The 2021 Overwatch League season is finally underway, and the Boston Uprising are chomping at the bit to get into the action. For the first week of OWL, Boston was one of a few teams that had to watch from the sidelines on their bye week. The Uprising, with all their new players and high expectations, could only watch as their first two opponents shake the rust off in wild early season matches. But now the moment has finally arrived. The Boston Uprising start their 2021 season this weekend.
[Related: Boston Uprising 2021 Season Preview]
Los Angeles Gladiators (0-2)
The Gladiators are certainly reeling from their own opening weekend. Not only did they have the unfortunate situation of needing to face both San Francisco and Dallas, but they struggled mightily to find a rhythm in both of those matches. The Glads featured several different looks across the eight maps, often times taking out veterans like Moth and Birdring in order to finagle certain compositions. MuZe faced the gauntlet of opposing main tanks, and Kevster is still playing from overseas. At the moment, it definitely doesn’t seem like this is indicative of how strong LAG can really be.
That said, this is the perfect week for Boston to come out swinging and get an early win under their belt. LAG didn’t look like they improved much since the SteelSeries invitational, and thanks to the schedule, Boston has had the opportunity to practice a bit more and develop a bit more synergy.
It's officially match week.#BostonUp | #OnTheRise pic.twitter.com/SrYhi4TWgv
— Boston Uprising (@BostonUprising) April 19, 2021
The best thing going for Boston is now having a bit of tape on the Gladiators against some top tier teams. The Uprising now have an early read on their first opponent of the year, and they can prepare accordingly. Then on the flip side, the Uprising also head into the match with their own strategies hidden to LA. Boston can certainly make their mark on the league early this year with a solid win over a touted LA Gladiators roster.
Prediction: Boston 3 – Los Angeles 2
Dallas Fuel (1-1)
Of all teams coming into the opening week of 2021, the Dallas Fuel were the team with the most concerns. Analysts were worried about the lack of a dedicated Tracer player heading into the season, but it was the retirement of Xzi that truly put Fuel fans on edge. Teams typically don’t have a great record when a player leaves the team so suddenly and almost everyone doubted the Fuel’s ability to bounce back.
But Dallas came into the opening weekend with a plan and ran with it. Sp9rk1e picked up where he left off in 2020 and put on a clinic as Doomfist against Houston. Dallas did end up losing in a nailbiter against the Outlaws, but they dismantled the Gladiators to even out their weekend at 1-1. It became abundantly clear that Dallas weren’t worried about not fielding a hitscan for the start of the season.
Boston has a difficult opponent in Dallas due to their off-meta compositions. Without a McCree player, the Fuel often default to more dive-centric heroes like Doomfist and Sombra. Boston should be able to adapt to the unique Dallas playstyle because of their deep bench. The Uprising are heading into the season with three DPS players with varying different proficiencies. Though Dallas may have an advantage at the tank line with Fearless and Hanbin looking amazing through the first weekend. Stand1 and Punk are going to have to work insanely hard to push off the pressure exerted by the Dallas front line.
Prediction: Boston 3 – Dallas 2
Just How Good is Boston?
The biggest question on everyone’s mind is just how good is this new Uprising roster? The team looks solid on paper, they’ve performed well in preseason showcases, and they have gotten quite a bit of praise with their scrim results. In theory the information fans have should all point to a successful team. The only problem is that anything and everything can change once the players hit the server.
Already audiences have seen hyped up teams fail, and overlooked teams succeed. Teams like Chengdu and Houston came out and shocked onlookers as they battled to a 2-0 weekend. Boston is shaping up to be one of these underdog-type teams, but they are going through two very tough opponents. These first two games will say quite a lot about the brand new Uprising roster, and fans can only hope it’s all positives from here.
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Featured image courtesy of Robert Paul and Blizzard Entertainment
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