Paris Eternal Loses 3-1
NEPAL: Paris 0-2 Shock
Starting on Sanctum, Paris looked very strong. For the first time in a long time, the Eternal were moving as a cohesive unit. They managed to maintain their cap on the point for quite some time, but their excitement at dominating the Shock for so long eventually got the better of them. George “ShaDowBurn” Gushcha, Harrison “Kruise” Pond and Damien “HyP” Souville found themselves out of position with a flanking Matthew “super” DeLisi, who was on Winston. Using his primal rage, super knocked ShaDowBurn and Hyp off the map, which allowed the Shock to take control of the point. All the Eternal needed was one team fight to turn things around in their favor, but they struggled with capitalizing on any major picks they got. At one point, Finnbjörn “Finnsi” Jónasson and ShaDowBurn combined their ultimates to get a major pick on Min-ki “Viol2t” Park, who is one of the Shock’s strongest players. Even with one of the enemy healers down, Paris were unable to get on the point and turn things back in their favor.
Going onto Shrine, things started in a very similar way to Sanctum for Paris. They looked strong and managed to hold the point until 99% before the Shock were able to overrun them. Again, the Eternal failed to get any use out of their ult economy. Finnsi once again managed to get two picks with a self-destruct, but lack of healing for Benjamin “BenBest” Dieulafait saw Paris down their main tank going into the fight, with both healers following not too long after. Not able to recover, the Eternal lost the map 2-0.
HOLLYWOOD: Paris 1-3 Shock
Hollywood was a disaster for the Paris Eternal. The San Francisco Shock are one of the better-coordinated teams in the league, and their ability to play mind-games with their opponents is impressive. The Eternal were constantly feeding Jay “sinatraa” Won’s charge; with a noticeable lack of heals, the Eternal were unable to keep the Shock from capping Point A. Together, super and sinatraa were an unstoppable force this game, but a lot of that can be credited to Grant “Moth” Espe and Viol2t. The Shock only suffered two casualties during the push. Super’s excellently timed shatters and Viol2t’s great use of transcendence saw the Shock pushing the payload all the way to the end of the map. The Shock only had two total deaths during their entire turn on attack.
The Eternal looked messy on defense, but their attempt at attack looked even worse. Overtime once again seemed to be the Eternal’s only motivator to cap the point. ShaDowBurn popped off after using a graviton surge that took out the Shock’s healers. Even though sinatraa was able to take down BenBest and Kruise, ShaDowBurn took him down while at full charge and the Eternal were finally able to cap the point. Even after performing a miracle, the Paris Eternal struggled while pushing the payload. They were unable to properly group up and the Shock punished them for it. With one final self-destruct, ChoiHyoBin took out Kruise at overtime and the Eternal were unable to touch cart. The Paris Eternal lost Hollywood 1-3.
LUNAR COLONY: Paris 2-3 Shock
On Lunar Colony, Paris started to wake up slightly. The Shock’s defenses kept the Eternal at bay for quite some time. It was only after Shadowburn managed to get a pick on Hyo-bin “ChoiHyoBin” Choi while he was out of mech that the Eternal were able to overrun the Shock’s defenses. Finally capping Point A in overtime, the Eternal had their chance to make this game winnable. Unfortunately, the Shock would have time to regroup and once again kept the Eternal at bay. Focusing Kruise and HyP, the Eternal were often unable to even think of initiating fights. Finally getting it together, the Eternal had one last decent push. Nicolas “NiCOgdh” Moret had a great stun on super which allowed Paris to take the point with only 52 seconds to spare.
For a brief moment, it seemed as though the Eternal’s defense would hold strong. However, in a moment of clear desperation, both Finnsi and ChoHyoBin would use their self-destructs in an attempt to stay alive. The Shock smartly moved off the point while ShaDowBurn and Kruise stood in the doorway. In an effort to save his teammates, HyP wasted transcendence as ChoHyoBin’s self destruct took out Kruise and ShaDowBurn. What should have been a winnable fight for the Eternal quickly turned into a frustrating loss and the Shock were able to snowball through their defenses on Point B.
In an effort to troll the Eternal, the Shock decided to run a cheese composition. For a brief moment, Paris fans saw ShaDowBurn on Genji, his best hero, in an attempt to counter the Shock’s cheeky Bastion play. Unfortunately, the time bank and Kruise getting picked off early ended in disaster for the Eternal. They were unable to even touch the point. When it came time for the Shock to attack, they steamrolled through the Eternal’s defenses and the Eternal lost Lunar Colony 2-3.
DORADO: Paris 2-0 Shock
Dorado brought the Eternal back to life. After initially struggling against the Shock’s defenses, Paris managed to claw their way through. Another great graviton and self-destruct combo from ShaDowBurn and Finnsi got two picks on Moth and Super. This allowed the Eternal to push the payload to Point A. For a while, it seemed as though the Eternal were unstoppable as they cruised on through Point B without too much trouble. Unfortunately, BenBest would die while using earth shatter, leaving Paris to fall like dominoes behind him. Going into the next fight, ChoiHyoBin used self-destruct to pick off ShaDowBurn while Super took out the rest of the team. With no time left, the Paris Eternal were unable to push the payload all the way to the end.
On defense, the Eternal still struggled against the Shock, but were able to win most team fights. Their luck seemed to run out as the timer neared overtime, but an amazing self-destruct from Finnsi took out four of the Shock’s players. The Eternal were able to take Dorado 2-0.
CONCLUSION
These past two weeks have been rough for the Paris Eternal. Starting as one of the stronger teams, Paris has seemingly lost their way. Fans are growing frustrated with the apparent lack of communication during games. Many seem eager to point fingers at individual players instead of focusing on the team as a whole. It is not just one individual player’s fault for these losses – it is all of them.
Too often, Kruise is chasing kills and leaving his teammates to die; HyP is constantly late with his transcendences or using them when there is no reason to; BenBest and NiCOgdh are always out of position as they try to keep up with Kruise’s aggressive play style. Both of the Eternal’s designated Zarya players are struggling. Finnsi is the only consistent player on Paris, and even then he’s thrown some questionable self-destructs on occasion.
The Paris Eternal only have two games left against the Washington Justice and the Philadelphia Fusion. The Eternal probably do not have enough time to fix these issues before the end of the stage, and so their chance at making it into the playoffs is slim. However, if they start working on their internal issues now, they have a decent shot at starting off stage 2 with a bang.
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