Last night, the Philadelphia Fusion popped off against the Atlanta Reign. Tonight, they, unfortunately, were not a match for the San Francisco Shock. Here’s how it all went down.
Image courtesy of Overwatch
Ilios continues to be a problem map for the Philadelphia Fusion. On Lighthouse, things started great for the Fusion. Although the Shock managed to cap first, the Fusion were able to come in with a great shatter and self-destruct combo from Su-min “SADO” Kim and Gael “Poko” Gouzerch that allowed them to cap the point. With Josue “eqo” Corona on cleanup duty, Philly got a great team kill on the Shock. Unfortunately, San Francisco were able to turn things back in their favor. While Alberto “neptuNo” Gonzalez did his best to stall on Lucio, and eqo got onto Wrecking Ball, it was not enough. On Ruins, the Shock did not even let the Fusion cap the point. Their defense was too strong for the Fusion, and Philly lost the map 0-2.
On Hollywood, the San Francisco Shock went ham. Matthew “super” DeLisi, Jay “sinatraa” Won, and Dong-jun “Rascal” Kim were unstoppable forces on this map. Super was constantly getting fat shatters against the Philadelphia Fusion, while Rascal was constantly seen in the kill-feed destroying the Philadelphia Fusion. Alongside this, Hyo-bin “ChoiHyoBin” Choi was eating Jae-hyeok “Carpe” Lee’s graviton surges like candy for breakfast. This would happen far too often throughout the majority of the series. They pushed the payload all the way to the end of the map. When it came time for the Fusion to attack, they tried to rotate around the back of the map to get to Point A, but to no avail. The Fusion lost Hollywood 0-3.
Image Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Although the Fusion had a better map history with Horizon, they were not able to reverse sweep the Shock here. The Fusion had a rough time going against the Shock’s defenses during the first round of attack. An infamous Poko self-destruct allowed the Fusion to easily cap Point A. When it came time to take Point B, Carpe used graviton surge to keep the Shock off the point. On defense, the Fusion decided to go with their infamous Winston Goats strategy. While the Fusion’s Winston GOATS is one of the best in the league, the Shock are known for being able to counter it and counter they did. With Min-ki “Viol2t” Park on Moira, the Shock were able to quickly clear through the Fusion’s defenses. Continuing to use Moira, San Francisco managed to full hold the Fusion on their second chance at attack. Only needing one tick, the Shock patiently worked their way toward the point, allowing themselves to build ult quickly. The Fusion lost Horizon 2-4.
On Rialto, the Shock plowed through the Fusion’s defenses with ease past the first two points. The Fusion managed to turn things around with a massive Poko-bomb, following ChoiHyoBin’s three-kill self destruct. While things seemed winnable for a moment, the Shock once again played patiently and methodically to break through Philly’s defenses. With ChoiHyoBin switching to Wrecking Ball, and Grant “Moth” Espe using a sound barrier, the Shock were able to get an unfortunate pick on SADO and push the payload to the end of the map. When it came time to attack, the Fusion struggled heavily against the Shock’s defenses. During overtime, it briefly looked like the Fusion would be able to push the payload to Point A, but another unfortunate pick on SADO saw the Fusion falling like dominoes. The Philadelphia Fusion lost the map 0-3.
Even though the Philadelphia Fusion suffered a hard loss tonight, they should still be proud of what they accomplished this stage. They had a rocky week after losing Boombox due to illness, but they were able to bounce back. The Fusion suffer from inconsistency, but they truly shine when it matters. They had a decent first stage, and with the meta hopefully changing in the upcoming weeks, fans can expect a stronger Philadelphia Fusion coming back for stage 2.
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