After looking shaky last week, the players of the Guangzhou Charge need to pull themselves together for the final week of the stage if they want a shot at making the stage playoffs. They sit right at the cusp of missing out at the moment, and in order to lock in that spot they’ll need to win their next match. Unfortunately for them, this is against the Vancouver Titans, one of the league’s strongest powerhouses. Although the Titans have shown weakness thus far, it’ll take a near miracle for the Charge to win this battle.
After dominating the Atlanta Reign 4-0, the LA Gladiators had clearly found their groove late into the stage. Unfortunately for the Guangzhou Charge, this meant fighting a team that became revamped and formidable nearly overnight. While many of the maps seemed close, the Charge failed to take the win in the series. As a result, they dropped down to 8th place in the standings.
The player who shined the most in this match-up had to be Hong-Jun “Hotba” Choi. On top of playing D.Va at such a high level, he showed the audience once again why he’s renowned as a flex monster by switching onto the Pharah, a pick no one had seen from him before on stage, and destroying on Nepal, the Charge’s most dominant map.
Do you #FeelTheCharge from @shu_overwatch & @HOTBA_OW yet!?
Cause they’re all charged up. #OWL2019
LIVE: https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/rGaRB81Ylm
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) March 9, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Photo: Ben Pursell for Blizzard Entertainment
The Vancouver Titans are currently second place in the league for a reason; they have strong team synergy, experience on GOATS, an insanely aggressive main tank player in Park “Bumper” Sang-beom, and a nine-man versatile roster. However, they Titans have shown weakness against both the Chengdu Hunters in their last match, and the Charge itself the last time they faced off. It is entirely possible that the Charge could pull off a miracle and take this match like they almost did before by being unpredictable, using heavy DPS combinations and forcing that game 5 that the Charge nearly always do so well on. However, while this would be sweet poetic justice for the Charge, it’s an unlikely outcome.
Prediction: Vancouver 3 – Guangzhou 1
Image Courtesy of @GZCharge on Twitter
This week, the player to keep an eye on would have to be Jung-yeon “Chara” Kim. Chara has definitely not been talked about much due to how many strong plays his teammates have put out. Yet he’s always been a solid member of the team, providing shot-calling and doing his job completely under the radar. When Bumper’s overaggressive plays come in, Chara needs to be the one to disrupt and isolate him from his team in order for the Charge to come in with the kills. Additionally he needs to stay alive in the back line in order to keep the team moving forward.
You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles
For more from Ethan make sure to follow him on Twitter!!
“From Our Haus to Yours”
Players must be 21 years of age or older or reach the minimum age for gambling in their respective state and located in jurisdictions where online gambling is legal. Please play responsibly. Bet with your head, not over it. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, and wants help, call or visit: (a) the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey at 1-800-Gambler or www.800gambler.org; or (b) Gamblers Anonymous at 855-2-CALL-GA or www.gamblersanonymous.org.
