Vancouver Titans (13-0) vs Toronto Defiant (6-7)
Vancouver Titans Starting Lineup
Sangbeom “Bumper” Park
HyunWoo “JJANU” Choi
Seong jun “SLIME” Kim
Juseok “Twilight” Lee
MinSoo “SeoMinSoo” Seo
Hyojong “Haksal” Kim
Titans 3-1 Defiant
The first ever Battle for Canada did not disappoint on Friday. The Vancouver Titans continued their impressive performance on the year, taking the series convincingly. The Toronto Defiant made things interesting by taking Anubis, but the Titans rallied in the second half to secure the first win over their northern rivals.
Oasis: Titans 2-0 Defiant
To kick things off on University, the Titans came out with their usual fare – brawling around Bumper’s aggressive Reinhardt. Toronto punished his positioning in the first fight but fell apart from there. Vancouver reigned in the mistakes and regained control with a patient fight. Toronto couldn’t find their footing from there, falling time and again as they approached the point. The Titans held strong and claimed the first point.
City Center played out in eerily similar fashion. This time Toronto surged to a lead when SeHyun “Neko” Park landed a biotic grenade to win the first fight. Then, JJANU ate his second Graviton Surge of the map and put the Titans in the driver’s seat once again. In the final fight, SeungHyun “Ivy” Lee flubbed another Grav, this time missing everyone, and Vancouver closed out the map convincingly.
Temple of Anubis: Defiant 2-0 Titans
Toronto needed a forceful response after a tough first map, and they found it on Anubis. After losing the opening fight, they answered back by killing Bumper through Nanoboost and outlasting the Titans with Transcendence. On Point B, Vancouver fell behind early when Twilight got caught going for a sneaky Sleep Dart. Without their main source of healing, the Titans had to give too much ground and eventually lost the point.
Toronto’s quick attack set them up for success, but their defense sealed the deal. Neko again brought out the Ana, this time matching Twilight’s pick. He outpaced the Titans’ star on Anubis, getting crucial kills, saving his teammates and landing huge Biotic Grenades, including the one that shut down the Titans during their final attempt. It was a full hold for the Defiant, evening the series at the half.
King’s Row: Titans 2-1 Defiant
The Titans recovered nicely after halftime. On King’s Row, they looked much more comfortable back in the classic 3-3 mirror. A decent first hold gave way when Keongmu “Yakpung” Cho landed a big Earthshatter, giving Toronto four minutes to finish Point B. The Titans made their stand there, taking control of the main choke aggressively. Their command of the ultimate economy meant they lost just one fight, and they were able to stop the Defiant short of the second checkpoint.
The attack was mostly smooth sailing for the Titans, who looked completely removed from their Anubis letdown. They caught Yakpung out of position on Point A and got the payload moving extremely quickly. Toronto managed to slow Vancouver slightly on Point B thanks to Kang-Jae “envy” Lee doing his best JJANU impression and denying SeoMinSoo’s Grav. It wasn’t enough, and the Titans wrapped up the map as Toronto left the cart in the crucial moment.
Junkertown: Titans 3-2 Defiant
Toronto clearly came into Junkertown with a plan. On Point A they rolled out with a triple DPS comp that tore through Vancouver’s 3-3 defense. As soon as they swapped back to 3-3, however, the momentum swung back to the Titans. After getting slowed up on Point B, the Defiant came to a halt as they approached the end of the map. Ivy continued to struggle with his Graviton Surges, completely whiffing twice as Toronto’s attack lost steam.
Vancouver started strong, punishing Toronto for an aggressive hold with another pick on Yakpung. Toronto put up minimal resistance through the first two points, and the Titans had over four minutes to win the map on Point C. Vancouver caught Jin “im37” Hong out of position several times down the home stretch and comfortably closed out the series.
Conclusion
With the exception of Anubis, the Titans looked like their usual selves as they took down the Defiant. It was a solid showing from Toronto, who were trying some role changes with im37 on Brigitte and Ivy reclaiming his Zarya spot from Stage 1. They both looked shaky, but the Defiant had moments of brilliance, especially from Neko. Vancouver just remains head and shoulders above the competition at the moment.
Featured image courtesy of Ben Pursell for Blizzard Entertainment.
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