The Atlanta Reign versus Philadelphia Fusion was a match-up for anyone looking for scrappy fights. Both teams are known for winning and losing extended quick play-esque marathons that they have no business staying in. Donghyung “Daco” Seo, despite his team’s record, is one of the better D.Va players in the league. The challenge before him was to handle the mechanical prowess of Jaehyeok “Carpe” Lee from Philly. Andrej “Babybay” Francisty looked for redemption since his track record of wasting Graviton Surges has raised questions.
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Atlanta took to the sanctum of Nepal with a composition centered around Orisa and Bastion bunker against Philly who was running Floats. They took turns holding control until Philly began to edge out when Carpe found the head shots. The Reign were patient and came back with ultimates to take the point back and go up on round one.
Shrine began with Wrecking Ball and triple DPS for the Fusion into the Reinhardt 3-3 of Atlanta. This second round was more of the same as the two teams jostled for the advantage. Philly rallied together and held on to force round three, foreshadowing how the rest of this match was destined to be.
Dusttin “Dogman” Bowerman went down in the poke battle before the village objective unlocked and Atlanta regrouped after committing ultimates to push their lead to 47 percent. Babybay landed a 2000 IQ Graviton Surge on the retake to solidify their Reign on Nepal and go up 1-0.
The bout moved to the moon and each squad ran Reinhardt goats on the Atlanta attack. Late staggers bled the clock for Atlanta on their assault of point A. Their patience paid off and they took the first objective, using Graviton Surge, rally, and self-destruct. Atlanta’s next attack fell apart shortly thereafter, losing Jun “Erster” Jeong almost instantly. Philly put together a series of important picks before team fights began or immediately after one of their own fell. They were able to contain Atlanta, holding them to 93.8 percent
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Not to make the same mistakes as Atlanta, the Fusion flooded the first point and unlocked the second point in one fight. Issac “Boombox” Charles charged his ultimate fast from the early kills he got in each fight. Philadelphia used Transcendence aggressively, locking down the point and tying the game at 1-1 going into halftime.
Wrecking Ball and the multiple DPS looks from the Fusion proved to be too much for the Atlanta Reign and Dogman dropped early again. Dogman swapped to Ana to deal with Jose “EQO” Corona’s Pharah. The absolutely chaotic fight ended with Babybay launching an overly ambitious Graviton Surge to get nothing out of it. Carpe hit a 4-man EMP which didn’t matter as the Reign pushed the Fusion back into their spawn. Atlanta camped the Philly spawn showcasing their confidence. Gael “Poko” Gouzerch tried to force the objective but the Reign stayed on the offensive and a brawl broke out on the payload. The Fusion found a way to push the payload and made it through streets phase to the dismay of the casters. The Reign denied the Philly Fusion a third point, turning the best defense into an okay defense.
It was Hyeonjun “Pokpo” Park’s turn to lead his team on attack and Sumin “Sado” Kim was not interested in making things easy. The Pennsylvania Primate built a Primal Rage before the second team fight broke out. Nothing changed and Atlanta was only able to get about 66 percent of capture progress. Philly went up 2-1.
Carpe hit Atlanta with a full team EMP on an attack that wasn’t even slowed down. The Reign stopped the bleeding most of the way through the second phase of the map before losing Pokpo in the next fight. Babybay used another amazing Grav to force another Philadelphia regroup. Couple that with Dogman landing crucial Biotic Grenades, no healing in the game was able to keep Sado alive. The Atlanta defense held their ground in the brewery and looked to ride the- momentum on attack.
Atlanta showed what they had in the tank, flying through the first time themselves. Babybay ran amok on Philly, dumpstering Sado and Capre after waiting for Daco to get his mech back. Babybay continued his reign of terror, getting two more eliminations to close out the map. Atlanta tied the match 2-2 and in pure Atlanta Reign fashion, the match went to a tie-breaking fifth map.
Atlanta rolled out another Orisa bunker against the Winston 3-3. Babybay’s Bastion ran the point to 95 percent before losing the point on well. Philly used every ultimate except for Transcendance to take control. Poko busted the fight wide open in overtime, landing a Self-Destruct kill to clutch the first round after losing Sado in a losing fight. The ruins of Ilios weren’t much different. Atlanta jumped out to an early lead in capture percentage but lost again in a fifth map overtime, going down 2-0 on the map and 2-3 in the series.
The loss took its toll on Stage 3, eliminating Atlanta from the stage playoffs at 0-5.
Boombox’s aggressive play led him to winning his match-ups against Dogman. His opening volleys created immediate advantages in team fights and allowed him to use his ultimate to close out must-win scenarios.
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