As week 2 of the Overwatch League comes to a close, it’s time to take a look back at the games that the Justice were a part of. Looking forward, the Justice will be going up against the Philadelphia Fusion in the upcoming week of OWL.
London Spitfire: 2-2
Once again, the Justice were pit against an incredibly threatening foe. Washington outplayed the Spitfire’s quadruple DPS on Busan. An impressive showing of the 3-3 GOATs composition won them Numbani. However, just when things were looking up for Washington, inconsistent tank play from Corey “Corey” Nigra meant that Joon-yeong “Profit” Park’s Zarya easily took the Justice apart. As a result, the more competent team play and tank play on the side of the Spitfire granted them the reverse sweep as they came to life after the third map.
As mentioned in this week’s recap, the Justice have very clear plans and strategies when going into maps, particularly maps such as Horizon Lunar Colony. However, the execution is not always consistent or smooth. This could be due to a variety of reasons, including team synergy or individual plays from the enemy team. Nonetheless, the Justice put up a good fight. They took the Spitfire to map 5 where no one expected them to.
Player of the Match: Janus
Despite the inconsistent gameplay, Joon-hwa “Janus” Song displayed a good showing of main tank against the Spitfire this week. He stood up against a top tier main tank in Jae-hee “Gesture” Song and still dropped some very impressive Earthshatters. In the following weeks, keep an eye out for him to play against other top tier main tanks.
Philadelphia Fusion: 2-2
Honestly, this week has been quite the roller coaster ride for anyone’s power rankings. The Fusion were going into week 2 with a 2-0 record, only to lose to both the Dallas Fuel and the Florida Mayhem. Many attribute this to the lack of synergy due to the absence of their flex support player Isaac “Boombox” Charles. The main support player for Fusion University, Elijah Hudson “Elk” Gallagher, had to be substituted in with minimal scrim time and into a role he is not accustomed to. This may be the primary reason why the Fusion do not look like their usual selves this week. That being said, Elk’s two-way contract dictates that he cannot play any more games for the stage. This means in week 3, the Justice are likely facing the original Fusion with Boombox back in.
In order to win this matchup, it is arguable that the same thing applies – the Justice just need to build up their tank gameplay to ensure it is consistent enough to show up against the tankline on Fusion. This is made more interesting because Corey will be going up against one of the top DPS in the league, Jae-hyeok “Carpe” Lee, who will likely be playing Zarya.
Prediction: Fusion wins 3-1
Player to Watch: Stratus
With Ethan “Stratus” Yankel turning 18, he finally joins the ranks of the Justice frontline. Look to watch the role he will play likely alongside Corey as a flex DPS counterpart. As previously spoken about, Fahzix and Stratus previously played for the same Contenders team. This means Stratus’s addition to the roster might change it up if he can show up on Brigitte or DPS heroes against the Fusion this week.
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