Overwatch League Recap: Washington Justice vs Chengdu Hunters

Any match against the Chengdu Hunters promises to be an entertaining one. It’s clear that the Washington Justice would have to have some off-meta picks to answer for Chengdu’s play style. Despite Washington playing their best with interesting off-meta picks, they would come up short against Chengdu.

Final 3-1 Chengdu Hunters

Oasis. Courtesy of Blizzard

Oasis 2-0 Chengdu Hunters

The Washington Justice began with the map with a variation on the 3 support, 3 tank team composition. As expected, Chengdu came out swinging with a quad DPS team comp. Chengdu’s fast and furious play style stopped the Justice at every turn on Oasis. In addition, Washington couldn’t get any momentum on their side even after some of Corey “Corey” Nigra’s great picks. In Library, it felt like Washington finally woke up and fought tooth and nail. Recent signing, Yeonjoon “ArK” Hong and Corey both played incredibly well and almost secured a Justice victory. However, the Hunters managed to regroup and force Washington off the point.

Temple of Anubis 1-0 Washington Justice

Image Courtesy of the Overwatch Leauge

The Washington Justice played a more bunker-based team composition with Corey on the Bastion and Ark playing the newest Overwatch hero, Baptiste. Unlike the first game, the Hunters couldn’t find an answer to Washington’s coordinated and unique team composition. Washington held back the Hunter’s from taking a single point.

On attack, Washington came out with a DPS heavy team composition that relied heavily on Gi-do “Gido” Moon and Corey making picks as Hanzo and Widowmaker. Corey went above and beyond on this map showing his incredibly deep hero pool, while giving his team a dominate win over the Hunters.

King’s Row 1-0 Chengdu Hunters

Just like the first map, Corey came out swinging against Chengdu as Bastion, seemingly stopping any momentum that the Chinese team could muster. It was clear that if Washington could pull out a win on King’s Row it would come from Corey’s success. Chengdu attempted to use Baptiste just like the Justice, however, Washington completely dominated the Hunters, holding them to just 83.7% capture percentage on the first point. Despite their success on defense, it seemed that Washington couldn’t find an answer for the Hunters’ Torbjorn and Pharah. The Justice looked disorganized and couldn’t find any kills to really begin pushing onto the point.

Watchpoint Gibraltar 4-3 Chengdu Hunters

Image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.

Despite a slow start from Washington, the Justice were able to regroup and forced the Chengdu Hunters to a finish that left them with just barely over 1 minute. The Justice began their attack with a slow start as well. However, thanks to incredible Bridgette play from Gihyeon “Ado” Chon and Chengdu forgetting the touch the payload Washington gained the momentum to finish the map with time advantage. Despite their short time bank, the Hunters took the first point with relative ease and even began to push onto the second point. During Washington’s attack, Chengdu’s Yi “JinMu” Hu threw the Justice off balance with his incredible Doomfist play. Despite Washington’s hard fought play, it seemed like they couldn’t muster the momentum to push them to victory.

Conclusion

It’s clear that the Washington Justice improved in the off-season with Ark’s signing. However, the Justice still can’t put together wins despite having time advantages or having strong defensive holds. In addition, Corey is coming into his own and proving that he will be the leader of his team. If the Washington Justice can fix issues such as getting better with ult economy and work out communication issues, they will find more success.