PARIS ETERNAL (1-0) VS. CHENGDU HUNTERS (0-0)
STARTING SIX
Roni “LhCloudy” Tiihonen
Finnbjörn “Finnsi” Jónasson
Terence “SoOn” Tarlier
George “ShaDowBurn” Gushcha
Luís “Greyy” Perestrelo
Harrison “Kruise” Pond
SUBS
Karol “Danye” Szcześniak
CHENGDU WINS 4-0
OASIS: PARIS 1-2 Chengdu
Paris started off the series well enough coming out on University and going toe to toe with the DPS composition Chengdu was bringing to the table. GOATs wasn’t something either team seemed willing to run and SoOn was able to play some McCree to counter a lot of the dives and Pharah pressure Chengdu brought to the table. Going into University Paris tried to mirror that composition that Chengdu came out with. The solo tank Hammond with Triple DPS. ShaDowBurn had a really good showing on one of his signature heroes, Pharah. He was even able to out battle Yi “JinMu” Hu in the Pharah battle a couple of times. Paris played right into the hands of Chengdu losing out of the DPS battle which continued into the third map of Oasis.
As much as Paris tried to keep themselves alive and peel for their supports they weren’t able to pin down Ding “Ameng” Menghan who was living in the Paris back line all day. Paris tried to pull the game back into their favor with their DPS play they just weren’t able to keep up with Chengdu once they took the point. Paris would lose Gardens and fall behind in the scoreline 0-1.
HANAMURA: PARIS 3-4 Chengdu
The Eternal came into Hanamura hoping to be able to stop the bleeding after Oasis. It did not start out well. Paris would come out with a bunker composition on Defense but were completely caught off guard by Chengdu’s Symmetra composition on attack. Paris looked completely lost and didn’t know how to deal with what Chengdu was playing and Chengdu was able to cap both points with a very healthy timebank of 5 minutes and 42 seconds.
That isn’t to say that Paris didn’t have their bright moments. On their attack, ShaDowBurn went back to another one of his signature heroes in Genji. It seemed like ShaDowBurn was able to have a lot of success even hitting a very nice Nano-blade to let Paris cap both points with 4 minutes and 13 seconds left.
In their second attack though, it started to fall apart. Some miscommunication in their ults and not really capitalizing on fights that were winnable. Paris was held at only three points and going into their second Defense they still weren’t prepared for the compositions Chengdu would be playing. They were swiftly rolled and were looking down the barrel of an 0-2 score heading into Blizzard World.
BLIZZARD WORLD: PARIS 3-4 Chengdu
For Blizzard World, Paris would bring Danye into the lineup to try and matchup better with the DPS from Chengdu. Interestingly enough Paris would finally switch things up and move towards a more GOATs composition. Paris looked much more comfortable and in their zone while playing the traditional GOATs comp. They were even able to force Chengdu off of their DPS picks and take a GOATs mirror with them. Paris wasn’t able to stop Chengdu though from getting the third point.
On Paris’ offense, they switched back to a more DPS oriented composition trying to again go up against the DPS composition Chengdu had on their defense. It did not work out well for them and they were even getting spawned camped, something that is very rarely seen on Blizzard World. After a switchback onto their 3-3 comfort picks, Paris broke the hold Chengdu had on them and were even able to take the payload to all three points. On their second attack Paris was overwhelmed by the DPS of Chengdu again only getting about two ticks on the first point. On their Defense they brought out a bunker composition with Bastion and Baptiste but Chengdu easily cracked the bunker down and were taken down. Paris would lose the map 3-4 and would take their first series loss of Stage 2.
RIALTO: PARIS 1-2 Chengdu
Rialto was the last map of the series and ShaDowBurn came back into the lineup. Paris started out on defense and brought back an old classic composition, the Quad Tank. Against the Sombra and Pharah of Chengdu Hunters, the composition was rolled all the way into the 2nd point. After the second point though Paris switched back to the traditional 3-3 composition and were able to prevent Chengdu from capping all three points. A small victory in a series that had very few bright moments for the Eternal.
On Paris’ offense, they made the decision to start out with a Pirate ship composition but Chengdu blew up the ship leading Paris to switch to a more traditional 2-2-2 composition with the DPS lineup of Sombra and Genji. ShaDowBurn played a pretty good Genji on the first point but Paris took too much time to win their fights and push the payload. They only had about 2 minutes and 30 seconds to push through to the second point and made a quick swap over to a Winston GOATs composition. In the overtime just at the 2nd point, they were held and the map was over. Paris would lose the map 2-1 and Chengdu would complete the 4-0 sweep.
Conclusion
Paris was the first team to experience the Hunters for this stage of the season and it showed that Chengdu caught them off guard a couple of times. In a meta where Chengdu thrives it was always going to be an uphill battle for Paris to take this match. One of the silver linings for this team is that it seems they have found their best lineup for the rest of the season. SoOn and ShaDowBurn seem like a component DPS duo given the proper amount of time and space. LhCloudy as well seems much more comfortable in the Winston role and has brought some energy into the main tank role.
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