Boston’s first match of the week was against a slumping London Spitfire. Bookmakers had Boston as clear favourites for the match but the analyst desk was split 50/50 on the night. The first map was Temple of Anubis, a map that Boston had previously won against the Spitfire in Stage 1, and had a 100% win record on before the match.
boston stumble on attack
London were the home side this series and so Boston started out on attack. After a few seconds of play Stanislav “Mistakes” Danilov switches from Widowmaker to Gengi, at that point Boston are playing full dive, a strategy that they often play on Assault maps. One of the biggest reasons they managed to beat London the first time was because London tried to play their dive into Boston’s dive.
This time was different. London played a more static defence with an Orisa as main tank and a widow behind to pick off anyone trying to dive. This worked really well, with Dong-eun “Hooreg” Lee hitting shot after shot on Widowmaker to get the early picks. Boston got a good dive after about a minute and a half, leaping on to the Orisa. Although Boston don’t get eliminations there, they dislodged Spitfire enough to Resurrect Gamsu, catch Hagopeun and snowball the fight to cap the point with 2:10 remaining.
😍 @STRIKER_OW doing striking things. #OWL2018
Live: https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/yw7O00aAaN
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) April 20, 2018
Beaten back on point B
Boston were in a good position to take point B. The first fight lasted well over a minute with several ultimates invested on both sides. Boston used Dragonblade which was countered by transcendence from Spitfire, leading to Boston also using Transcendence. Boston got nothing from two very powerful ultimates and so their push was essentially done there.
London shut down the next few pushes by getting early picks and then staggered picks thanks to Jae-hee “Gesture” Hong going incredibly deep. Eventually when Boston got to the point with enough players they were shut down by a Rip Tire and a D.va Bomb. Finally with just over a minute remaining, Boston got enough kills and made progress on the point. London stalled enough by rotating one player at a time on to the point to allow time for the respawns to get back on the point. After a tremendous amount of stall from London, Boston manage to take the point in overtime.
Spitfire attack strongly
What followed was some of the most dominant Overwatch between two seemingly even teams that the league had seen. Without getting any eliminations, London rotated around the Uprising and took the high ground behind them, forcing Boston’s Widowmaker onto the low ground, making it much harder for the Widow to find sight lines. London and Boston traded eliminations and both used resurrections but London kept control of the high ground and health pack. As the attacking team Spitfire also had spawn advantage so any trades gave them the advantage.
The difference makers in point A were Joon-yeong “Profit” Park and Won-sik “Closer” Jung. The pair cleaned Point A of any trace of the Uprising while the tanks ensured no players got back to the point. London only had to ensure they captured Point B with time in the bank to ensure at worst a draw.
When you HAVE your ULT, but you're @PROFIT_OWL and don't need it to get the KILLS. #OWL2018
Live: https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/80d2k4KzKj
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) April 20, 2018
London then took point B in their first push, investing every available ultimate, starting out with Sound Barrier, then Transcendence and finally a Dragonblade although it seems Profit was more effective without his Dragonblade. Boston were kept off the point and could not stall at all.
an easy finish
London then had over five minutes to get one tick on Point A. As expected the GC Busan dive team showed just why they are “Royal Roaders” and took the point in under a minute. Finding both supports but losing their main tank, Spitfire sped on to the point. With no healing and a huge spawn disadvantage Boston were unable to defend for very long. London are now the only team to have beaten Boston Uprising on temple of Anubis.
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