Image Courtesy of the Atlanta Reign
GOATs made a triumphant return as both teams ended up going with standard GOATs on Lighthouse. The Reign took the point first, and they held it for quite some time. The Shock ended up retaking before the Reign got to 90%. The Shock got some nice percentage, and they somehow capped again even after the Reign got into OT. The Shock then somehow clawed the point back, as they took Lighthouse.
GOATs dittos were seen again on Ruins, and a nice early pick allowed the Shock to quickly take the point. The Shock built their percentage up well, but the Reign recapped just before OT. The Reign g ended up winning a very messy last fight to take the point.
Well featured the Reign running Bastion/Orisa while the Shock went with some Roadhog. The Reign ended up taking the first fight. The Bastion stymied the Shock for almost the entire map, but the Shock finally took in OT. The Reign then comfortably retook during the very next fight, and the Shock were handed their first regular season map loss since Stage 1.
The Shock went with Baptiste GOATs on defense, while the Reign went with more standard GOATs. The Shock fended the Shock off through a very scrappy couple of fights, and ended up full holding.
The Shock decided to go with some standard GOATs on their offense. A bit of a slow push ended up mowing the Reign down, and they took the map with ease.
The Shock ended up going with GOATs on their Hollywood Attack. The Shock were turned back on their first try, but they capped on their next attempt. The Reign stabilized during the first payload stage to an extent, and it took a while for the Shock to actually get the payload moving again. The Shock didn’t even get to the checkpoint, and the Reign put together a very good defense.
The Shock needed to put together a fantastic defense to have a shot on Hollywood, and a few very long fights sort of gave them that. It did take the Reign a decent amount of time, but they ended up taking the point with a decent amount of time in the bank. The Reign then won another very extended fight, and then they ended up taking it.
Image Courtesy of the San Francisco Shock
The Shock stuck with the GOATs on their attack on Gibraltar. They absolutely smashed through the Reign’s Point A defense. The Reign somewhat stopped the Shock during Point B, but the Shock eventually got through with time to spare. The Shock then took C with little resistance, giving themselves a nice time bank in the process.
The Shock’s defense was, as most were this match, extremely messy. They didn’t put up a very good fight on A, but the Shock put together a nice hold on the second phase, as it took a while for the Reign to punch through. San Francisco’s Point C defense wasn’t great, and the Reign took it in OT.
A nice defense was imperative to the Shock’s success here, but the Point A defense was less than stellar and the Shock got staggered hard going into B. The Reign slowly slogged through Point B, but a C9 allowed the payload to stop.
More GOATs was on the menu as the Shock went on the attack. A crushing victory allowed the Shock to smash the initial Atlanta defense, and they ended up taking Point A with ease. The Shock then kept pushing but a huge Self Destruct allowed the Reign to barely stay alive. However the Shock ended up smashing the Reign in OT, and the Shock tied the series.
The tiebreaker kicked off on Gardens, and both teams went with GOATs. San Francisco managed to get the point first, and the Shock put together a nice defense. A couple scrappy fights went the Shock’s way, and they managed to prevent the Reign from capping even once.
University featured some more GOATs, and the Shock won the first GOATs ditto of the point to get the first cap. A very long second fight allowed the Shock to get a ton of percentage, although the Reign ended up flipping. Another very long fight allowed the Reign to gain some percentage back, but the Shock took the point back, but the Reign flipped it back again in OT. The final fight ended in a Graviton sucking the Reign off the point in OT, and the Shock barely took the match.
No one should have any illusions about this match.
This was not a clean victory. The Shock looked fairly shaky overall and had some spurts where they resembled their Season 1 performance. Super and Sinatraa were often not on the same page and Moth had an atrocious game. A win is a win, but this was very concerning.
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Featured Photo Courtesy of the San Francisco Shock
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