Hey everyone.
As a lot of you know, NA and EU just had a competitive match which was streamed on TAW TV. The game was exciting and close, but even with the interviews after the game, a lot of information went unsaid. Here I will make a post breaking down what was going on in my head as I was making calls along with the reasons for outcomes and plays. So enjoy and learn.
Map 1: Lijiang Tower
Night Market: Lijiang was an interesting one. We started off with a mix of meta and comfort picks. We ran Genji Soldier Winston D.Va Lucio Mercy. Not too far off the norm, but pretty much a comp you will never see in high level play. EU started off with textbook meta: Genji Tracer Winston D.Va Lucio Zenyatta. After Spawns, EU made a huge mistake trying to go into the back side of the point. It was an easy funnel and most certainly not suitable for their composition. They should have engaged us in courtyard. Goopy, our Winston, easily body blocked the entrance, allowing NA to have point presence. From there, I got two boop kills, and we cleaned up the mess. There is not much a team can do when it is forced to shove itself through a tiny entrance.
In the next team fight, we try to hold courtyard (this is the standard hold), but when EU dove in, the focuses were not there. We took too many 1v1s, allowing ourselves to be focused easier. We managed to get off a few kills and a rez to prolong the fight, but they gained momentum once the revive came. From there, they caught us in a poor position as we were split from our main tank.
I made the call to go topside in the next engagement. I am quite used to teams holding courtyard, but it was the wrong call since EU was holding point. I amped around the corner to find no one. I essentially wasted it. It was not too crucial, however, we dove properly, they dropped both support ults, and we pushed EU into a so-so position. EU's D.va dropped a huge self-destruct. I dropped beat, but my barrier could not block the onslaught of an exploding mech which ended in the death of our Mercy. I would not have used my barrier if I had waited a second. It is rarely good to drop beat at the same time as self-destruct.
This part of the round is where things went wrong. We actually go way ahead in the fight after the previous events, but we could not seem to finish the fight. An absolutely excellent stall came out from Trix with his primal rage. This bought enough time for both teams to go back and forth. The respawns came in with a genji ult in favor of EU, and we had no answer to it since we were not expecting an ult in a fight we felt we were winning. Even after a quad rez from Lukas, he was unluckily killed by a stray pulse bomb, which removed our sustain from the fight. EU dropped a barrier, and it was downhill for us. Even with a barrier of my own, we had no ultimates available to work with it, and we were struggling a tad on focus fire.
Control Center: In the initial fight, EU caught us on our back foot. We were not totally surprised when they did not show up in front of us. We figured a drop from dark room or behind. However, we failed to position ourselves properly before they hit us from the rear. This allowed them to dive onto us when we really were looking to be the ones to initiate. This led to a quick wipe. We had a zen to try and burst the enemies down more, but it just gave them an easier dive target and took Lukas off a comfort pick.
Next, we executed a very good dive. We got on top of the zen and pushed them behind one of the maps. They had no room to work with. Our soundbarrier came out in response to the dragonblade and monkey, so we won on economy there as well.
In the next fight, we simply outplayed them in the team fight. Ultimates were not huge. Morosho landed a nice pulse bomb on the D.Va which allowed dps to work unhindered by a defense matrix. Our focuses were really good on this map.
Due to our economy being so well conserved (not to toot my own horn), we were able to use a defense matrix to zone out the enemy as their zen ulted, making the ult pretty useless as people scattered. The only issue is I may have used a questionable soundbarrier since EU's genji had blade for the next fight. However, we still had an ult advantage plus a rez to keep ourselves ahead. We got our picks as they engaged, our Mercy was hiding, and we came in for a three man rez after the dragonblade, winning the map.
Garden: Again, EU took a poor route to the objective. Dive does not thrive in crowded spaces. We took firm position on the objective and simply waited for them to funnel through the back end of the point. However, this is when EU decided that they would stray from the meta and just swap to their own comfort picks. This brought out their deadly pharmercy. In the initial engagement, they could not do very much due to the path they took. Pharmercy had a hard time even getting to the objective, essentially making the fight a 6v4 in favor of NA. Focusing targets is much easier when there are less people to focus.
Next fight, I made a poor mistake underestimating pharah's damage. The damage boost did not allow me to heal after the first direct hit, so I foolishly got picked (yeah you scrub). From here, EU could have taken the fight much better. They had the advantage, but they were not playing together. They could have easily wiped us, but they gave us a fighting chance by being scattered. We went back and forth with kills, but Lukas came in clutch with a solo rez on Goopy, and PT ate an entire pharah ult with his dmatrix. This did not lead to us winning the fight, but it gave us ticks on the clock and forced ults to be wasted. The solo rez may have seemed poor, but there was still a chance, and after the fight, Lukas was already halfway back.
This next push was all economy. We got the zen ult out. That was really all we needed because we had a blade on the way. This brought us to flipping the point to us.
Here is where I personally threw the round. I accidentally dropped the beat late in the fight. We won it with ease, but barrier was wasted. We really needed it in the last fight. If I had had soundbarrier when Morosho (soldier) ulted, we probably could have fought back and won. Instead, he was burnt down easily in the middle of his tactical visor.
Alternatively, I could have saved soundbarrier for the final fight. I knew they had a huge ultimate advantage going into the final fight. We had no means to catch up with them on that aspect. Our only option was to dive zen and get luck. Had I had barrier there, we could have matched the health pools and possibly won the fight.
Control Center 2: Of course, EU stuck with there Pharah. Why would they not? Pharah created so much entry damage because of spam. In our first push, Trix had a really good bubble which split us in half. They focused down our healers which led to a quick wipe.
Another push goes poorly with a mediocre dive and poor focuses. EU was playing well, and they received an ultimate advantage from it.
The next push was a bit complex, though. PT may or may not have gone in too deep with his D.Va, but it also may have created space for Goopy to pick up a couple kills. Trix ulted in response and picked up a couple himself with a more than good primal rage. Lukas came in with a really good solo rez, and then I dropped the beat to finish the fight. Then, syrenity accidentally wasted transcendence. Event though using both support ults may have been an iffy decision, it worked out because of that mistake.
In this final fight, we were on even turf. EU's Mercy had a solo rez to match ours. From there, they simply out fought us. They won the brawl on the point, cleaned up the point, and took the map.
As a final thing to say, countering Pharah is not as simple as throw a hitscan at her. She is a complex hero to counter, especially in this meta. She cannot be dived, she sustains a very long time, and she dishes out a lot of damage in bursts. The way to counter her is to eliminate her usefulness in the game, not her. The faster a fight is taken, the less effective a Pharah becomes. She can only shoot every second, and her gun does not hold many rockets. What counters Pharah is good focus fire on her teammates. Of course, if a Pharah comes down without a Mercy, by all means, shoot her, but it usually is not that easy. This topic can be an entirely separate write-up on its own.
So this is the first look of the match. I write this in order to help people further understand the logic and flow of the game. It also provides a look to what went on in our heads as we played. A lot of people can look at the same match and have very different viewpoints of what occurred, so it is great to see and learn from a match at multiple angles.
I paint my pictures with words and construct my buildings from thought.