Spitfire 3-2 Justice

The London Spitfire finally managed to secure their first win this season against the Washington Justice after an unimpressive first week. The Justice didn’t make it easy though, taking the first two maps with relative ease. After halftime, London quickly kicked into gear and began their reverse sweep to pull off a 3-2 win.

Busan – Spitfire 1-2 Justice

London opened on City Center with an extremely passive offense, giving the Justice the point without attempting a fight. Further offenses failed until Washington had 99% control of the point. London managed to get up to 46% capture, but the next team fight was unsuccessful and the Justice capped the point.

An early kill onto Gi-do “Gido” Mun led to London quickly gaining control of the point on MEKA Base. A few well timed EMPs from Junho “Fury” Kim helped the Spitfire maintain further control. After a few back and forth team fights, London successfully took map two.

Repeated slow engages on Sanctuary cost London 53% capture off the first two team fights. London’s passive engages were almost entirely off of the objective, leading the Justice to easily retake between engages. The final fight in overtime was drawn out, but ultimately saw the Justice take the map 2-1.

Numbani – Spitfire 2-3 Justice

Jae Hui “Gesture” Hong‘s stellar Winston play prevented Washington from making progress on the point for over two minutes. On the Justice’s third push, they capped point A and steamrolled through to point B. London held Washington just in front of point B until their timebank was nearly empty, but on Washington’s final push they managed to make decent headway towards point C.

The Spitfire started their offense running four tanks and two supports before swapping to GOATS after an unsuccessful initial push. After running the timebank into overtime, London managed to capture point A, and had a successful point B take as well. Unfortunately, London’s point C pushes were uncoordinated, with Gesture repeatedly getting caught out of position early during engages. London couldn’t match the Justice’s payload distance, and Washington took the map 3-2.

Horizon Lunar Colony – Spitfire 4-2 Justice

London got an early pick onto Joon-hwa “Janus” Song during Washington’s first offense, giving them an advantage for the first push. However, smart playmaking from Washington caused Gesture to fall as they reengaged, leading to a swift point A take. After briefly stalling the Justice on their first point B offense, the Spitfire quickly fell on the next push, leaving Washington with 4:18 in their timebank.

London took quite some time to adapt to the Justice’s defense, but took point A after forcing several ultimates out of the defenders. Despite having an ultimate advantage, the Spitfire squandered their next push. Their subsequent push was drawn out, with ultimates being rapidly charged and just as rapidly used by both teams. London managed to cap point B with 3:08 on the clock.

The Spitfire’s second offense was much more coordinated; they handily captured point A, and stockpiled six ultimates for their first point B push. While Washington put up an admirable stall, London captured point B again with 42 seconds remaining.

The Spitfire were prepared for the Justice’s second offense. They appeared much more comfortable with anticipating the Justice’s positioning, and Gesture quickly generated a Primal Rage to disrupt Washington’s onslaught. After repeatedly stifling the Justice’s attempts to capture the point, London took the map 4-2.

Rialto – Spitfire 3-2 Justice

After getting stalled right before point A, London managed to use their overtime push to force ults out of Washington, get key picks, and secure the point. Point B was a steamroll, and London kept their momentum rolling into point C, capturing it with 52 seconds remaining.

London couldn’t hold Washington at point A for too long, giving the Justice an edge at the beginning of the round. Despite this, the Spitfire successfully managed to gradually whittle down the Justice’s timebank throughout their point B and C pushes. The Spitfire held their own with smart ultimate usage and took the map 3-2.

Nepal – Spitfire 2-0 Justice

Hyeon-woo “Hyeonu” Cho made London’s lives difficult on Sanctum, securing environmental kills at the beginning of the first two team fights to prevent London from taking the point. Once the Spitfire took control of the point, though, they clung to it for dear life. London brought their capture percentage to 99% before Washington could retake. The final overtime fight was clutched by a two man bomb from Fury to win London the round.

London had a tremendous first push on Village, quickly de-meching Hyang-ki “SanSam” Kim and using Junyoung “Profit” Park‘s quickly charged grav to get a team kill. Subsequent pushes followed suit, with London again bringing the point from 0 to 99 percent capture before relinquishing it to Washington. Refusing to give up their momentum, London pressed onward to retake the point and secure the map win 2-0.

Conclusion

Despite winning this match, Spitfire fans should still be concerned about how the team played this series. On Busan especially, London looked absolutely lost; they struggled to engage, misused ultimates, and gave up points for free. This win is a Pyrrhic victory for a team that was once atop the pack, and they will need to dramatically improve their teamplay if they hope to have a chance at stage playoffs.

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