Last week was a mixed bag for the Shock. On one hand, they got beaten by the ever dominant New York Excelsior. On the other hand, the Shock managed to pull off quite the convincing victory against the Eternal. The Shock end Stage 1 with a 4-3 record with and a decent +5 map differential. The Shock can get into the playoffs, but they can still get shoved out if Boston and Seoul 4-0 their opponents. It doesn’t seem likely, but the Shock aren’t locked in just yet.
New York Excelsior (7-0)
This game was quite a bit closer than the score line would suggest. It was a clean 4-0, yes, but the Shock did actually play quite well. The games were close, and the Shock forced the Excelsior to try and match their aggressive style, which is something New York really doesn’t like doing.
That said, this was still a loss. The Shock got outplayed, and Dong-jun “Rascal” Kim didn’t have his greatest game. It wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened, but it certainly wasn’t great.
Player of the Game: Hae-seong “Libero” Kim
Libero was insane in this game. It can often be hard to see a Brigitte player as being good, as the playstyle is relatively mundane and hard to follow. Libero’s performance was easy to spot, as he was directly competing with Rascal. Rascal didn’t play poorly per se, but Libero was simply so much better. Libero is an insane player no matter what he plays, and it will be very interesting to see how he does coming into the next meta.
Paris Eternal (2-3)
The Eternal are an odd team. Every once in a while they will look like the absolute best team in the league, but most of the time they seem lackluster at best. Consistency issues are rampant among many average to below average teams in the OWL, and the Eternal are no exception.
The Shock haven’t been the most consistent team, but they haven’t been too bad either. Teams that aren’t consistent tend to lose to more consistent teams, and this game was no exception. The Eternal looked excellent for one map, but that was just one map. The other three were all Shock.
Player of the Game: Grant “Moth” Espe
This wasn’t the Shock’s best game, despite picking up the win. The tank play wasn’t as solid as it usually is, and the tank play is incredibly important in GOATs. Moth served as the glue that kept the Shock from completely falling off of the rails. Moth is an excellent Lucio player, and he saved the Shock in more than a few fights with some clutch Lucio madness.
Stage Review
The Shock don’t actually play any games this week, so here’s a look back at their stage and how it went as a whole.
The Shock went in with some very high expectations, and they modestly delivered. The 4-3 record becomes more acceptable when one realizes that the Shock had a very tough schedule, and that two of those three losses came against two extremely tough teams. In addition, most of the Shock’s wins were convincing victories. Min-ki “Viol2t” Park made a triumphant debut, while the veterans of Grant “Moth” Espe and Min-ho “Architect” Park both made an impact as well.
It wasn’t flawless, however – not by a long shot. The Shock didn’t look bad at all, but some of the consistency issues that plagued them in season one followed them into season two. Matthew “Super” DeLisi and Jay “Sinatraa” Won were the chief culprits of this. They were light years better than they were in season one, but they still aren’t quite there yet.
The MVP of the stage is a tough one, but Grant “Moth” Espe is probably the strongest contender. Moth has been incredibly consistent, coming in and clutching on his trademark Lucio while also keeping the incredibly aggressive and risky playstyle of the Shock in check as a great shot caller.
Overall, this stage was decent. It could have definitely been better, but 4-3 is still an excellent record all things considered here.
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