In week 2 of stage 2 Boston Uprising found mixed results. They faced off against regional rivals and top of the league, New York Excelsior, and second bottom of the league, Florida Mayhem. It was obvious the first match was going to be much tougher than the next and the scoreline showed.
Boston nearly there against New York
Despite the 4-0 scoreline in favour of NYXL, Boston Uprising looked much improved from last week against New York, Even with ArK back in the NYXL lineup. The first map was Hanamura where Philadelphia had rolled Boston last week, taking both points in just 95 seconds. The Uprising seemed to have learned from their mistakes and held NYXL to just under 75% on point B. Unfortunately Boston’s attack wasn’t as successful and in turn they were held to just one tick on point B.
On Kings Row, Boston Uprising put up a good fight but couldn’t make it to 3rd point. Boston Subbed in Kalios, Taking off DreamKazper, Notably it was Striker who was off last time. Still they played played a triple tank Defense with Kalios on Zarya, just without Kazper’s Doomfist. Either Boston want to be hard to predict or they are still figuring out how to play the new map pool. Either way it didn’t work this time and NYXL pushed the cart the full distance and Boston couldn’t match that. Oddly they played Kellex on Tracer and Striker on Ana. This was an odd move as we saw from the next match Mistakes was more than ready to come in and play.
Map four was closer to what was expected after Boston’s performance last week. Boston played a much more conventional lineup. NYXL managed to push the cart on Gibraltar the full way thanks to some heroics from Sabeyolbe and then full held Boston on the payload map.
"The Hand of SSB" – how @saebyeolbe pulled off one of the most technically difficult plays we've seen in #OverwatchLeague https://t.co/eWKelTLRgA pic.twitter.com/bJG2SaEGYr
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) March 7, 2018
Boston Uprising find their feet against florida
After going 0-12 in maps in stage 2, Boston had a real “get right” match against Florida. Despite playing four completely different maps from their first match and all three analysts picking Mayhem over the Uprising, Boston came through winning 4-0.
There was a notable absence of Gamsu this series due to an illness. Starting off with Volskaya industries, Boston seemed unfazed by the lack of Gamsu. They sprint through their attack round with over five minutes to spare, reasserting their dominance on control. Their quick second point capture was in part thanks to some very clean shooting from DreamKazper on Widowmaker.
🤯@DreamKazper? More like DreamCrusher. #OWL2018
Live: https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/YxWdxWN7Um
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) March 3, 2018
Boston manage to hold Florida on point A and things finally start to look up for the Uprising.
Map 2 on Lijiang tower the teams seemed more evenly matched due to the deathmatch style of how it is played. Florida Mayhem have very talented DPS players and they get to really pop off when strategy becomes less important. After a scrappy three rounds, Boston came out on top, ready to show that they are still a very capable team.
The biggest surprise of the night came just before map 3, when Mistakes came in for DreamKazper and stayed on for map 4 too and he looked very good. Overall Boston looked much stronger and much more cohesive than the previous matches in stage one. Although they were against far easier opponents this time, there is still a lot to be hopeful about. It does look like Boston may have just found their place in this meta.
Looking forward
Boston’s next two matches are against Shanghai Dragons, who have lost their coach and star DPS player for the next two weeks, so very little can be taken from it. After that they face up against London Spitfire who also just lost their head coach. Although Boston managed to beat London Spitfire in stage one, it’s unlikely they’ll manage it a second time.
Follow me on twitter:@FraserAConnell
Follow The Game Haus for more esports and sports stories!!
Twitter: TGH Sports
Facebook: The Game Haus
Featured Image Courtesy of: The Overwatch League