Guangzhou 3 – Florida 2
In order to continue to have a chance at making the stage 1 playoffs, the Charge absolutely needed to take a victory in this match. While the match was closer than they would have liked, they did take the crucial victory and as a result stand at a solid 2-2 record.
Busan: Guangzhou 2 – Florida 0
Starting out on MEKA Base, the Charge managed to secure the initial point cap by playing their patented triple control oriented comp with Seung-pyo “Rio” Oh on Hammond, three DPS including Yiliang “Eileen” Ou on his Sombra, and featuring Jin-seo “Shu” Kim on Ana. They lost the point for enough time to let Florida gain about 40%, but held full control for most of the map. Huge plays from Jung-woo “Happy” Lee on Widowmaker and massive sleep darts from Shu helped them retain the map and granted them the victory.
The match on the Downtown section of the map could not have looked more one-sided. The Mayhem only took 13% the whole round, which only happened when the Charge let them have control. Without really losing a teamfight at any point, the Charge took the first map victory in a dominant fashion.
Numbani: Florida 2 – Guangzhou 1
On their offense, they took point A in extremely quick fashion. Things looked strong, but at the beginning of the payload portion they were held. It didn’t help that Happy’s gravs kept being eaten by purely amazing plays from the newest Mayhem addition, Caleb “McGravy” McGarvey. A final big bomb from the new tank put an end to any hopes at finishing the map.
On the defense, the Charge managed to win their first teamfight, but their last second hold attempt on A managed to stall for a while, yet didn’t last in the end. They had very little time to regroup on point B and did attempt a strong defense, but they lost the second point fairly quickly, tying up the series.
Horizon: Guangzhou 1 – Florida 0
Guangzhou managed to halt the first of the Mayhem’s pushes, but gave up nearly 90% on the second. They managed to regroup and use abilities all at once, and they finally staved the Mayhem off, partially due to a misplaced sound barrier from Jun-Soo “Kris” Choi. The Mayhem’s final push did not accomplish much, and the Charge full held them on first point.
Guangzhou took a tick on the first push and almost succeeded with taking a second, but were held off by Florida’s defense. On the second more stronger push, they grouped up well and used the push to secure kills on the Mayhem and take the map.
Rialto: Florida 2 – Guangzhou 1
The Charge did not begin very strongly due to slow pushes and many lost teamfights on their offense. It took a while, but Guangzhou finally got the payload to the bridge in overtime. The fight looked rough for them, but a big Hong-Jun “Hotba” Choi bomb on top of a Rio Shatter finally completed point A. The Charge pushed through half of B, but were held once again near the bridge. A long drawn out overtime fight had ups and downs, but eventually the Charge lost the battle.
Having Kevyn “Tviq” Lindström on Mei threw a curveball at the Charge as they managed to disrupt a lot on point A. Guangzhou finally stabilized near the end of A, and looked strong once again in their fight, but in overtime they finally lost control of the payload. On point B they only stabilized meters from the goalposts and held for most of the remaining time bank. Yet they were wiped out by nearly every ult imaginable on the side of Florida, and failed to keep off the Mayhem, triggering a fifth map.
Ilios: Guangzhou 2 – Florida 0
On the Ruins segment, the Charge were not able to secure the first cap, and it was a long drawn out fight until Florida got 80%. After finally recapping, they took every fight in dominant fashion for the rest of the round. McGravy’s final bomb did get a double kill, but Guangzhou rallied and fended off the rest of the team to secure the round.
Guangzhou once again gave up the initial tick on the Well phase of the map, and fights seemed to be going the way of the Mayhem. Through the long drawn out brawls, neither side was looking a strong victor, yet at 65% the Charge flipped in the middle of the chaos. Somehow, against all the odds, the Charge managed to keep the point for the duration of the map and swept up the rest of the Mayhem to take the map and series.
Conclusion
While it is a relief for the Charge to have taken this win, it does reveal some underlying issues that the team needs to address. They demonstrated strength on point capture related maps, such as Control, Assault, and the first part of Hybrid. Yet when it came to payload maps they were not nearly as successful. Whether or not this was just the Mayhem’s forte or if this is a greater issue with the Shock remains to be seen. Another issue could be their predictability. They have a solid rotation between Eileen and Finley “Kyb” Adisi for different maps, and play different compositions based on map type, but if their opponents are beginning to read that, it might make the Charge’s next few games more difficult to win. If the Mayhem were the easier opponent of the week, things might be rough against the Valiant in a few days.
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