The Atlanta Reign came into their match Sunday looking to bounce back from a heartbreaking reverse sweep from the Boston Uprising. Unfortunately, their second match of Week 1 was no redemption. Despite a few moments of life, the Reign were mostly bending to the will of the London Spitfire.
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Atlanta came out with all three of their DPS players and a single tank player as they took on the Spitfire on Oasis. This combination did not serve them well as they failed to claim a single percentage on either round of the first map. Every time the Reign would come together for a push, an early pick or an immense amount of pressure would come in from London. The Spitfire finished with a decisive victory on Oasis, looking like the team from Season 1 that everyone expected to see last stage.
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Temple of Anubis proved slightly better for the Reign as Andrej “babybay” Francisty was swapped out for Nathan “frd” Goebel which gave the team more role balance. After a decent and scrappy defense on both points of Anubis, Atlanta had whittled the Spitfire’s time bank down to two minutes. Their attack was a bit slow, but with a minute remaining the Reign were able to almost simultaneously clean up several London players while capturing the point. This left a huge opening in the defense if Atlanta could move fast, and they most certainly did. They moved immediately to point B and were able to capture over 90% of the point, but were unfortunately pushed away before completion.
The Reign would run out of steam, however, as they failed to find any footing after several additional pushes. London separated out several members of Atlanta’s squad and found key picks to completely shut down any chance Atlanta had to secure the point. After a handful of failed attempts, the Reign fell without a capture, losing Temple of Anubis 1-2.
Atlanta finally started looking like themselves coming back from half-time. While the Spitfire were able to push the payload to the end of the map, it was against a sturdy Reign squad that were looking more confident. On attack, Atlanta was able to showcase some strong coordination and team play and win sustained fights against London.
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Their push was looking strong as they approached the final point against the Spitfire defense, but time was running out. With one last sustained and scrappy fight, the Reign were able to survive long enough and utilize their respawning teammates better than London to finish the map with no time remaining.
Because of this, a map win was no longer on the table since the best the Reign could achieve was a draw. This meant that the series was lost, but that they could still make it difficult for the Spitfire. They couldn’t hold, however, and the Spitfire victory was decisively set with the 3-0 over Atlanta.
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
As map four came about, the Atlanta squad seemed more settled in to play. Unfortunately the loss was already on the record, but they did appear much more team oriented and effective. This, regrettably, did not affect the London squad who also seemed to be gaining power at a similar rate. It was a bit more difficult for the Spitfire, but this didn’t stop them from finishing the round in overtime.
The Reign answered back with a strong push across the map, ending with a better time than London. It wouldn’t matter, ultimately, as the extra 15 seconds weren’t enough time for Atlanta to find the distance they needed. The Spitfire pushed the payload to just before point A, but still slightly further than the Reign. Even with late in the day successes, the Atlanta squad couldn’t pull enough together to escape with a single map win. They dropped their second match-up of Stage 2 to a nasty 4-0.
The Reign are looking a bit stunted in their performance since losing Daniel “dafran” Francesca and picking up new team members Babybay and FRD. While there may be some issues regarding team synergy, the bigger questions come from the players being played. Even with strong Stage 1 performances, there was no appearance of Dogman or Daco against the Spitfire. Atlanta is up against two under-performing teams next week and should use this opportunity to work through roster kinks if they hope to make a strong showing against the New York Excelsior in Week 3.
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