think anyone could have predicted. The team used an unpredictable strategy by having the flex tank Hong-Jun “Hotba” Choi pick up a Tracer role which star DPS Jae-hyeok “Carpe” Lee later attributed to being a major part of their success.
This victory meant the next map Junkertown didn’t even come into play and, if you had asked me before, I would have said this map would also go to Boston. But at this point, who even knows?
Philadelphia Fusion clearly pulled out all the stops in their scrims over the past few weeks and brushed up on their techniques and maps. Carpe came away with player of the match for his sensational Widowmaker plays, but I felt Josue “EQO” Corona’s Hanzo performance was the real killer.
This is the first time we’ve seen this Hanzo patch in League play and the changes have made a massive difference. Dragonstrikes were almost a constant threat for both teams and on Eichenwalde, EQO’s Hanzo was responsible for an absurd 32% of his team’s damage. Teams with solid Hanzos definitely are seeing an edge in this meta.
Where Boston really fell apart was in their defenses. Even if they managed a good attack when on the defending side the Uprising just couldn’t seem to stay alive – possibly in part thanks to the incredible effort from the Fusion’s DPS.
Kristian “Kellex” Keller who I’d previously cited as one of Boston’s strong support lineup was constantly being picked off and whether that was his fault, or a failing of his team to protect him is hard to say.
Without a Mercy up to provide healing and resurrections we saw this team drop fast and in the end, that’s why they couldn’t take home this match.
Unless Boston make some real changes between now and Saturday this is Philadelphia’s ticket to the next stage in the finals. The Uprising will need to win both matchups on Saturday to defeat the Fusion and I just don’t see that happening in their current state.
Carpe also said in his final interview that his team can be quite an emotional one and that he feels having this victory under their belt will power them on through the next match.
After such a surprising loss for Boston, it wouldn’t be too hard to think that the team might come away from this a little tilted and swing the odds ever further in Philadelphia’s favour.
To be fair, I’ve been wrong before and almost anything is possible when it comes to the Overwatch League.
Game 2 and 3 (if necessary), will take place at 10am (AEST) and 12pm, respectively, on Saturday, July 14.