Overwatch: Shanghai Dragons vs Washington Justice

After both Thursday’s shuffle and Friday’s swing of matches, the Shanghai Dragons have a more narrow margin of error to make the Stage 2 Playoffs. Although not a strong team, the Washington Justice had the chance to bounce Shanghai. The Dragons didn’t crumble under pressure and instead boosted their map differential.

Shanghai Dragons 3 – 1 Washington Justice

Image Courtesy of @penxil_ on Twitter

Busan: Shanghai 2 – 0 Washington

In a map that only took eight fights total, the Dragons performed near perfectly on Busan. Young-jin “Gamsu” Noh opened on Hammond, and his quick ultimate charge continued to catch the Justice off guard. Followed up with some Jin-hyeok “DDing” Yang four and five-man EMPs, Shanghai looked unstoppable and continued their momentum later.

Paris: Shanghai 2 – 1 Washington

In the Dragons’ attack round, they easily tied the fastest map completion time with 6:01 left in the bank. It didn’t stop there, as Shanghai held tight on their defense to keep Washington from capping Point B. In five of the nine fights, DDing hailed down his EMP that led to team fight wins in every single one. Seong-hyeon “Luffy” Yang’s discord orb and Min-seong “diem” Bae’s tracking were also second-to-none, as Shanghai outmatched the Justice in damage dealt by 22,000.

Image Courtesy of the Overwatch League

Blizzard World: Washington 1 – 0 Shanghai

In an awkward post-halftime hiccup, the Shanghai Dragons were simply outplayed on Blizzard World. Nikola “sleepy” Andrews’ Ana play halted the Dragons’ offense, as his Nanos on Junhwa “Janus” Song worked well for the main tank’s aggressive playstyle. Hyang-ki “SanSam” Kim also punished the Dragons for poor positioning, taking a double-elimination Self-Destruct to halt Shanghai’s push. The Dragons also struggled to help diem charge his Zarya, as he couldn’t work it at the beginning of fights. Through Shanghai’s attack on Blizzard World, diem only averaged around 36% energy.

Watchpoint: Gibraltar: Shanghai 2 – 1 Washington

Here is where things started to become wonky. Shanghai repeated their same concept of running Yong-Jin “YOUNGJIN” Jin on Doomfist, and once again it didn’t work. The Dragons made no movement through the carwash during Doomfist’s entirety, until finally, YOUNGJIN switched to Ana. After a quick ult-charge beatdown by the Justice, a nano-boosted Gamsu shredded through Washington to cap Point A. SanSam didn’t go down without a fight, as multiple double-elimination D.Va bombs held Shanghai right before Point B.

Shanghai motioned back to their signature Sombra-GOATS on defense, and it truly saved their playoff hopes. DDing’s EMPs continued to melt (as usual), but he even baited Justice players to flank. This was apparent in the second fight, where Corey “Corey” Nigra tried to chase, but was melted in the process. In one of the most exciting plays of the night, Gamsu released an absolute hail-mary Earthshatter, sticking down the Justice and whittling their time bank to zero.

CONCLUSION

Shanghai certainly played well in this series, but their play out of halftime was completely different than the first half. DDing couldn’t hide as well, and diem was not able to push far enough to gather his ultimate charge on Blizzard World. Especially with the reappearance of Doomfist (please stop doing that), Shanghai was lucky that there wasn’t a map five. Placed seventh in the standings currently, the Dragons can possibly secure history with one single map victory against the Shock.

Image Courtesy of @kdpanthera on Twitter

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