Despite what the records show, Thursday’s matchup possibly told the tale for the rest of Stage 3. Along with the new additions the Valiant made between Stages 2 and 3, many were unsure how this would play out. In the first of two matches between the two teams in this stage, the Dragons came out electrifying, putting the hammer down time and time again.
With Russell “FCTFCTN” Campbell starting as the main tank for the Valiant, the Dragons came with him as their target. Instantly in the first fight, Kyungwoo “CoMa” Son took the prize to FCTFCTN’s overcommitment with a Lucio-boop off the edge of the map. Young-jin “Gamsu” Noh continued to bully the fresh face for the rest of the round in a swift 100-0 victory.
Image Courtesy of the Shanghai Dragons on Twitter
Round two was quite shaky for Shanghai, taking it to overtime in favor of Los Angeles. This was largely due to Min-seong “diem” Bae’s graviton placement, being eaten twice by Indy “SPACE” Halpern.
The story of the season, Jin-hyeok “DDing” Yang’s EMP, saved the day once again. The Dragons won 77.1% of their team fights when using an EMP, and it was apparent in it’s dominance for the final fight of Oasis.
In a classic style of 2CP (bleh), both teams started their attack rounds in classic snowballs to have over 5 minutes each in overtime. The Dragons ended the first rounds with more, and their five and a half minute hold to avoid another double-cap had several scares. CoMa continued to play well, running perfect dives as Lucio for melee eliminations and boops to misposition the Valiant.
In a redemption from Oasis, diem provided many more excellent placements with his Gravitons, especially in the final fight of the map. Replying after Kyle “KSF” Frandanisa laid down his own Graviton, diem garnered two eliminations to help cap Paris.
Easily the strongest performance from Shanghai in this series, it was a blowout by all means. Starting out with a Pharmercy composition, just the pure pressure of diem’s Widowmaker allowed the Dragons to dominate the first two points. The Widowmaker phenom then transitioned to Zarya, where he had his biggest brain play of the night; a Graviton in LA’s spawn after the Valiant retreated to cap the map. Shanghai’s efficiency was so high that the Valiant only mustered four eliminations in that round.
As if the Dragons’ offense was a beatdown, their defense was just as stellar. Gamsu’s Winston obliterated FCTFCTN again and again, as making a combo with Zarya bubbles provided tremendous damage. DDing took his talents over to an unconventional pick, D.Va, and quite possibly saved Shanghai’s chances for a full-hold. After a double Graviton swayed the favor to Los Angeles, DDing boosted straight up to self-destruct just long enough to stall in the rest of the Shanghai Dragons back to the point. The full hold secured the Dragons’ first win of Stage 3.
Similar to other series the Dragons have played this season, Yong-Jin “YOUNGJIN” Jin rolled out on Doomfist for the attack. A Pharmercy once again took the sky, and diem secured a quick triple-elimination as Hanzo to push the payload past the bridge. Brady “Agilities” Girardi and Young-seo “KariV” Park moved to Roadhog and Moria respectively and rolled through Shanghai mercilessly. The snowball continued to mount and forced the Dragons to be full-held on their attack. This gave a cake-walk to the Valiant, only needing three quick fights to push the payload to Point A.
For a majority of this match, the Shanghai Dragons looked about as solid as they ever have this season. Their focus was obviously to apply pressure on FCTFCTN, and that discipline (in the first three maps) was incredible. This is only the start of Stage 3, though, and Atlanta looked great against San Francisco. The Dragons will need to continue their EMP magic and discontinue their Map 4 shenanigans if they want a 5-2 stage record.
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