London has been red hot all stage long, this was no exception. Boston played around their Sombra well, but the Spitfire did it better. The Uprising ran compositions that London was able to counter with relative ease and Boston looked like the worse GOATS team while in the neutral. It was hard fought from the Uprising, but London took the match 4-0.
Busan: Boston Uprising lose 2-0
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Boston stormed out of spawn with the Winston and Ana variation of GOATS to try and win a fight off of Nanoboost and Primal Rage. This plan backfired as London’s Zenyatta matched Nano with Transcendence. With Minseok “Aimgod” Kwon staying on Ana and Kelsey “Colourhex” Birse getting his Graviton Surge eaten, Boston fell on map one.
This time on standard Reinhardt GOATS, Boston took first control as Colourhex built a Graviton very quickly. London took control off the back of their Zenyatta and held with great ultimate management. Boston went down on Busan.
Paris: Boston Uprising lose 3-2
The Uprising’s attack again saw Ana and Winston, this time it worked as they had more control over the pace of the fight. Point B proved more difficult and Cameron “Fusions” Bosworth swapped over to his signature Reinhardt. After the swaps Fusions hit a massive Earthshatter and Colourhex used Graviton Surge to force London off the point.
Boston’s defense saw Fusions’ Winston getting hard focused. This meant that Aimgod couldn’t heal him enough and he fell shortly before the rest of his team. Boston’s defense was speedrun by London as Fusions and Aimgod were forced to reset their ultimate economy for point B.
The Spitfire’s plan of “Kill Fusions” put a wrench in Boston’s plan. The focus fire, along with the time bank meant Boston only grabbed one tick. London had all the time in the world to work Boston apart and they took Paris as the Uprising headed to the dugout.
Kings Row: Boston Uprising lose 6-5
It was time for Boston to change their game plan. Richard “rCk” Kanerva rolled out on Sombra and Aimgod sniped out his counterpart for an easy point A. The steamroll started as the Uprising held “W” and London pressed “S”. Boston finished all three points with more than two minutes left.
A mispositioning from Jeffery “Blasé” Tsang’s Brigitte gave London point A and they started their own speedrun against the Uprising. The Sombra did come out from rCk again to try and stop the snowball. This lead to a hack on London’s Reinhardt and an EMP the next fight. Eventually, Boston’s defense fell and extra rounds were in.
Boston did not have a good defense, they misused two ultimates in one fight, then whiffed a Graviton Surge. Fusions bullied London off the point with a Nanoboost halfway through point C and their timebank for the attack had to get value.
Boston relied on rCk’s Sombra to win point A. While he did not EMP, he baited London’s Zenyatta into using Transcendence at an unfavorable time. This play from rCk won them point and they snowballed point B. The very last fight saw Boston do everything right, the EMP forced out both support ultimates at the same time. Colourhex used Grav after and everything looked like a Boston win until Gesture hit a huge Earthshatter in the Grav for the win. Boston lost the match in a close series.
Junkertown: Boston Uprising lose 3-0
Photo courtesy of Polygon
Boston this time opted for a Sombra, D.Va, Moira variation on defense. This composition did not work very well as Fusions got deleted through Moira’s healing. The failed composition forced traditional 3-3 from Boston. After losing point A and missing a Gravition and D.Va Bomb combo, musical chairs started for the Uprising. Sombra came back out from rCk and he built EMP to stop the speedrun from London. The Uprising stopped London in their tracks.
Bastion, Symmetra, Orisa, Baptise, D.Va and Mercy came out from Boston’s attack. This composition also did not work well and only pushed the cart halfway through point A. The Uprising were forced to swap and ultimate advantage was in favor of London. The Boston Uprising were full-held and London took the 4-0.
Conclusion
If Boston had more practice on the compositions they were running, like Winston, Ana and Sombra, then they could have thrown London off of their game. The Spitfire also abused the aggression from Fusions and melted him through Nanoboosts. Perhaps a change in playstyle from Fusions would have forced London to be more aggressive where they usually aren’t.
