Washington Justice (0-1) vs New York Excelsior (2-0)
The Justice had their work cut out for them with their first match. Not only were they up against a top tier team, this match held some significance in a new rivalry for Janus and WizardHyeong, former members of NYXL.
Ilios Justice 0-2 NYXL
On the first round, Jjonak’s opening pick allowed NYXL to pick the Justice apart. With Nenne building gravs every team fight, the Justice found themselves at a loss and getting hit by a graviton surge off the point. This prevented them from touching the point and they lost the map 0-100.
On the second round, despite engaging and pulling off a few team fights along the way, Fahzix died to a D.va bomb with his Sound Barrier. NYXL used this momentum to take Ilios and the Justice lost the map 0-2.
King’s Row Justice 0-1 NYXL
With a lot of posturing at the start, Washington continually tried to push the NYXL. However, the NYXL backed up accordingly, giving Washington the space needed without losing a tick. Nenne built his Graviton Surge much faster than Corey and allowed them to delay Washington’s pushes. Corey and Sansam’s Graviton Surge and Self-Destruct combo did not work to eliminate NYXL. This round ended in Mano using his shatter to stop Washington and they were full held on point A.
NYXL’s attack round went quickly and painlessly as Washington backed up and provided space. Them backing up resulted in the players getting booped off the point and unable to touch. The Justice lost this 0-1.
Horizon Justice 1-0 NYXL
The NYXL started off with a triple DPS composition. This initially seemed to work well against Washington’s Zenyatta GOATs composition and Libero built his barrage very quickly. However, the Justice did not back off and played slowly but smartly around NYXL’s mistakes. They ended up winning the team fight with NYXL which left them with 30 seconds to attack and no ultimates as they switched off triple DPS. Corey then pulled off a graviton surge, allowing the Justice to wipe NYXL and full hold them on point A.
On attack, Washington rotated onto the high ground and played a slow but deliberate game. Since they only needed to cap point A, they worked off of Corey’s Graviton Surge. When he got it, they pushed the NYXL back and cleaned up the team, allowing them to win Horizon 1-0.
Rialto Justice 1-2 NYXL
The two teams started out with matching GOATs compositions. The Justice played point A intelligently and rotated to the high ground, giving them the space to move the payload around the corner. Despite some struggles at the choke on the end of point A, including this massive bomb from MekO, they eventually pushed and capped it off the back of an earthshatter from Janus. Unfortunately, despite some strategies to force ultimates out of New York, Washington were held just past the bridge on point B.
On attack for NYXL, Mano got a huge shatter, pushing them to cap point A. Since Gido used his Transcendence during this team fight, the NYXL made short work of Washington with Nenne’s Graviton Surge once again and they cleaned up Rialto.
Conclusion
It is to be expected that the Justice’s inaugural match would be a challenging one. Despite getting outplayed often by the more mechanically skilled players on the NYXL, the Justice still showed up on Horizon to prove that they are able to respond and play well. Only time will tell how Washington can grow and improve later on in the stage when they go up against other teams that might pose less of a challenge in Overwatch League.