Titans Win 3-1
Starting Lineup
Grant “Moth” Espe
Nam-joo “Striker” Kwon
Myeong-hwan “Smurf” Yoo
Hyo-bin “ChoiHyoBin” Choi
Min-ki “Viol2t” Park
Min-ho “Architect” Park
Busan
Downtown had the Shock running an interesting composition featuring a dive with Hammond and D.Va. This didn’t pay off at first, but a good EMP allowed the Shock to retake quickly. The rest of the map was relatively back and forth, with good plays coming out from both teams. In the end the Shock gave Vancouver a free cap and ended up losing the point.
Sanctuary had the Shock running the same composition. The Shock had to use an EMP from Architect to take the point, as the Shock’s comp struggled to push into the Gladiator’s dive GOATs variation. Eventually the Shock axed the Widow and went with a Sombra dive GOATs. This didn’t end up working either, and the Titans took the point with relative ease.
Titans win 2-0
Jay “Sinatraa” Won in for Striker
Matthew “Super” DeLisi in for Smurf
King’s Row
The Shock went out of the gate with a traditional GOATs on attack. They utilized this classic to great effect, and they took point A with ease and got a good stagger to boot. The Titans ended up stopping the cart despite some aggressive play from the Shock. This didn’t last long, and the Shock took point B with plenty of time to spare. A very good defensive hold halted the Shock for four minutes, but San Francisco eventually capped in OT.
The Shock decided to bring out a GOATs with Ana on defense. They held for a couple minutes but ended up losing the point. Architect swapped to Brig after the cap and they made a decent defense on B, but Vancouver ended up capping in OT. The Shock’s defense wasn’t quite up to par on point C, and the Titans ended up capping in overtime once again.
The Shock ran GOATs on attack. The Shock and the Titans danced around each other for about 55 seconds, but the Shock ended up capping. An incredibly brawly fight in point B went in the Shock’s favor, but the Titans stabilized a little bit before the checkpoint.
The same Ana defense was run by the Shock against the Titan’s GOATs comp. This didn’t work at all and the Titans took the point with some time to spare. A huge bomb from Jjanu cracked open the Shock’s defense, and the Titans took a 2-0 lead.
Titans win 5-4
Andreas “Nevix” Karlsson in for ChoiHyoBin
Volskaya
It was a GOATs ditto on the Shock defense. The Shock defense was pretty tight for the first few minutes, but the Titans eventually capped. The Shock set up shop for defense on point B after a bit of a scary moment to kick off the point B defense. This defense didn’t last long, and the Shock lost the point with two minutes to go.
Another GOATs ditto came out when the Shock attacked. This attack attempt was repulsed again and again. The Shock finally capped after the Titans went overboard on a stagger, and the Shock took point A in OT. Point B was more of the same, except this time the Titans didn’t make a stupid mistake. The Shock made it close in overtime, but the Titans eventually shut it down.
Titans win 3-0
Route 66
GOATs was the play for the Shock on attack. The Shock’s momentum on their first attack was halted by a huge EMP, but a graviton fueled response allowed the Shock to cap. The Shock kept up the momentum all the way through point B as well. The Shock almost pushed all the way to the finish line on their first try, but they were halted just before the terminus. The Shock ended up capping in OT.
GOATs dittos were on the menu for the next round of play. The Shock’s defense was shredded in short order, and the Titans moved on to point B. The Shock put together a better defense on B, but the Titans ended up shoving their way through with time to spare. Point C featured some very brawly fights, but in the end Vancouver capped in OT.
The first point on the Shock attack was essentially one long fight, but eventually the Shock got to the first checkpoint in OT. This didn’t last long, however, and the Titans stopped the Shock right after the first checkpoint.
GOATs v. GOATs was the name of the game again on the Titan’s attacking push. The Titans won the first fight and eventually used the momentum to smash their way through to the first checkpoint. The Shock came back in a hurry, however, and ended up taking the map.
Shock win 5-4
A Shaky Debut
The big story of this game was definitely the debut of Viol2t. The fanfare was somewhat quashed, as Viol2t and most of the Shock looked fairly average for most of the match. Not a whole lot went wrong (aside from a couple of disastrous plays on Volskaya) but not a whole lot went right either. It was a very average performance, and average isn’t enough against a team like Vancouver.