Stumbling into week 12, the Boston Uprising find themselves once more in a difficult position. The Uprising enter the new week off-the back of a 4-game losing streak. If losing matches wasn’t bad enough, the team canned their once-promising flex-tank Walid “Mouffin” Bassal after an internal investigation last week. Thomas “Brussen” Brussen made his debut with the team playing their first official online match, with only limited time to scrim with the team before facing Toronto.
Courtesy of the Boston Uprising
Boston will look to stop the bleeding against a familiar face this upcoming weekend. The Houston Outlaws have shown glimpses of improvement so far this season, but struggled to keep up with the Paris Eternal last week. Both teams are fighting the good fight to escape the bottom five, but only one team can claim the victory this time around.
The Houston Outlaws just may be the most criticized team in the Overwatch League. Dating back to the early days of GOATs, analysts bashed the team for not playing to their strengths. Houston struggled playing the meta back then, and find themselves in the same situation now. The first few games saw Jeffrey “blase” Tsang playing in an uncomfortable role, akin to his final games as a member of the Uprising. Analysts once more called up the Houston coaching staff to allow their players to play their specialties.
When the team finally played their game, they looked competent and threatening.
Photo: Stewart Volland for Blizzard Entertainment
Heading into the match against the Uprising, the Outlaws are missing two key heroes – Ana and Sombra. Dante “Danteh” Cruz and Shane “Rawkus” Flaherty lose their strongest heroes this week, leaving Houston with some difficult strategic decisions. Knowing that Houston can’t fall back on their Doomfist/Sombra composition, Boston will have an advantage at the DPS position. The Reaper ban most likely signals a double-shield battle between the two teams. Sadly, this means viewers won’t get to watch the McCree rematch of blase and Tae-hee “Jerry” Min. Even though the match can’t possibly go to 7 maps, these two will certainly need to grind to win this match.
The biggest weakness Boston has shown this season is their inability to confidently take fights. Watching the match against New York and last week’s match against Toronto, it is obvious there is confusion in the communication. Boston had gotten an early elimination giving the team a clear advantage to push. However in both scenarios, the Uprising simply stayed at the choke and let the opposing team re-spawn and make it back to point. The Uprising went on to lose those maps in quite disappointing fashion.
There is a silver-lining for Boston fans – coach Vytis “Mineral” Lasaitis is completely aware of the issue. The real question becomes, what can the coaching staff do to inspire confidence? Can they instill a more aggressive play style into the players? If the Uprising fail to overcome outside controversy and their passive play-style, Houston will walk away with the win.
Prediction: Houston 3-2
Featured image courtesy of the Boston Uprising
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