Defiant fend off surging Titans to qualify for May Melee
Titans send shockwaves through Overwatch League.
It was nearly a stunning upset for the beleaguered Vancouver Titans, a team that has been struggling since it parted ways with its entire roster just over two weeks ago, but the Toronto Defiant weathered the storm.
The match-up started exactly how we might have predicted, with the Defiant easily handing a loss to the Titans on Lijang Tower‘s control mission.
A re-energized Titans team emerged in the second and third maps led by their newest acquisition, Danish player sHockWave, dazing the Defiant with a stunning 4-kill on Hollywood, and raining sticky bombs down as Echo through the mid-part of this campaign.
As the match moved to Anubis for an assault mission, sHockWave continued his aggressive style of play, out-flanking the Defiant often. The Defiant, for their part, failed to commit on the dive, a grenade throw followed by an eerie five-seconds of chaos the young Dane would punish, helping carry the Titans to a 2-1 lead.
Momentum shifted back to the Defiant as the escort through Rialto saw the Titan’s team composition start to falter. Relying on an aggressive, flanking sHockWave, the Titans ran healers that have little practical utility with the flighty Echo, forcing him to rely on med packs to heal. This gamble would pay off at times throughout the match and at other times the Titans would be punished for it.
The Defiant focused their fire on sHockWave, removing him from the series with impunity, again and again. Kariv’s dominant Zenyatta sealed the deal in Overtime with an aggressive multi-kill to push this to a final set.
The final map would be another control in the form of Nepal. After an early overextend in the map, Toronto’s Logix wouldn’t give sHockWave any room to breathe, applying heavy pressure as McCree, punishing the Titans who turned tail. Once the pressure is off their Echo, the Titans rebound, bringing the fight into the weeds. Toronto’s Beast uses Reinhardt to perfection, blocking a shatter and denying the Titans what should have been an early lead.
An experienced Kruse would grind out extra time in the second round, forcing sHockWave to waste a duplicate, but allowing a full charge for four ultimates from the Titans. As the pressure once again moves off of the Echo player his free movement without pressure from McCree allows the Titans to send this to a decisive third round.
Early in the final round, Kariv, who’s long made a name for himself playing Zenyatta, would deliver a 4-kill against the Titans, foreshadowing the rest of a dominant round in sanctum that would be all Defiant.
The Defiant proceeded to challenge the Atlanta Reign in the May Melee but were ultimately defeated in a clean sweep.
-With files from Dylan Cole.
