Summer is here and so is the Summer Showdown qualifiers. This week there were a bunch of interesting matches to talk about so let’s get started.
News and Blues
- Los Angeles Gladiators sign kevster – kevster is a DPS player formerly on NA Contenders teams like Team Doge and Team Envy
- Washington Justice start rebuilding, let’s hope they stabilize
- Hangzhou Spark making moves
- Krystal removed from roster – folks who followed the League last season might remember the situation regarding Krystal. Over.gg has a good summary if you missed it.
- Signing of off-tank QOQ – Ria is taking a leave of absence due to a wrist injury, Sasin has been filling in before this. QOQ was on Korean Contenders team RunAway.
- Dallas Fuel sign Onigod – Onigod was formerly on Team Envy and then later Team Doge when Envy was disbanded. He is a DPS player.
The Meta
The heroes out of rotation for this week remain the same as last week which are:
- Echo
- Sombra
- D.Va
- Brigitte
As one would expect, the meta remained largely unchanged from the previous week, teams continue to employ a lot of Tracer based compositions along side Orisa/Sigma double shield. Which means that we got to see some of the best Tracer players in the world duke it out (for example – Yaki [Florida Mayhem] and Shax [Los Angeles Valiant]).
The Games
A lot of the good action this week was in the APAC region matches which means I watched these as VODs later and I wish I could watch some of these live because they are fantastic.
Hangzhou Spark vs New York Excelsior [APAC]
This series had it all. Back and forth maps, Wolf & Achilios casting, a draw which means a 6 map series. We saw compositions of all kinds in this one as well making this just a lot of fun to watch. Architect absolutely popped off in this series too!
If you are going to watch one series from this week this would be the one.
Guangzhou Charge vs Hangzhou Spark [APAC]
Another fantastic series from the APAC region. This one is a classic reverse sweep! Great showing from both teams. Standout performances from the Guangzhou DPS lineup of Happy and Eileen. Happy’s Widowmaker is hella scary, this boy does not miss.
Dallas Fuel vs Vancouver Titans [NA]
This one is a one-sided stomp and not in the way anyone expected. Dallas Fuel were actually demolished by the still new Titans roster, it wasn’t even close. The Fuel fielded their new signing Onigod in the series for this and it was a terrible OWL debut for him.
This may be a classic case of underestimating your opponents.
Oof. Looking on the bright side, the new Titans squad has the first win under their belt, hopefully this clears a mental hurdle and we continue to see fantastic performances from them.
Los Angeles Valiant vs Florida Mayhem [NA]
This is the best series in the NA region this week. A fantastic showing from both teams alongside the Tracer matchup of Shax vs Yaki. Some of the maps were extremely close and could have gone either way. More of this in the NA region please instead of 3-0 stomps.
Miscellaneous tidbits from other series
The Toronto Defiant got absolutely stomped by the Atlanta Reign which was to be expected. The Defiant are still solidly in the lower half of the NA region.
The Gladiators look a bit shaky with that loss to the Houston Outlaws.
The Washington Justice vs San Francisco Shock match this week was extremely sad to watch. It wasn’t even really competitive.
The Shanghai Dragons tried some new looks this week which didn’t completely work out, not necessarily due to player skill but more like compositional disadvantages.
Concluding thoughts
Overall I would say it was a pretty good week of matches in the league. We saw our fair share of 3-0s but they were balanced out by some extremely good series in the APAC region.
Next week is looking to be interesting as well, the matchup I’m most looking forward to is the Philadelphia Fusion vs San Francisco Shock match, that should be a clash of two top tier teams and is hopefully going to be a map 5 or more affair. The Shanghai vs Hangzhou match should be an interesting one as well.
See y’all next week!