Tiger Nation had an exhausting weekend but were rewarded with a perfect 9-0 map score for the Seoul Dynasty. The make-up games have boosted the Dynasty to an even 11-11. This coming week the Dynasty will play their last two matches of the season against the Hangzhou Spark and the London Spitfire.
Hangzhou Spark:
It feels fitting that one of the last matches of the season would be against the Spark. The last face to face the Dynasty got reverse swept. With a strong week previously, the Dynasty have the momentum, but as the Spark didn’t play this last weekend Seoul don’t have intel on them. This is, on paper, going to be a big match up.
What do the Seoul Dynasty need to do to win?
The Dynasty need to not feel too comfortable after the perfect weekend. They need to continue to be on their guard and play as if they were still on their losing streak. Hyunwoo ‘Toyou’ Lim has shown up for the Dynasty as a solid end of season pick up. His Dva and Sigma have shown the best of both Minhyuk ‘Michelle’ Choi and Minseo ‘Marve1’ Hwang as off tanks, which has allowed Marve1 to go back to his roots as a main tank. His spy checking and synergy with the dive needs to continue into this match. The Spark DPS are more dangerous than London as they have more experience under their belt. Seoul need to play their meta. It was when the Dynasty pulled out the Reaper and Torb that their match in the Countdown Cup went south for them.
Prediction: 3:2 Seoul Dynasty
No matter how hot the Dynasty are right now, the Spark are a formidable opponent. It would be just for the Dynasty to reverse sweep them. The Dynasty look strong and have the will to win these last matches to prove themselves. The prep of the coaches as well as the newfound rhythm will give the team the momentum to get the satisfaction of winning against one of the biggest upset teams for them this season.
Player to Watch: Jinmo ‘Tobi’ Yang
The pop-off player for the Dynasty is normally on the DPS line or the tank line. It has been a long while since a support has been considered a major factor. Tobi is un-killable, which is the joke amongst Tiger Nation. The Dynasty brought in Jinwoo ‘Gambler’ Heo Season 1, Seungosoo ‘Jecse’ Lee Season 2, and Sungjun ‘Slime’ Kim this season as another main support for the team and it is still the dominance of Tobi on the server. Of course, just fan logic, but Tobi has been pulling up in key moments for the team.
can't exactly figure out how many got punished but here's the raw rezzes/deaths pic.twitter.com/9AJhrQTUcn
— BackpackMatt 🦉 (@MattMersel) August 16, 2020
In Season 1 Tobi at length had mentioned that Mercy wasn’t the most comfortable hero for him to play. It was a different positioning and made it harder for him to shot call. Fast forward to Tobi Season 3 and he doesn’t care about the enemy team. He goes in headfirst and resurrects right in the enemy’s face. In their last match against the London @MattMersel from the Overwatch League staff showed that Tobi resurrected 18 people to his own 10 deaths. Tobi is making the big difference in bringing Seungtae ‘Bdosin’ Choi who is playing the frail Ana from the inevitable death of the enemy dive.
London Spitfire:
The London Spitfire and the Seoul Dynasty went from not playing each other at all during the regular season to now playing each other three times in two weeks. Of the three matches that Seoul played in Week 28, they won both 3-0. The scoreline though doesn’t show how much growth London made in a couple of days. The players, especially the DPS line, adjusted and put up a much better showing on Sunday. This would bring the last match of the season to be a close one.
What do the Seoul Dynasty need to do to win?
The Dynasty need to continue on with their consistent play. Ilios is in the map pool again and the Dynasty need to pull out new strategies with the same comps. The London coaches will be preparing for what the Dynasty ran in Week 28, so there needs to be some variation.
Route 66 is where the infamous attack Torb was pulled out. Hopefully, it won’t make an appearance. London could pull an Atlanta Reign and have the El Presidente strategies with Bastion that Seoul should prepare for. Overall it isn’t all about improving as much as switching things up a little, which is a nice change for the Seoul Dynasty.
Prediction: 3:1 Seoul Dynasty
The Seoul Dynasty won all the maps, but control both times were close. With some adjustments, it is easy to imagine the London Spitfire taking the first map. They started to punish the Dynasty’s strategy of splitting 1:1:4 on Hanamura that stopped the double cap. It is unlikely unless the Dynasty are mentally boomed by the Spark, that they lose the match overall though.
Player to Watch: Sangjun ‘Babel’ Park
Babel has a lot of room for improvement, but the bright moments that the DPS player had in the matches were game-changing. If Babel can pull it in and not panic EMP and work with the team for following up his damage the London Spitfire have a good chance of taking maps. He had some questionable ultimates during Week 28 that were invested in losing fights. He started to turn it around when he would go in to try and punish Tobi or Bdosin who were out of position. If Babel can show up this could be a match of the week.
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