The ever-changing Paris Eternal do not stop failing to surprise OWL fans, and this has been ever true this week when the Los Angeles Gladiators stepped up to the plate to face them. After a satisfying win against Toronto, Los Angeles were hoping for another win against an international team. Unfortunately, they came up short on Saturday.
Reviewing Week 14
Paris Eternal: 5-5
Image courtesy of the Toronto Defiant
This was yet another game where the Gladiators allowed their opponents to take control of them. The Eternal played a very mobile hero set that focused on splitting up and making each player harder to take down. It was taking much longer for the Glads to eliminate the whole Paris team, which lead to longer battles and frustrating shortcomings. For some reason, the plan was for Mirror to play as Sombra over Echo, which gave them more disadvantages in the end. This was a questionable move as Mirror had an amazing game the previous week as Echo. Here is how this match went down:
Start of Round 1. Long first battle. LA powers through and captures the point first. Birdring as Tracer was extremely successful from the start. Gladiators chase Paris back to their spawn zone. Birdring ‘s Tracer uses a Pulse Bomb on FDGOD before he gets a chance to use a sound Barrier. LA wins Round 1 without Paris taking the point.
On Round 2, the Gladiators take the point once again. While the Eternal try to take the point using Ultimate abilities, they struggle to follow through. Like with Round 1, the Eternal gave it their all, but weren’t fortunate to take the point from the Yaters. Mirror as Sombra performs an EMP to disable the Eternals’ abilities and finishes the quick map. Gladiators score 1-0.
Paris starts on offense. NicoGDH as Echo and Soon as Widowmaker lead the charge to wipe out the Gladiators to take point A. On the way to Point C, LA failed to stabilize and were getting chased all over the map. The path to Point B looked like a standoff. Soon and Fielder were two players that managed to headshot Space and Birdring respectively, setting up a successful Point B capture. Point C is highlighted with Space getting his Gravity Flux interrupted. Paris gets to Point C with an impressive 3:44 remaining.
On Glads’ offense, they were struggling to get out of the gate against a hyperaggresive Paris team. Mirror as Sombra wastes his EMP. With 1:40 on the clock, the Glads were finally able to get moving to Point A, thanks to Birdring on McCree. Paris was able to fight LA outside of Point A to get time to expire. LA wins the fight and the trek continues. Space as D. Va led the charge on the way to Point B, winning another coordinated team fight. Nosmite as Winston was able to stop the Gladiators momentum as the clock winds down. OGE as Winston uses Primal Rage to ensure they take Point B. With a very limited amount of time available to LA, they were only able to get the point three quarters of the way to Point C. Paris halts them for good and ties up the match.
Gladiators start first on offense. OGE on Winston misses a jump, causing Paris to take advantage and win the first team fight. LA only managed to take a third of point A before caving on the second team fight. The Glads manage to break through on the third fight but Paris still resisted, managing to draining the clock. LA eventually gets Point A down. Paris stops the Glads three quarters of the way to Point B. What followed was a long, drawn out battle to continue get the payload moving, but after multiple cycles, the Eternal had the upper hand.
On defense, LA started off strong with Birdring on Tracer once again. The team managed to pick off Nosmite early, causing plans to change for Paris. They were able to stall time up until time expired, where another long fight occurred on Point A. With Gladiators short-handed on defense, they allowed Paris to take Point B as time expired. LA was aggressive afterwards, though, using Ultimate ability to eliminate Eternals and allow the clock to wind down. As the Eternal got the upper hand, the purple team eased off. With four Ultimate Abilities, the Gladiators take the fight to Paris, hoping it pays off, but they couldn’t take out the one player that they could many times previously. Nosmite with that Primal Rage was an X-factor for the Eternal. As time expired, Paris managed to cross the line where the Glads stopped at and take the lead 2-1.
Map 4 – Volskaya
LA started on offense first. The Glads managed to easily take Point A by first eliminating who else but Nosmite. The Gladiators got a strong start on Point B but were then halted once Paris got a sleep dart / Self-Destruct combo on OGE. Nosmite managed to trap three Galdiators in a small room to eliminate them with Primal Rage. Gladiators take Point B finally with 53 seconds remaining.
On defense, the Gladiators looked as though they had a strong defense. Once at one point they retreated into the adjacent building, however, their defense crumbled. Paris got Point A after a hard fight. On the first attempt to take Point B, the Eternal managed to take control of the territory pretty soundly. Paris takes point B with a comfortable 3:35 to go.
LA goes back on offense with a minute to work with. They were not able to take a single point, as Paris played aggressively. While not managing to mow down the entire LA team, wasted enough time for LA to hardly put up any fight.
Back on defense, the Gladiators played lights out. Using the buildings to their advantage, they were able to use locations of Point A to their advantage and win team fight after team fight without Paris taking that coveted point in order to win. They managed to prevail up until the very last fight where the Eternal was able to pull off two Self Destructs, one after the other. NicoGDH on Echo was able to duplicate Space’s D.Va in order to Self-Destruct his own. Paris gets the map and the match 3-1.
Player of the Match: Birdring
Birdring played as Tracer through most of the match, even though other heroes he is accustomed to were available. Birdring was able to make some crucial plays to give his team the advantage, namely the Pulse Bombs that he had quickly built up over time. He also helped the team get out of a deep hole at the start of offense on Junkertown. He made some heroic eliminations, which is what I wish I could say for the other Gladiators this match.
There were many fans and analysts who were skeptical on Birdring’s performance at the start of the season, but he appears to be weathering the season well without him having to get benched in favor of Jaru or signing another damage-dealer. Even though we don’t see him much as Widowmaker, he’s been a decent sharpshooter and has been a real asset for the purple and black pack. It is unfortunate that this week did not have a better outcome.
Previewing Week 15
Boston Uprising: 1-10
Courtesy of the Boston Uprising
The Gladiators play the Boston Uprising next week. This team has not won a match since February 22nd against the Houston Outlaws. They have also not scored a single map since April 17th against the Toronto Defiant.
This team is led by Fusions on flex tank and Colourhex on main damage. They have a lot of young talent, such as flex damage-dealer Jerry, main tank Brussen, and the two supports Halo and Myunbong. These are the only six players on the roster as of this writing, but they will not waste any time to strategize against a more capable team.
The Gladiators as a franchise have never beaten Boston. They are looking to get their first win next week, and we have a good feeling it will come more often than it won’t.
Prediction – Los Angeles wins 3-1
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