LA Gladiators 3 – 1 Florida Mayhem
The Florida Mayhem came into this game not having won any of the maps that were to be played. They were able to win a map and remain competitive without running with the cheesy compositions they had been relying on in previous weeks. The Florida Mayhem should be looking to take a map or two against the Shanghai Dragons in their second match of the weekend, because this match showed that they absolutely can.
Busan (Florida Mayhem 2 – 0 Los Angeles Gladiators)
The Florida Mayhem began this map on a Reinhhardt Ana GOATS composition and were able to push past the Gladiators’ Zenyatta Goats with a great Biotic Grenade from Jo “HaGoPeun” Hyeon-woo. Florida captured the point and secured 79%. The Gladiators eventually re-captured the point after draining all their ultimates and were able to win two subsequent team fights to even the capture percentage at 79% between the teams. It was at this moment that Yoon “Swon” Seong-won hit a massive Earthshatter to end the Gladiators’ reign over the control point. They were unable to respawn in time, and the Mayhem won the first point of Busan.
The second point of Busan was Shrine. On this point Florida chose to run a triple DPS compostion with Wrecking Ball and Ana. Florida again captured the first percentage points on this map and continued until they were up 80% to 0. Lee “BQB” Sang-bum was playing very well on Sombra as was HaGoPeun. After losing the point, Florida decided to switch to Sombra Goats. They then had the superior sustainability and were able to rush on to the point. Despite Koo “Xepher” Jae-mo having his Graviton Surge eaten, HaGoPeun was carrying on Ana and was able to keep his team alive long enough for them to build an EMP. This ultimate was enough for Florida to recapture the point and clean sweep Busan.
Paris (Los Angeles Gladiators 2 – 1 Florida Mayhem)
At the beginning of this map, Lane “Surefour” Roberts was subbed in at the Flex position. The Florida Mayhem began on a spam composition featuring Pharah, Hanzo and Sombra. This was utilized in anticipation of Gladiators playing a bunker composition on defense. After being halted for a minute or so, Florida was able to slowly take the first point. Although they did have to empty their Ultimate bank to do so. The LA team then exploited their closer spawn by continuing to swap between compositions. This threw Florida off as they were not able to ever counter the LA composition. The Gladiators looked quite dominant on the second point of Paris and were able to hold.
The Mayhem looked good on defense here, playing the bunker composition with a Junkrat instead of a Bastion. The defense was able to shave some time off the clock before the Gladiators were able to scrappily dislodge them and take Point A. In the first team fight on the second point, Jang “Decay” Gui-on absolutely popped off on Widowmaker. A Dragonstrike then helped to clean up the stragglers on the point. The Gladiators took Paris, 2-1.
Blizzard World (Los Angeles Gladiators 3 – 2 Florida Mayhem)
The Florida Mayhem played the now-meta bunker composition on defense here, however they were very quickly rolled over. On the second point the Gladiators switched to a Pirate Ship composition. The Bastion was seemingly unanswerable for Florida as they continued to get rolled over into the final section of Blizzard World. Despite the dominance by Gladiators, the final point of this map is so heavily favored toward Reinhardt Goats. As Florida were the ones to swap to this composition first, they had the Ultimate advantage and were able to stabilize for two fights before the final point. After the Gladiators built some ultimates of their own, they were able to then cruise to a full capture.
On attack, the Florida Mayhem took the first point with a poke composition. During the second phase of this match, they were able to push the payload a significant distance off the back of an overextension by Benjamin “BigGoose” Isohanni. With time ticking down, it was a huge Earthshatter from the Gladiators which sealed the deal.
Junkertown (Los Angeles Gladiators 3 – 2 Florida Mayhem)
In the first three fights on Junkertown, Swon was the first to die. The Gladiators were really pressing the shield advantage hard in this matchup. On the second point of Junkertown the Gladiators rotated intelligently three times to eventually catch Florida off guard. The payload finally halted just before the final point, but Decay was able to push just a bit harder than BQB on Zarya and output enough damage to secure the final point.
Interestingly, Florida played a Bastion Symmetra composition on attack. They teleported between rooftops around the payload and after a few failed attempts, began to push. Florida were able to capture the first point thanks to a surprising carry performance from BQB on Symmetra. However their creativity was eventually stifled after they were forced back onto GOATS, and they were held just after they captured second point.
Conclusion
It was a close match overall, and very exciting to watch for Florida Mayhem fans. They looked clean on Busan, and remained competitive on every other map. Florida fans should remain optimistic despite what is looking like possibly a winless stage for them. The Gladiators played very well today, and Gladiator fans should now be more happy then ever that they were able to win the bidding war for Decay.
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