With both teams needing a win to keep their Stage 2 playoff hopes alive, Chengdu looked to have better positioning coming into Week 4. Owning a +8 map differential to Hanzghou though, the Spark could jump ahead with simply a win on the day. The Hunters felt the pressure, and they crumbled on their first match in the Dallas Homestand.
Image Courtesy of the Chengdu Hunters on Twitter
The Hunters opened up Busan strong, as Ding “Ameng” Menghan caused havoc with his piledrive. Yi “JinMu” Hu put the crowd in awe early, taking out three Spark players with an excellent distribution of the discord orb. Round one’s momentum wouldn’t last long, however, as Hangzhou started rolling.
Seong-Wook “Ria” Park rook a huge part in earning round two’s win, doing everything near-perfect. The D. Va capitalized on Ma “LateYoung” Tianbin’s tendencies, eating his graviton surge and getting two eliminations in a self-destruct. As the Hunters weren’t running a composition with a shield, the bombs proved devastating in the map score.
The Hunters fought tough, but the Spark simply were more effective with their ultimates and compositions. Lo “Baconjack” Tzu-Heng provided an intense defense to start, with hacks as Sombra that couldn’t always translate into eliminations. Kyeong-bo “GodsB” Kim was phenomenal on their attack, catching several Hunters off-guard with a monster graviton surge. The Spark would cap on their attack with a significant time bank.
GodsB would start the Hunters’ attack with an omen of the series, instantly clicking Kong “Kyo” Chunting’s head. Xu “guxue” Qiulin would overtake Ameng early in the main tank duel, stopping the second push with three eliminations of his own. JinMu took control soon after, as his Genji would help cap A and his blade got Chengdu close to a snowball. The Hunters couldn’t cap the round until there was just thirty seconds left in their time bank, thanks to GodsB whiffing a Graviton.
Overtime was brutal for Chengdu and easy for Hangzhou. The Hunters couldn’t work around Hui-chang “BeBe” Yoon and his discord, and Chengdu couldn’t garner a tick. All it took was one patient push for the Spark to gain the single tick they needed. Finding an opening, guxue would garner four eliminations (two on a primal rage) and the Spark went up 2-0 at halftime.
The Hunters seemed to flip the script after halftime, dominating the Spark on this map. Zhang “YangXiaoLong” Zhihao subbed in for an epic Widowmaker battle versus GodsB. YangXiaoLong was able to maneuver at so many different angles, forcing demechs, resets and simple hesitance from Hangzhou. After a relatively quick cap of the first point, the Spark couldn’t get past Chengdu’s strong aggression to reach point B. JinMu would also play out of his mind this round, recording three great eliminations as a Hanzo in fadeaway shots. It only took three fights for the Hunters to reach the golden box on their attack, simply having great team play. Kyo had excellent use of his transcendence, evading GodsB’s EMPs.
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After much thought of a possible reverse sweep, the Spark shut the door on the Hunters’ hopes. Chengdu’s first attack was long and different, capping the final point in overtime. The round went back and forth, as JinMu’s Bastion held for a bit, then BeBe would catch Ameng out of position but YangXiaoLong carried in the end with three eliminations in the final fight. The Spark’s attack was nothing less than monstrous. Chengdu’s composition of Mercy, Roadhog, Widow, D. Va, Orisa and Junkrat couldn’t get past GodsB, as it was his turn to click heads. It continued to snowball for Hangzhou, capping with over three minutes in the timebank.
The Hunters’ overtime push worked well and reached point A, but didn’t move much farther. JinMu’s Bastion play yet again would carry Chengdu, but the Hunters lost control in a stunning fashion in the final fight. Guxue dropped from the high ground and charged mid-air, pinning JinMu and allowing the Spark to hold the Hunters still. It didn’t take long for the Spark to finish the Hunters though, as BeBe’s hooks continuously pulled Chengdu out of position.
Chengdu wanted to win to really set themselves up for a playoff push, but even with the loss they will still have a shot. The Hunters still hold an even map differential and have two matches left in the stage. Chengdu will have one more shot in Stage 2 Week 4. If they can beat the red hot Spitfire and sweep the Valiant, Chengdu might hold the final spot in the Stage 2 Playoff. The team will need to continue to capitalize on quick eliminations, as their composition based on Ameng’s Hammond as easily thwarted with long battles, as shown before Stage 2 Week 4.
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