The Blizzard Arena transformed into the City of Light Saturday afternoon as the Paris Eternal walked on stage for the first time, opposing Overwatch League’s only other European-based team – the London Spitfire. Although the reigning champions of the Inaugural Season were defeated in a grudge match against the Philadelphia Fusion, this meetup was expected to be an uphill battle for the Eternal. However, this was far from a reprise of the Battle of Waterloo. Apart from London’s victory on King’s Row (home field advantage?), the Paris Eternal dominated the Spitfire, relying on their seamless triple-tank triple-support GOATS composition to clinch a 3-1 victory.
How did a team of entirely European players, mostly Overwatch League rookies, defeat the Spitfire so soundly? While the crowd’s mass consumption of a single baguette was a moving sacrifice of the immune system, the answer is more likely to be found in the Overwatch League’s offseason. Founder of Broadcast.gg Alex “MooshuBeef” Chan empathizes with the expectations of a London victory. “In general, there’s this consensus that the preparation, timing, and support system of the Overwatch League would produce players that are going to play at a higher level,” he explains, but the six months of separation from the Grand Finals and opening day took their toll on London.
Image Courtesy of Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment
“There’s been at least a full season of Contenders before Overwatch League. These are teams that really had to hone in and practically play a whole season of GOATS, especially in Europe. We finally see an example of someone battling up from the semi-pro scene, because of their experience and the way the meta has carried itself into Overwatch League. They can be the ones that would have a much better performance.” MooshuBeef’s expectations proved accurate for most expansion teams – these newcomers were victorious six out of the eight matches against returning franchises.
The Eternal-Spitfire game provided a clear summary of issues in many of these meetups according to analyst Joseph “Volamel” Franco. Volamel states that “Paris versus London encapsulates the differences between the original 12 teams and the expansion teams… I think the issue is much bigger than what people may expect. Sadly, as I expected, London is not prepared for this metagame and have shown historically that they take time to figure out how they want to play things.”
Casters and viewers alike recognized familiar strategies from this past year’s Grand Finals. As shown in the clip below, Jae-hee “Gesture” Hong and Joon-yeong “Profit” Park responded to Nicolas “NiCOgdh” Moret’s Rally and Harrison “Kruise” Pond’s Sound Barrier, with the fan-favorite Dragon Strike/Halt combination which annihilated Philadelphia on Junkertown last July. Although this was activated in conjunction with the zoning and immediate damage of Ji-hyeok “birdring” Kim’s own High Noon on the McCree, the raw aggression and shields from the Eternal negated the impact of these two key offensive ultimates.
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Immediately after the Defense Matrix no longer needed to absorb the expired High Noon, Finnbjörn “Finnsi” Jónasson overwhelmed London with a zoning Self Destruct. The Spitfire, forced to evacuate the tight corridor underneath the windmill, were not killed by the blast, but were forced out of position, leading to Paris’ capitalization of the chaos with near-perfect target prioritization. As Volamel concluded, “Paris just seemed to outmatch London on their fundamentals. Namely their coordination and resource management seemed to surpass the Season 1 champions.”
While London’s struggles were a major component of their defeat, caster Christian “Heurix” Thomasser was impressed with the Eternal’s mastery of GOATS. “The advantage of having a roster that fully understands the complexities of 3-3 showed in Saturday’s matchup. This advantage was then made even more egregious with Kruise at the helm, calling rotations mid-fight to his team that often left London bewildered and broken.” Kruise’s Lucio was nothing short of paramount in his Overwatch League debut, with incredible microplays as shown in the clip below that dismantled London’s attacks, especially on Ilios.
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Watch how Terence “SoOn” Tarlier cheekily baits London to follow him through the open gateway where Kruise is perched above, waiting to boop an opponent into the rest of the Eternal, ready to pounce on the low ground. Spitfire’s worst-case scenario becomes reality as Profit, activating Rally, is booped far out of position and with the help of a shield bash and discord orb, receives a fatal hammer to the forehead. Kruise’s microplay ends the fight early and gives Eternal a slight ultimate economy advantage.
Heurix notes that Kruise’s impact is beyond these initiating boops, but that “these advantages occured in favor of Eternal time and time again where Kruise gave control of fight tempo with properly timed speed amps to not only start their engages, but also to help his team rotate out of unfavorable fights and pivot back into the fight when a better opportunity presented itself.” Ilios Well and Paris’ first attack on Volskaya Point A provide brilliant examples of the coordination and innate trust the rest of Eternal has in their shotcaller, and can be watched here.
Both the London Spitfire and Paris Eternal have a long stage ahead of them, with Paris facing the Los Angeles Gladiators and London competing against the Washington Justice and Hangzhou Spark next week. However, Spitfire fans may now be concerned about the longevity of the triple tank, triple support meta. European Contenders caster Harry “LEGDAY” Pollitt, believes that returning franchises will be able to meet the level of expansion teams’ GOATS play. “If the meta swaps at the start of Stage 2, they likely won’t focus as much on it and may never catch up. But that might not be to the detriment of those stages.”
GOATS has also not been played as strictly as we have seen in Contenders, especially in the European region. Heurix notes that “in Season 1, players and staff were plucked out of the highest competitive tiers and thrust into a League roster for their proficiency in dive-based compositions. It is for this reason also that there has been an upswing in Hammond play as compared to Contenders.” Many teams, including the Spitfire, are adapting to the current meta while maintaining awareness in their dive-based roots, which could allow them to regain footing as Stage 1 continues.
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As for the Paris Eternal, facing off against the Los Angeles Gladiators and Atlanta Reign over the next two weeks will test their ability to face untraditional hero picks, such as Daniel “dafran” Francesca’s Torbjörn and Lane “Surefour” Roberts’ Symmetra. It is a near guarantee that the Eternal will also have to compete against teams with highly skilled Sombras, an effective counter against many heroes in the GOATS composition. Volamel notes that the Eternal has already faced this challenge: “one thing that has me surprised is the way the Eternal adapted to the return of Hee-dong “Guard” Lee’s Sombra during Route 66. If they keep this up they could easily become part of the front of the pack for Stage 1 playoffs.” As seen in the clip to the left, Guard’s Sombra and Jun-ho “Fury” Kim’s Graviton surge were both countered and overcome with ease on the third stage of Route 66, a feat that will need to be repeated in future matches.
With Stage 2 most likely adopting the recent changes to health type prioritization, there is still the question of whether or not this will impact the prevalence of the GOATS meta and potentially impact Paris’ chance of success. The new priority order allows non-recoverable armor (such as the armor pack from Brigitte’s kit) to be whittled down before recoverable shields (a large percentage of Zenyatta and Zarya’s health pool). Although this may weaken these armor heavy triple tank, triple support compositions, LEGDAY believes that this patch will “be a slight weakening [to GOATS] but not to any major detriment. I think that if Stage 2 opens on this patch it will be coach/player innovation over any statistical change which could change the meta.”
LEGDAY continues, saying that “Stage 3 may well come with a new hero, or that might possibly wait for Stage 4, as given OW’s three month content cycle I’d anticipate them in May. They could change the meta mid-stage. It’s quite rare a new hero changes the zeitgeist immediately. Even in her truly overpowered state Brigitte was somewhat under-utilised until they found her niche.” If Paris is able to continue their momentum by capitalizing on their impeccable GOATS play, adapt to either surprising or specific anti-tank picks such as Sombra, and still build upon their solid foundation, this team has an opportunity to contend for a Stage 1 championship. Even if they do end up sharing baguettes with the crowd.
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