Shock Win 4-0
Starting Lineup
Jay “Sinatraa” Won
Matthew “Super” DeLisi
Hyo-bin “ChoiHyoBin” Choi
Grant “Moth” Espe
Min-ki “Viol2t” Park
Dong-jun “Rascal” Kim
Busan
The Shock started Busan with the standard GOATs composition on Sanctuary. This worked incredibly well as usual, with the Shock easily taking every single fight on the map thanks to completely denying the Spark any sort of advantage.
MEKA Base featured both teams playing GOATs again. The Shock took the point first, and an extremely scrappy and drawn out second fight allowed the Shock to gain a huge percentage lead. The Shock sealed the deal in the next fight, and the Spark never even took the point once during Busan.
Shock win 2-0
Blizzard World
The Shock went with GOATs on their Blizzard World attack. The first fight took a huge amount of time, but the Shock barely managed to take Point A after a nearly two minute fight. The Shock then trundled the payload forward during the first payload phase, as the Spark only engaged a little bit before the checkpoint. Another extremely long fight ended up going in the Shock’s favor, and the Shock moved onto the Diablo ride section with more than three minutes to go. The Shock easily managed to crush the Spark defense on this point as well, and they took the map with ease.
The Shock stuck with what was working and went GOATs again on defense. San Francisco managed to win the first fight, and some unusually passive play from the Shock baited the Spark into a huge ultimate combo during the second fight. The last two fights were all Shock, and they absolutely clobbered the Spark for the second map in a row.
Shock Win 3-0
Hanamura
The Shock went with another standard GOATs comp on the Hanamura defense. The Spark have previously been pretty good at Hanamura, but it really didn’t show for their Point A attack as the Shock held the Spark to a tick and a half as they absolutely massacred Hangzhou in every fight that was played.
The Spark’s defense included a Winston variant of Dive GOATs, while the Shock went with a standard GOATs comp again. The Spark won their first fight of the day here, as Viol2t got cut off and a nice dive took him out. The Spark cleaned up the next fight as well, as the Shock initially struggled to find an answer. The third attack sealed the deal, however, and the Shock took the point and won the map.
Shock win 1-0
Watchpoint: Gibraltar
The Shock went with more GOATs on attack while the Spark went with Winston on defense again. Winston allowed the Spark to find a bit of a groove, and the Spark actually managed to briefly hold the Shock off. Unfortunately for Hangzhou, a combo of Graviton and Earthshatter was just too much, and the Shock got to the first checkpoint. The Spark then swapped to a Reinhardt, but the Spark’s Rein GOATs was just totally outclassed by San Francisco. The Shock easily pushed through Points B and C, and the Shock finished Gibraltar with plenty of time to spare.
The Shock stuck with what was working on defense with a standard GOATs, with the Spark mirroring the composition. San Francisco handily won the first fight and the Shock went in for the spawn camp, and it took multiple ultimates from the Spark to even break out. The Spark took the next fight in overtime, and Hangzhou took their first point of the series. Hangzhou actually pushed through a good slug of the second stage, but the Shock stabilized before the checkpoint. The Spark began to show life, however, and they got to the second checkpoint. The Spark then kept their momentum, and they actually completed the map with 10 seconds to go.
The Spark’s attempt at a cheeky Hook to start the map off completely backfired, as the Shock baited out the Reinhardt and picked up a kill. The Shock then moved in for another full spawn camp, and this time it worked brilliantly as the Spark didn’t even push the payload around the first corner.
Hangzhou went for a desperation bunker comp featuring Bastion, Orisa, and Baptiste. Unfortunately Viol2t’s Widowmaker got two quick picks, sealing the deal and easily taking the series.
Shock Win 4-3
Absolute Destruction
The Shanghai match might have somewhat shaken some people’s confidence in the Shock. All confidence should be returned after this match, however. This was one of the most one sided matches of Overwatch ever in the Overwatch League, and it gives the Shock some excellent momentum going into the finals.
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Featured Photo Courtesy of the San Francisco Shock
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