Fast food sponsors in the Overwatch League seem to be the hot new thing. Jack in The Box has been a long-time partner of the Dallas Fuel. The San Francisco Shock recently joined up with McDonalds. And for the past year, Pizza Hut Canada has been the official pizza of the Vancouver Titans. While most sponsored teams get nothing more than an extra logo on their jerseys, Pizza Hut Canada has kept a close relationship with the Titans, as they’ve frequently rolled out Titans-related deals and events in order to raise interest in the team. But of all these special offers, none are as famous as the Vancouver Titans free breadsticks deal.
At the start of the 2021 season, Pizza Hut Canada announced that, whenever the Vancouver Titans took a game to five maps (or won), Canadian Titans fans would be able to get free breadsticks through the Pizza Hut Canada app. Although this deal was exciting, it came with one fatal flaw. The Titans have struggled heavily this season, failing to win a single game or take one to five maps as of June the 17th. And if the Titans can’t take a game down to the wire, Titans fans can’t get their free breadsticks.
Pizza Hut quickly realized the error in their plan, and revised the conditions of the deal. Titans fans would now be able to get free breadsticks whenever a Titans support “booped” an enemy off of the map. But the Titans struggled with even this reasonable goal, and haven’t managed to earn a single environmental kill since this amendment was announced.
The Vancouver Titans haven’t had a pretty season. They’ve consistently been the worst team in NA, and have minimal hope of making it into the playoffs. But Titans fans know this. They’ve seen the same song and dance drawn out all season. They know where their team’s abilities lie. So they aren’t worried about the Summer Showdown. They won’t stress about the Countdown Cup. And they certainly won’t lose sleep over a potential playoffs run. In fact, only one question lies in minds of Vancouver Titans fans. With the 2021 season nearly halfway over, do the Vancouver Titans still have a chance of earning them free breadsticks? And if there’s even a glimmer of hope that they can, which scheduled matches have the greatest chance of delivering them their breadstick bounty?
VS The Toronto Defiant (6/27)
There’s no doubt that the Toronto Defiant are an extremely scary team. Their brilliant adaptability and fantastic synchronization made them a major threat in the May Melee. But since then, even the most hardcore Defiant fan would have difficulty arguing that the team hasn’t fallen from grace. Struggles with the meta, a bout of Covid-19, and other invisible issues hit the Defiant hard. The team experienced a noticeable drop in performance in the June Joust, and struggled against comparably weak opponents. This caused them to plummet down the power rankings, as they now serve to be a solidly mid-tier team.
This turn of events is a disaster for Defiant fans, but a dream come true for breadstick-starved Vancouver Titans fans. After all, the Titans managed to take a single map off the Defiant in the May Melee back when they seemed a lot stronger, so it’s extremely likely that this slightly more experienced version of the Titans will be able to take this weaker version of the Defiant to five maps, even if they end up losing. This is definitely the match to watch if you’re a Canadian Overwatch League fan, as it’s the most timely opportunity to get free breadsticks, even if it’s relying on another team’s potentially poor performance rather than the Titan’s strengths.
VS The Paris Eternal (7/3)
Though there’s a chance that the Vancouver Titans can take the Paris Eternal to five maps, it isn’t as sure as it was at the start of the season. Paris’s largely green roster put them at the bottom of most predictive power rankings near the start of the season. But since then, the Eternal have become poster boys for mid-season improvement. Wins against the Boston Uprising and the Washington Justice have demonstrated just how much Paris has improved. Their refinement largely comes off of the back of new signings, as players like Arthur “Dridro” Szanto and Ilari “Vestola” have boosted the team to new heights.
Although Paris has improved, power rankings are power rankings, and the team sits only four spots above the Titans. The Titans lost to Paris 3-1 in the May Melee qualifiers- a good showing, but not good enough for breadsticks. If the Titans improve before the Summer Showdown, they just might have a chance to take it to five maps. But if Paris continues their upward trend, odds are it won’t be easy.
VS The London Spitfire (8/14)
In an ironic twist of fate, the Vancouver Titans’ best opportunity to get breadsticks comes in their very last game of the season. The London Spitfire have matched the Vancouver Titans in skill this year, and are the only other team in NA who have failed to win a single match. However, despite their obviously similar skill levels, it isn’t clear if the Titans can take the game to five maps. After all, the two teams haven’t played each other a single time in the 2021 season. This inexperience makes it difficult to gauge how the match could go- in fact, this game might be just as up in the air as the rest of the Titans’ future games.
But no matter how difficult this match is to predict, one thing remains clear. It may be the Titans’ only hope of winning a match this year. But more importantly, it’s their absolute best chance to earn themselves some breadsticks.
The Wild Card
But taking a game to five maps or winning isn’t the only way for the Vancouver Titans to earn some free breadsticks. In fact, the easiest way for the Titans to get breadsticks may be the one that’s talked about the least. Free breadsticks abound if a “Titans support boops an enemy player off the map”. This practice of utilizing your supports to earn environmental kills is commonplace in every single Overwatch League team. It’s a responsibility that commonly falls on the shoulders of a team Lucio, such as Brince “FDgod” Monsçavoir of the San Francisco Shock, Grant “Moth” Epse of the Los Angeles Gladiators, and, in the Vancouver Titans case, Anthony “Fire” King.
Fire isn’t a bad player, and has obvious talent, coming in clutch in many of the Titan’s more difficult matches. But no matter Fire’s skill, he has never managed to “boop” another player off the map while signed to the Vancouver Titans. However, that doesn’t mean that such an act would be an impossible task. In fact, it’s extremely feasible and could happen against even the Titan’s most fearsome opponents. So heading into the Summer Showdown, Titans fans should keep one thing in mind. The Vancouver Titans could be playing the Dallas Fuel. They could be playing the Houston Outlaws. They could even be playing the San Francisco Shock. It doesn’t matter how fearsome their opponent is. Only one thing truly matters- if Fire can kill, breadsticks will spill.
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