We are back with another tournament cycle folks! This one is the Summer Showdown and like the last two we are starting off with the qualifier matches. The first week of these tournament cycles is always interesting as teams feel each other out and try to figure out what the meta is.
Let’s get into it.
The Meta
One of the key differences in this particular tournament is that no hero bans are in effect. So that means all cards are on the table when it comes to what heroes can be used.
In this first week of play, we saw a significant rise in the use of Tracer based compositions. We also saw an increase in the use of Torbjorn based anti-dive compositions. Some teams also kept playing the very familiar Moira based rush compositions which even with nerfs to Moira’s ultimate charge rate are still not completely neutered.
There is no clear dominant meta quite yet and I’m not entirely sure what will eventually win out this time around. The lack of hero bans gives teams quite a bit of flexibility when it comes to counter compositions right now but I reckon there will be one compositions that is far too dominant and will start being mirrored instead of countered.
The Games
This week we saw middle tier teams rise above their station and deliver incredible victories. Teams like the Boston Uprising, Paris Eternal, Toronto Defiant and the Los Angeles Gladiators shocked fans as they won series that they were predicted to lose by most people. Let’s talk about some of these games.
Los Angeles Gladiators vs San Francisco Shock [West]
This one is perhaps one of the strangest series this week. In an uncharacteristically poor showing from the San Francisco Shock, the Los Angeles Gladiators were able to bring back a series from the brink of defeat to a 3-2 victory for them. I hope this was just first week uncertainty from the Shock because if not, this is a bad sign for them going forward.
Toronto Defiant vs Florida Mayhem [West]
In a similar fashion to the previous series I mentioned, the Toronto Defiant started off this series with a map win and then Florida come back with two map victories and putting the Defiant at the edge of defeat. Toronto seem to have finally found their footing this week and in a fantastic showing from their new DPS signing Aspire on Tracer brought this series to a map 5 victory. This along with their 3-0 victory against the Vancouver Titans this week is a good sign for Toronto going forward. Here’s hoping, this tournament goes better for them than the last one.
Los Angeles Gladiators vs Paris Eternal [West]
If you can only watch one series this week, make it this one, its fantastic. In the first two maps of this series the Gladiators looked extremely dominant and it looked like the series was all but over. However, with the third map, the Paris Eternal adapted to the Gladiators style of play and by the time the fourth map came around the momentum had shifted in favour of the Eternal. The series ended in a 3-2 victory for the Paris Eternal. A fantastic reverse sweep, one of the best I’ve seen.
Conclusions
Overall, a interesting start to the Summer Showdown, at least in the West region. The East region wasn’t as interesting this week.
I am hoping the coming weeks continue to stay interesting even as the meta solidifies.
See y’all next week!