Washington (0-4) vs Seoul (2-3)
With the Seoul Dynasty looking for one last push to try and obtain a stage 1 playoff spot, the Washington Justice looked to deny them. Winless in their first four matches, the Justice needed a victory to separate themselves from the Valiant. Gi-do “Gido” Moon went up against his former team and role model in Je-hong “ryujehong” Ryu, and the match was intense.
Final Score: Dynasty 3 – 1 Justice
Busan: Seoul 2 – 0 Washington
Not much about Busan looked pretty for the Justice, especially in the first round. Min-seo “Marve1” Hwang entered with Reinhardt and created issues. The main tank supplied a three tank shatter on Washington and helped the Dynasty ready 97%. With the help of Corey “Corey” Nigra’s graviton surge, Washington was able to flip the point for a short time. Seoul would soon seal the point on a graviton surge of their own.
Dong-eon “FITS” Kim was a madman in the second round, doing more than enough to calm the Justice. In one instance, his graviton surge helped take down three Washington players to snag the point. Hyang-ki “SanSam” Kim used his self-destruct to wipe Joon-hyuk “zunba” Kim, which led the Justice to get their percentage to 89%. Gihyeon “Ado” Chon fell in an early fight to Corey, and it was deadly for Washington. Seoul would take the point and start the early lead in maps.
LIVE: https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/VmTNyFQ6hR
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) March 9, 2019
Hollywood: Seoul 4 – 3 Washington
The Justice struggled in their first round on defense, as Junhwa “Janus” Son’s aggression caused him to go down early in fights. To make matters worse, Corey wasted a grav after Janus and Ado had already fallen to give point A to Seoul. Ryujehong gave Janus problems; including using a transcendence through an earthshatter and sniping him during another. The Dynasty capped the map with almost three minutes remaining, and the pressure was on the Justice.
The first two fights for Washington on their attack did not go as planned, losing both. One such instance was a zunba self-destruct, taking two Washington players. Janus would eventually get back into a rhythm, slamming his ultimate to gather a team kill. The big slam would cap point B, but that wouldn’t be it. The main tank would once again slam in the final choke, leading to another team kill. The last earthshatter in this round from Janus would cap the map with a small amount of time.
Overtime was quick and painful to watch. With a little over a minute, Washington took their attack and it cost them. After Ethan “Stratus” Yankel was caught out of position, the Dynasty staggered SanSam so bad that Washington couldn’t get a coordinated fight to the point. Seoul’s overtime attack only needed one fight, as they were able to pick Janus from the high ground to gain the crucial one tick. The Dynasty would then lead 2-0.
Anubis: Seoul 3 – 2 Washington
Washington took on the defense first, and point A was cleaned quickly by the Dynasty. The teams exchanged main tank eliminations, but Seoul claimed victory as they took a couple more Justice players. Seoul would eventually one-up their own efforts and combined a graviton surge and earthshatter, taking four Washington players on point B. Although Washington’s staggers failed, they were able to take almost a minute off Seoul’s time bank.
This attack seemed hopeful for the Justice. Seoul overcommitted on their first anti-push, as ryujehong fell quickly. Pushing through the left side, SanSam flew a self-destruct that looked like was going to take several Seoul members. As if they rehearsed it, FITS stepped right in front of the bomb and bubbled himself, shielding his teammates from the explosion. Ultimates would continue to be ineffective for Washington, as they later spent three support ultimates in the same fight and still lost. In the final overtime fight, the Justice once again pushed from the left hallway. Ado ran out front, and it turned out to be the perfect distraction. As Marve1 turned towards Ado, Janus laid an earthshatter and SanSam pushed a self-destruct to wipe Seoul off point B, leading to a cap.
Overtime deleted the Justice’s hype though, as Seoul took them down easily. Janus ran too far out in miscommunication and FITS made him and two other Justice players pay. Ryujehong would take part in five eliminations, and the cap would seal the Dynasty’s win, 3-0.
Dorado: Washington 4 – 3 Seoul
🔴⚪🔵
Dorado is @washjustice's! #OWL2019
LIVE: https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/CluVAW9uis
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) March 9, 2019
Although Corey started out the Justice’s defense with a questionable graviton surge after the Dynasty capped point B, Washington played Dorado well. Their first defense was poor though, especially towards the end. In the final curve, Washington decided to halt their attack on Seoul. This was crucial for the Dynasty, as they gained all six of their ultimates. This factor would easily lead Seoul to end round one 100%.
The attack went much better for Washington, including the second fight of the round. Seoul invested a ton of resources on defense (graviton, shatter, bomb) and came up empty on the Justice. In a beautiful move, Janus then charged through a graviton from Corey to pin Byung-sun “Fleta” Kim, then perform a turnaround shatter to take Marve1. Janus would once again knock down Fleta in another fight, helping push the cart into point B with no contest. In a beautiful sequence; SanSam ate a grav, Washington used their three support ultimates and Corey provided four elimination to push 100%.
With less time, Washington pushed the payload first in overtime. Marve1 looked to end the match early, and was caught twice with Jin-mo “tobi” Yang to lead Washington to cap A. Despite a great SanSam bomb taking Fleta, ryujehong blasted his orbs to end the round on fire and halt the Justice. The Justice’s defense didn’t take long, as Janus and Corey teamed to rack up elimination after elimination. Barely pushing the payload outside of the bridge, Washington would take the final map 4-3.
Conclusion
Aside from Dorado, Washington simply didn’t seem aware of the fight that they were in. Rarely did they counter ultimates and too often were theirs ineffective. Corey sturggled with his graviton surge use. At least five of them were questionable. If Washington can’t track ultimates effectively, it’ll be a long season. This could have been due to Seoul throwing a new lineup at the Justice, throwing them off guard from their preparation.
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