It was a packed house in Blizzard Arena, where Stage 3 Playoff were happening.  It’s what we’ve been waiting for all year.  The best Teams going Head to Head, playing their best, giving it all that they had.  All their tricks and strategies were on display.  And man, oh man, did it live up to the hype!

Boston Uprising made short pickings out of the LA Gladiators.  Yeah, they 3-0 them in a best of 5.  Then came New York Excelsior, who 3-0 the LA Valiant.  These two Teams didn’t just beat the other Teams, they PWNed them!  Easily these were the two Teams that were destined to play in the Grand Finals.  Boston with it’s 10-0 Record and New York with it’s overall Top Tier Record.  This was a battle between Giants.  And you knew it was meant to be.

New York has an All Star type of Line Up with Big Boss Pine, Libero, Ark, JJonak, Meko, Janus, and Saebyeolbe.  I mean really they are sooo talented!  It’s like going against the Yankees in Baseball.  And boy were they on fire last night.  The fireworks began with the very first Map of Junkertown and it continued all Game long.  Saebyeolbe was just a Beast, assassinating squishy Supports constantly.  Oh yeah and Pine was just rocking the opposing Team with Head shots left and right.  Plus there was Jjonak on Zenyatta and he went on a certain kind of Kill Streak of his own.  They were OP!

Boston’s Team wasn’t to shabby either.  I mean they have great Players, Mistakes, Gamsu, Neko, Note, and Striker.  These are the guys who led the Stage to in incredible 10-0 Win Streak.  Actually if you go back to last Stage their Win Streak was up to 14-0.  Frankly I thought that they could defeat the All Stars of NYXL.  They did it once before, why not again?  Well it didn’t turn out that way.  I mean yes they played well but New York is on a whole other level than any other Team.  And NYXL had to throw the “Kitchen Sink” at them to beat them.  But man that was some amazing Overwatch that we saw!

NYXL got the kills on Mistakes early and often.  He was playing Widowmaker, but I would have like to have seen him whip out his Sombra, because that is his specialty.  Instead it was Widow v Widow and Boston tried to go toe to toe with Big Boss Pine.  Nope!  Not gunna happen!  Pine was just too good…  Then there were the Supports who were constantly being harassed and killed by Saebyeolbe on Tracer.  It was like he was waiting for his Team to help him out in engagements.  But when no one showed up, he just went and killed them himself.  They were busy on the Point and it was Chaos out there but Saebyeolbe took the initiative to go hunting for the enemy.

Boston was getting some good damage done on NYXL’s Tanks but it just wasn’t enough.  Saebyeolbe just carried the Team with his kill streaks.  It was hands down the best Tracer play I have ever seen!  Like ever!  It was so disheartening for the Uprising that at Halftime I needed to go out for a Smoke to clear the disappointment from my head.  I mean it just looked like it was inevitable that the Uprising would lose.  NYXL was just that good.  Frankly I did this during the 2017 Super Bowl and when I came back the Pats were making a real comeback.  Sadly though it just wasn’t the case for this Boston Team…

I think that overall I’d have to give the MVP Award to Saebyeolbe.  If I had to choose somebody right now it’d be him.  What he did last night, I mean the sheer brilliance of it goes up there with other professional Sports Athletes, think Lebron James or Stephen Curry.  He is on that kind of level!  He makes everyone else on his Team play better.  He makes the other Team play as hard as they can, to beat him…

Boston were only able to tie New York on Volskaya, their best Map, into a Draw.  The Excelsior took the next Map and won it outright [3-0].  It was just unbelievable and also a total instant classic!  This right here is how Overwatch became huge.  I’m sure next year in OWL they will still be talking about this Match.  And people will recall Saebyeolbe’s Epic PWNing as Legendary. GG!  Congrats Big Boss Pine and the NYXL on the Championship Win!  Cheers!

It was an exciting night [Friday] as was got to see the best of the best play!  We got to see all 3 Top Teams compete.  But for this blog I will be covering the marque match up of the night: Boston Uprising vs Los Angeles Gladiators.  Boston was poised to go 10-0 with their Win against the Gladiators, something unheard of OWL.  A perfect Stage was something only New York Excelsior came close to doing.  The Gladiators on the other hand were fighting for Stage 3 Playoffs on Sunday.

If you haven’t heard yet, there were changes made to the Playoff Brackets.  The Stage 3 Playoffs now have 4 Teams, instead of just 3.  And now that the number 1 Team doesn’t have a Bye, they added to the rules that they can pick which Team they go up against in the Semi Finals.  Also there is a Tiebreaker Game should the Teams with the same record finish in Playoff Contention.  Whoa, talk about a real game changer!  The Prize Pools remain the same: $100,000 to 1st Place and $25,000 to 2nd Place..  Now let’s jump right into the action:

Los Angeles Gladiators vs Boston Uprising: Map 1

It was all Boston on Volskaya.  They came in undefeated on this Map and left that way.  With their type of “Dive” composition they played great on Defense and aggressive on Offense.  It was a Widow vs Widow match up, with Mistakes on Widowmaker for Boston and Surefour on Widowmaker for LA Gladiators.  Mistakes isn’t the best at Widow, he is more of a Sombra Player.  But last night on Volskaya he recovered after a few early “picks” and helped Boston Secure the Map Win.

Los Angeles Gladiators vs Boston Uprising: Map 2

Right here we saw the best Defense by the Boston Team, maybe ever.  They dominated on Numbani!  Ok so, the Gladiators went first on this Hybrid Map.  What they needed to do was “Unlock” the payload, but Boston would have none of that.  They took control of the high ground and punished the Gladiators out of spawn.  It was in a word a “clinic”.  I mean seriously, they held the Point Zone all Game.  The Gladiators couldn’t even break through their Defenses just to get one tick!  Striker also was unbelievably good and I got to give a shout out to Note for his play.  The communication that this Team has is just stellar.  Boston took the Map Win easily.

Los Angeles Gladiators vs Boston Uprising: Map 3

After the half, the Gladiators pulled themselves together on Nepal.  They took every opportunity to gain control of the Point.  I mean they played well and this was one of their best Maps to Win on.  They went Pharah at times and Boston didn’t have an answer for it.  Mistakes doesn’t play Pharah and neither does Striker.  Suffice to say it was a tough Map for them to win, and they had their troubles organizing their Team.  It seemed that every time they had a 6 v 6 someone would die early.  It was a tough pill to swallow.  They were so close in Map Wins to taking the series here, but really it looked like it would be decided on Map 4.  The Gladiators would take the Map Win.

Los Angeles Gladiators vs Boston Uprising: Map 4

On Route 66 Boston had to come from behind to win it.  They didn’t play great during the first round.  It would seem like once again they had staggered re-spawns and a tough time contesting the payload.  And let’s face it, it not their best Map!  After the first round it was tied 3-3 on the Map.  Which meant Overtime.  On the second go around the Uprising once again got zoned out off of the “cart”.  The Gladiators had just 1 Minute on the Clock to move it as far as they could.  And let me tell you that nearly got it half way through Route 66.  Then it was Boston’s turn with 1 Minute 30 Seconds to push the “cart”.  And they played extremely aggressive to get the payload all the way to the Point Zone.  It was remarkable!  It was a real nail biter!  But you know what?  They did it and won the Map and the Series [3-1]. GG!

Wow what a finish, and here I was thinking that it would go to another Map 5.  With the Win the Uprising have the top spot in Stage 3 Playoffs on Sunday and tonight after the Games, they get to pick who they go up against on Sunday.  We gotta keep this Perfect Win Streak going!  Overwatch League continues today at 4pm EST on Twitch.tv and MLG.com.  The big match to watch for is the LA Valiant vs the Philadelphia Fusion, both Teams have a chance at the number 4 spot… and also a Tiebreaker Game may be needed.  How awesome would that be!  GL HF!

It was Friday Night last Week and I was watching OWL.  I was really getting into it till I found that my Dog passed away at 11pm.  It was really disheartening.  I had to take him to the Vet late that night for Cremation.  Suffice to say it has been a rough couple of days.  But for today things are better and my family obligations aren’t hindering me to write, blog.  So let’s get right into the action of the latest in Overwatch League:

Boston Uprising remains undefeated in Stage 3 with their win over the LA Valiant last night [Thursday].  What I want to focus on today is their play style on a Map like Blizzard World.  We’ve seen Teams struggle on this Map, which just came out to the Map Pool in Stage 3.  Boston however has been Undefeated on this Map.  And I’ll show you why…

Blizzard World consists of three parts.  There is the Warcraft part of Point A, there is the Starcraft part of Point B, and there is the Diablo part of Point C.  Now Teams are really having trouble “Unlocking” the payload of Point A.  Teams typically run a Widow Tracer on this Map and come in through three of the front entrances: left to right it’s Snaxxramas/Lost Vikings, Main Gate, and Flight to Duskwood.  Now each of these entrances are heavy choke points.  Which means that they are easily defensible, but difficult to attack from.  With a Widowmaker you don’t have the luxury of the high ground.  If you go through the Flight to Duskwood entrance to gain the high ground you will be stuck on that overlooking platform with little cover or room.

Now here’s what the Uprising do.  They run a Sombra Tracer and get a wide flanking position on the right.  They basically go all the way around through Pylon Terrance to go in the back entrance/exit.  It’s genius really because they create a lot of space for their players to move around the point.  Plus they get the high ground over looking the point where the payload is.

With the Sombra, the Uprising charge their “ULTs” and set up for a “D. Va Bomb”.  What they do is Hack the other Teams players and then EMP them.  After that they throw in a D. Va Self Destruct to Eliminate the opposing Heroes.  Now this tactic is extremely efficient on Blizzard World and it’s something none of the other Teams have figured out how to do.  With Mistakes on Sombra and Note on D. Va its a solid one two punch.  I mean seriously, these two guys have perfected this “ULT” combo.  So much so that they have called it the “D. Va Bomb”.  Also there is Striker on Tracer, probably one of the best, and he has full range to sneak around the back lines and Assassinate the enemy Support Heroes.  Point A is a clinic for the Uprising, and Point A is their best Point, but it doesn’t end there.

Now on to Point B after the payload is “Unlocked”.  Boston continues to push the payload while Mistakes and Striker sneak around.  They typically set up a “Pick” play on the opposing Team, catching them off guard.  They create space in front of the payload usually with hacks by Sombra and harassment by Tracer.  Then when the real engagement begins they go with the “D. Va Bomb”.  It either hits the enemy Heroes or it creates even more space to push the payload.  Striker though has to make sure that he eliminates or harasses the opposing Widowmaker.  Other wise they will be a real problem for the Uprisings push.  Also the opposing D. Va needs to get hacked or she will Self Destruct to throw the Uprising off the payload.

Then there is Point C in the Diablo part of Blizzard World.  Right here is the real challenge to the Uprising’s composition.  They need to make sure to be aggressive with their push coming off of Point B.  If they stall out with the payload in the beginning of the U-bend then they will be in trouble to re capture the payload.  It’s a risk that you take going Sombra Tracer.  With Gamsu on Winston, the Uprising usually need him to touch the payload or drop a “Bubble”.  If they can gain a foothold then they can do another “D. Va Bomb” on the opposing Hacked players.  They have done this repeatedly on this Map and it works!

Feel free to copy and use this in your next ranked play.  And check out the latest VODs on the Overwatch League App.  Stage 3 Playoffs begin Sunday Night and Boston is in them! GL HF!  Cheers!