The Boston Uprising swept the Houston Outlaws 3-0 off the back of a Genji-focused composition in their game on July 8. This was one of the last qualifying games before the Summer Showdown knockouts. At this time, new compositions are rare. Yet, the Boston Uprising still brought a unique team build that defeated a potential tournament-winning team.
We take the series 3-0!
What a strong showing from all of our players💪#BostonUp | #OnTheRise pic.twitter.com/yyaMmGMEgj
— Boston Uprising (@BostonUprising) July 8, 2021
Aggressive dive sweeps Houston
In the Summer Showdown, the meta shifts almost for every map. Even with all the map-specific picks in this tournament, the Boston Uprising tend to like specific heroes more than others. For example, in their earlier matchup against the Florida Mayhem, Kim “Valentine” Byeong-ju favored the Torbjorn pick. Torbjorn is a common counter to dive compositions, and the Mayhems’ struggles with him helped Boston keep an edge. They used a similar technique in their match against Houston, but this time it was more of a team effort.
Houston gets reduced to a charcuterie board by @Valentine_owo! 🔪#BostonUp #OWL2021
📺 https://t.co/tbTGBrUfiE pic.twitter.com/iIMQwMrnxO
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) July 8, 2021
Dive is back. Not just any dive, the classic Tracer/Genji dive finally returned in the Uprising vs. Outlaws game. From start to finish, with very few swaps, the Uprising abused the reactive nature of the Outlaws’ double shield composition. The team worked around Seo “Stand1” Ji-won, healing the poke damage of the Outlaws and getting Ana’s ultimate quickly. After that, using nano on Winston can guarantee his ultimate being charged up, or a nano-blade can tear through an enemy team. With how great Valentine played in this game, his blades got consistent value, winning many team fights alone. It was enough of a problem that from the second map onwards that the Outlaws ran an Orisa/D.Va tank duo – unconventional, to say the least. It didn’t work out.
Boston pack to 2018 form with a 2018 composition
With the maps that Boston played on, this Genji-focused composition worked wonders. Along with Stand1’s Winston and the mechanical skill of Seo “Myunb0ng” Sang-min, the team were more coordinated than we’ve ever seen so far. One of the best examples of this was on their second map’s defense. After capturing the map on attack with just under a minute left, they lost point A relatively quickly. The snowball effect for the Outlaws led them to get two-thirds of the capture on point B. As they returned to try to finalize that capture, they had an ultimate advantage over the Uprising. With Orisa, McCree and Baptiste’s ultimate available, Boston only had their Winston and D.Va ults to counter them.
The way Uprising played the Outlaws’ engagement against them was perfect. As the Outlaws got their shield on point and used Baptiste’s ultimate for more damage, Boston split up. Stand1 and Valentine used the cover of point to avoid damage, as their healers stayed extremely far away. Shin “PIGGY ” Min-jun pushed into fighting the Uprising’s backline, trying to de-mech Leyton “Punk” Gilchrist. Not only that, but the Outlaws’ McCree got a pick as Hong “im37” Jin-ui was caught flanking. Orisa used her ultimate to help deal a lot of damage, but then Punk capitalized. He threw his D.Va ultimate behind the shield and Baptiste ultimate, just as Stand1 dove in. His use of Primal Rage displaced the enemy team enough for the bomb to guarantee some kills. It killed three, got rid of the immortality field, turret and the Orisa ultimate all at the same time.
What is this, early 2000s television?!
Outlaws get @punkinoz'd! 💥#BostonUp #OWL2021
💣 https://t.co/tbTGBrUfiE pic.twitter.com/CBTe2zt0fR
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) July 8, 2021
If Boston manages to keep this form up with Genji, they could be a possible top contender, along with Houston in the Summer Showdown knockouts.
