Overwatch League Recap: Seoul Dynasty vs LA Gladiators

Seoul Lose 2-3

Oasis – Seoul 2-0 Los Angeles

Fissure
Photo courtesy of Stewart Volland for Blizzard Entertainment

Their match started on Oasis where City Center was closer, but Seoul were able to roll over the Gladiators. During that map, the Dynasty were able to find their stride in what makes them a strong team. From core tank synergy to support resource management, the Dynasty were able to control the tempo of most if not all team fights. Baek “Fissure” Chan-hyung was able to come to life on the second stage with his Winston play. Isolating targets for Seoul to clean up. Seoul only had three deaths on this map.

Paris – Seoul 1-2 Los Angeles

With Fits in, this can only mean explosive DPS play. Receiving just that saw Seoul breaking through LA’s bunker composition with an EMP and Dragonblade. Ryu “Ryujehong” Jehong was on the new hero, Baptiste,  and was able to play a crucial role in throwing an immortality field while Fits was attacking to keep him alive.

Hydration
Photo Courtesy of Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment

Struggling to take second on their 3-3 comp against the Glad’s bunker composition was backed by João Pedro “Hydration” Goes Telles’s Junkrat and Gui-un “Decay” Jang’s Sombra. Either being hacked or blown up, the Dynasty could not find footing to use their ultimate abilities in most fights. With Fissure eliminated in the last fight without using his Earthshatter Seoul were destroyed by Lane “Surefour” Roberts and the Gladiator’s bastion based composition.

Seoul would struggle to rotate against the Gladiators on attack. Their solo DPS Reaper composition being able to force Seoul into making error after error. From a quick point A capture to a snowball on point B, LA would tie up the series.

King’s Row – Seoul 2-3 Los Angeles

RyuJehong
Photo courtesy of Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment

A hot take on 3-3 would put Seoul’s star support and captain, RyuJehong on his trusty Ana. While LA were running Jonas “Shaz” Suovaara on Zenyatta, Seoul were still down 25% damage but had the utility of Biotic grenade in the mid to late fight. The healing output would only come in handy towards the second capture point where the Dynasty would finally halt LA’s push.

Without the burst healing of transcendence, Seoul would have a hard time combating against LA’s 3-3. Unless Nano boost was alive the front line of Seoul would have a hard time stopping the progress until the final moment. A glimmer of hope and a stall had Seoul building a quick ultimate bank. While gaining man advantage to deplete the clock and deny a third capture.

All the way to overtime, Seoul were still struggling against the Gladiators bunker composition. With a Bastion and Baptiste, this comp was virtually immortal until Ryujehong swapped. He was on Ana now, and two clutch sleep darts allowed Seoul to find footing and the payload. Not taking any swaps allowed Seoul to keep ultimate economy heading into the third point. Time was against them. Needing to win two fights simultaneous was when they crumbled under Decay’s Zarya to aid LA in going up a map.

Watchpoint: Gibraltar – Seoul 4- 3 Los Angeles

Photo Courtesy of Seoul Dynasty Twitter

Attacking first, the Gladiators would shake Seoul down. Fissure was playing more aggressively and thus, had Seoul’s resources scattered. Decay was able to find many solo kills and casually built his gravitons because Seoul were always on their back foot trying to follow up on Fissure’s damage and space. LA were able to push Seoul back through three capture points holding 37 seconds in the bank.

Through their attack, Seoul would adapt. Using Primal Rage for self sustain rather than engage would yield Seoul more space. Attacking through the last two capture points would show off and on play from the Dynasty. Pouncing on RyuJehong’s discord orbs had Seoul pushing themselves into extra rounds.

Because Seoul had more time in the bank, that meant they would defend first. Having their defense on triple support would put Sang-beom “Munchkin” Byeon on Ana. A six-man biotic grenade would set up Seoul to have a win condition on the first point of the map. Pushing through and finding Benjamin “BigGoose” Isohanni early would allow Seoul on attack to push the payload into the capture point without using a single ultimate. They won this map and sent it to a map five.

Lijiang Tower – Seoul 0-2 Los Angeles

Winston
Photo Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

At this point, Los Angeles had gotten in the heads of Fissure and the Seoul Dynasty. Forcing Seoul to make split decisions mid fight allowed the Gladiators to pull ahead in ultimate economy even when losing fights. Come Control Center, a slight disconnect from Seoul allowed LA to find all three tank ultimates in sequence and hand Fissure their first loss against a former team.

Player of the day: Fissure

Fissure, although losing today, had a spectacular game. The post-show desk noted this is their patch. His aggressive nature showed first hand how much space could be created from Winston on this current patch with the knockback changes. Going forward and learning from his mistakes, Fissure will continue to impact Seoul’s matches.

Conclusion

Baptiste
Photo Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

Seoul showed what most teams did in not fully understanding how to debunk a Baptiste infused composition. Through two maps, Seoul had their time banks exhausted on both Hybrid and Assault. Struggling to break the immortality field while taking space along with breaking shielding is no easy feat. Through composition changes and differences, Seoul could not find explosive engagements like they did last stage.

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