This Week 5 match was an important one for both teams. Paris needed to 4-0 the Justice to keep fighting in the playoffs, and Washington was looking to get their first win. Despite the expectation that Washington would lose due to the Eternal’s skilled GOATs play, the Justice came ready for a fight.
On the first map, an opening pick from the Eternal on Junhwa “Janus” Song gave Paris the initial capture. This opening pick was repeated for the second team fight and the Justice got held back, almost up to 40%, before they pushed back in. The Eternal’s Graviton Surge/Self-Destruct combo failed and Washington picked off Benjamin “BenBest” Dieulafait. Corey “Corey” Nigra got enough momentum to win the team fight. In Paris’s next push, they took the point back despite a double kill from Hyang-ki “SanSam” Kim with a Self-Destruct. With this last capture, Paris wiped the Justice and took the first round.
Ethan “Stratus” Yankel opened the second round with a pick onto BenBest, but the Justice took so much damage that Paris continued to push into them and gained the upper hand. The Justice continued to get split through the chokes on the map and Paris easily held them up till 70%. When the Justice finally got a good Graviton Surge-Self Destruct combo, they managed to capture the point. As Paris pushed back in, Janus got taken down again. On Washington’s final attempt to push in, Stratus got picked off by the Eternal, which gave Paris the momentum they needed to push and win the team fight. Washington lost the map 0-2.
Image Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Gido was substituted in for Stratus.
After a long team fight, the Justice tried to use both their support ultimates to hold the point. It ended up being insufficient as the Eternal pushed in after with their own Sound Barrier to capture point A. They then managed to hold Paris on the point for a few minutes through a bomb from SanSam and strong showings from Corey and Gi-do “Gido” Moon. Both these players managed to build their ultimates in time to face the Eternal for a second recontest. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough and the Eternal pushed through. Nonetheless, the Justice’s defense managed to push the Eternal to overtime – they almost held Paris at point C. No one managed to stay on the point though and Paris was victorious.
On Washington’s attack, they pushed forward and built their ultimates, capturing point A in swift fashion thanks to this bomb from SanSam. Although Janus landed an Earthshatter on the enemy team, the Eternal’s support players managed to pick off some Justice players to hold them on streets. However, in the next push, SanSam engaged with his Self-Destruct, giving them the momentum they needed to push through point B without much resistance. On the final point, it looked as though the Justice would push through when both Corey and SanSam got opening picks. However, the Eternal’s superior positioning meant it took a lot more ultimates to push through. Nonetheless, Washington prevailed with Gido’s strong Zenyatta play and they captured point A with 1:32 in the time bank.
On Washington’s second round of attack, they got picked off one at a time, leaving them 45 seconds to push. Unfortunately, an early Transcendence from Gido to keep his team alive meant that Terence “SoOn” Tarlier could easily engage with his Graviton Surge after. This took the wind out of the Justice’s sails. The map ended up tied 3-3.
The Eternal pushed through point A with a triple DPS, poking at the Justice with Widowmaker shots and Pharah rockets. After Nicolas “NiCOgdh” Moret sealed the deal with a Rocket Barrage, they pushed on to point B. After this, the Eternal switched back to GOATs, where they overused their ultimates. Through several lost team fights, Paris used up their ultimates poorly. At the same time, the Justice built their Graviton Surge and Corey and Janus’s combined damage is enough to keep holding. This amazing stall from SanSam allowed them to hold through the last minute, after which the Eternal finally pushed through the last tick with their Graviton Surge and cap with only 6 seconds remaining.
On attack, the Justice constantly tried to rotate into the point from the high ground, but Janus got picked off. Eventually, they pushed through with a good Graviton Surge/Self Destruct combo. They managed to somehow get two ticks on point B with Gido’s Transcendence and an Earthshatter from Janus. Thanks to a big boop from Gi-hyeon “Ado” Chon knocking SoOn off the point, they captured B with two minutes remaining as Paris could not touch the point.
On the Eternal’s second attack, despite the matchup looking very bad, the Justice continued to push through. Despite having only two players remaining, Gido’s Coalescence and SanSam’s Self-Destruct wiped out the remaining players of Paris, and they held on point A.
On the Justice’s second attack, their rotations meant that their players kept getting picked off. Fortunately, their patience and calm play style payed off as they managed to use Corey’s Graviton Surge and Janus’s Earthshatter to wipe out the Eternal. They finally captured point A and won Volskaya 3-2.
Image courtesy of Overwatch
On attack, the Justice pushed through, somehow picking off the players of Paris even though BenBest used his Earthshatter. They reached the end of point A with 6 ultimates, but ended up using all of them to take the point. Towards the end of point B, another early Graviton Surge pushed them to capture it as neither support ultimates were available for the Eternal. Unfortunately, despite big ultimates from the Justice, the Eternal had an even bigger Earthshatter. This ended up using up a large portion of Washington’s time bank. Gido got an opening pick on BenBest, which gave them time to push through point C, but Paris’s Graviton Surge-Self-Destruct combo picked off Janus, who mistimed his shield. The Justice were unable to push through a 5v6 and get held on point C.
On defense, the Eternal’s ability to push through and pick off members of the Justice meant that they put up no fight up till point B. Paris got to push through the choke on C for free, but an opening pick with SanSam’s Self-Destruct onto George “ShaDowBurn” Gushcha gave them the positioning to hold just before the end. In the next fight, Corey held with Graviton Surge. It looked winnable because SanSam ate the Graviton Surge, but they got booped off the point, Paris cap out and the Justice lost 3-2.
Conclusion
Even though this loss was so much more painful because of how close the fights ended up being, the Justice definitely look greatly improved today. They have grown so much over the stage despite the difficult schedule. It’s not a big stretch of the imagination to say that they will get their first win soon.
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