Vancouver Titans 3 – 1 Houston Outlaws
Coming into this match no one would have expected Houston to take a map, let alone keeping it close on other maps. The Vancouver Titans did come out on top in the end, but showed that they may need to practice adding depth to their compositions. It seems that some teams have begun to read Vancouver’s one dimensional team style. Despite this, they look as dominant as ever on their stage winning 3-3 composition.
Busan (Houston Outlaws 2 – 0 Vancouver Titans)
This was quite an interesting map, certainly with an interesting outcome. On the MEKA Base stage of Busan Houston opted to play a Widowmaker and Sombra into Vancouver’s Winston-Ana GOATS Composition. The Titans looked good early, taking the first 84% of the capture point. However, as he was playing against what was essentially a Dive Composition, Lee “Stitch” Chung-hee could not build enough energy to be useful in team fights. Throughout this stage of the map he never exceeded 34 energy on Zarya. It turned out in the end that Houston began with the superior composition and thus they won MEKA Base 100% to 84%.
On Sanctuary Houston again impressed, but this time on a Bunker Composition with Jiri “LiNkzr” Masalin on Soldier: 76. Although the Titans again captured the point first, Houston was able to dominate this map from there on. This came off the back of some impressive tracking from LiNkzr and impactful Ana Grenades from Shane “Rawkus” Flaherty. Houston took Sanctuary 100% to 26% and the clean sweep on Busan.
Paris (Vancouver Titans 1 – 0 Houston Outlaws)
After a lackluster Zarya performance by Stitch on the first map, Seo “SeoMinSoo” Min-soo was substituted in his place. On both attacking and defending sides, a 3-3 mirror composition was used for this map. SeoMinSoo played like a player who had a stage of Zarya experience under his belt. This helped to carry Titans to a dominate full hold.
On attack the Titans exhibited a sneaky Symmetra and Baptiste composition and teleported to the high ground. This may have caught Houston off guard, however it was actually a confident Reinhardt charge from Park “Bumper” Sang-bom that allowed Titans to take the first point. Houston could not match Titans in a 3-3 composition mirror in the slightest.
Eichenwalde (Vancouver Titans 1 –Â 1 Houston Outlaws)
Titans 124 metres pushed – Outlaws 84 metres pushed.
The Vancouver Titans played a Soldier, Ana and Reinhardt composition on attack. After a smart rotation to take the high ground from Houston, the first point was eventually taken. During the second phase of the map and a few messy fights, the Titans were forced to switch off to Ana GOATS. Dante “Danteh” Cruz was impressive on his famous Sombra pick in the final few team fights. Vancouver were held on the bridge before the second point.
On the Titans’ attack both teams again mirrored each other in
an Ana 3-3 composition. Houston managed to take the first point with relative ease off the back of a crucial Ana Grenade from Rawkus. After the first point however, Houston were not able to effectively dislodge SeoMinSoo from the high ground. He rained damage down onto Houston and farmed Graviton Surges. The payload did manage to make it to the underpass, but with time dribbling down Bumper again stepped up and clutched the final team fight with a huge Earthshatter. The Titans looked dominant on defense.
Rialto (Vancouver Titans 1 – 0 Houston Outlaws)
Unfortunately for Houston, Rialto almost demands teams play GOATS or compositions similar to Goats. This spelled death for Houston. They struggled to push around the first chicane on Rialto but managed to by the skin of their teeth. However these fights were long and drawn out and left Houston with minimal time. Despite a smart solo Graviton Surge by Danteh, the Titans did barely make it back to the payload with their own Graviton and manage to re-stabilize. Houston could not make it to the first point and were full held on Rialto.
On attack it was again a direct mirror composition from these teams. SeoMinSoo and Danteh both built quick Graviton Surges, but SeoMinSoo pulled the trigger first. Danteh died with his Ultimate in his pocket and the Outlaws could only stagger onto the point to stall. They eventually were cleaned off the point by a fancy D.Va bomb by Choi “JJANU” Hyeon-woo. (see his bomb here, it’s good!)
Conclusion
SeoMinSoo looked infinitely more impressive on Zarya than Stitch did, and after this substitution they were quite dominant in this match. The Titans look like the best team in the league on one composition, but this Meta is more complex than the last, so it will be interesting to see where the Titans go from here.
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