So far, I've covered the Dallas Fuel's and the Toronto Defiant's rosters in The OverSeer, and in this post, we're going to take a look at the Boston Uprising. Hello and welcome everyone, and if you've been here before, welcome back! In The OverSeer, you'll find all things Overwatch League, including but not limited to match predictions, power rankings and roster reviews, so if you like this post, think about subscribing to this blog!
Anyway, let's talk about the Uprising. Last year, they didn't have a fantastic season, because of which I ranked them 18th in my end-of-season power rankings. After having retained just 3 players from 2019, Boston is looking to change things up and go for a different look. How good is that look? Let's find out, by going over whom they've slotted in in each role.
Anyway, let's talk about the Uprising. Last year, they didn't have a fantastic season, because of which I ranked them 18th in my end-of-season power rankings. After having retained just 3 players from 2019, Boston is looking to change things up and go for a different look. How good is that look? Let's find out, by going over whom they've slotted in in each role.
TANK
The Uprising have currently got Axxiom and Fusions on main tank, and Mouffin and brussen on off-tank. I feel like this tank line is okay, but it's nothing to write home about.
Firstly, and I think you all will agree with me over here, Axxiom is a fairly unknown quantity for us. We briefly saw him playing main tank for Boston at the beginning of Stage 1 in 2019, but after Fusions stepped in, we saw nothing of him. His track record even before his time in the Overwatch League isn't very impressive. He's not won a ton of accolades, but based on what I see, he must have a decent Winston game, since he's secured 2nd place in NA Contenders during the Dive Meta. Other than that, I have nothing that hints at him being even an average main tank in the League. When it comes to Fusions, well, we've seen him do some great things in the Goats Meta. His Reinhardt play and overall understanding of the 3-3 comp really helped him propel the Uprising to new levels during Stage 1 of 2019. Unfortunately, he hasn't had a lot of success on any of the other main tank picks. Yes, he plays a decent Winston, but he's not top-tier on him, unlike how he is on Reinhardt. As for his Orisa and Wrecking Ball play, we've not seen him do anything impressive on both those main tanks either. This is why Boston's main tank slots worry me; they haven't got enough versatility on them, and that's going to be a big deterrent for them, especially if the meta continues to be Double Barrier in the short run.
Now let's talk about the off-tanks. The first one is Mouffin, who's on a two-way contract between the Uprising and their academy team. As far as I know, Mouffin is a pretty good player. He was in consideration for playing off-tank for team Canada in the OWWC 2019, but lost his spot to NotE; a decision a lot of people criticised. He's also got a Twitch stream set up, on which he makes some pretty good plays based on what I've seen. However, playing on ladder and playing in the Overwatch League are two very different experiences, so I honestly can't tell how well he'll do in the Tier-1 scene; and I may not get the chance to either, since we've got a full-time off-tank player in the mix as well. Brussen represented the Netherlands in the OWWC 2019, and he played a pretty good Sigma based on what I've seen. I haven't seen him play much other than that, and his track record in Tier-2 and below isn't very impressive either.
All-in-all, the Boston Uprising's tank line is fairly unproven in top-tier Overwatch, and their lack of experience and versatility could cause them some major problems in the 2020 season if not coached and developed with enough care.
DPS
After taking a look at the rest of the damage dealers in the League, it's evident how unimpressive the Uprising's DPS line seemingly is. With just the trio of Colourhex, Jerry and Munchkin, it's going to be difficult for this squad to outmatch many different DPS lines competing against them.
Returning for a second run with Boston this year is Colourhex, who was undoubtedly one of the better players on the team in 2019. He played a stable Zarya during Goats, and also showed off some impressive DPS play on the likes of Widowmaker and Pharah during Triple DPS. He's got a fairly flexible hero pool, being able to play multiple projectile heroes to a high level, and also pull out some snipers when his team needs them. He's not a cause of worry for me, since he's proven that he can handle playing at this level, so let's move on to the players who do give me cause for concern.
Someone please enlighten me: what are Jerry's signature heroes? From what I can see, he's an off-tank flex who's had some success in the Goats Meta playing D.Va and Sombra, but other than that, there's not a lot of information about him. This really worries me, since Jerry's history in competitive Overwatch doesn't go very deep, which means he's not as experienced as a lot of other players in the League. So you've got someone with not much experience, and a limited hero pool, which means you've either recruited him specifically to play Sombra, which seems to be his signature hero as of late, or you see him as an ultra-coachable player, and have got plans to develop him as a better esports athlete. Either way though, it's a gamble. Such a risk is worth taking if you're already surrounded by star-studded personalities, which is not the case when it comes to Boston, but I guess we'll see what happens when the season begins.
Finally, the Uprising have got Munchkin, who was formerly with the Seoul Dynasty. This guy is a true veteran of the Korean Overwatch scene, and is a very talented hitscan player. He wasn't a mainstay on the Dynasty's fielded lineup last year, but when he got the opportunity to play, he showed us a pretty good Zarya during Goats. Unfortunately, that's not a lot to go on; we don't know if he's still as good as he used to be on those hitscan heroes, and if he can adapt to different metas where his signature heroes aren't that viable. Again, we'll have to wait and see what happens in Munchkin's case, but let's quickly summarise what we've seen in the Uprising's DPS line so far.
I'm fairly confident that the flex DPS slot is in good hands, thanks to Colourhex, but the hitscan slot is a little bit of a question mark. Jerry's hero pool is relatively unknown, and Munchkin's ability to play the more recent high-sustain metas is as well. Also, if the meta ends up demanding heroes like Mei, Reaper and Doomfist as they currently do, who's going to play those heroes? We haven't seen great things from any of these players on any of those 3 heroes, which is quite concerning. Hence, I'm inclined to say that the Uprising have possibly got a bottom-5 DPS line, and they really need some upgrades in terms of versatility and experience to be able to push this team towards some more success.
SUPPORT
As much as I've shunned the Uprising's DPS line, I must admit that I really like their supports. Let's ignore the fact that there's just two of them and that they've got no backups, and simply look at these players for what they are.
Myunbong is Boston's flex support, and he's a relatively new arrival to the professional Overwatch scene. Despite that, he's been surprisingly good at adapting to high-level play, as he's got a very good track record despite not having the same amount of experience as his peers. I've seen a fair bit of praise about him among the community, which assures me that he's a good player despite me not having watched him play a lot in Contenders.
To supplement him on the main support role, the Uprising promoted Swimmer from their academy team. Famous for his Lúcio and Mercy play, Swimmer is already a well-known figure, thanks to his Twitch stream. We all know how consistent of a player he is, and although he's not hyper-aggressive all the time, he makes some pretty good plays every now and then. If that weren't enough, he's also a great in-game caller, which leads me to believe he can support Fusions in the leadership role quite effectively.
So to round off the support line discussion, I quite like the recruitment of Swimmer and Myunbong. I would prefer if they had at least one backup option on the role, since not everyone can get accustomed to every meta or playstyle, but regardless of that, I think this is going to be the role Boston shines on the most, if at all.
THE RAW LOOK VS. REALITY
Umm, we're in a strange situation here, because I think this roster is going to perform exactly how it seems like they're going to perform on paper. Like I said, their supports are pretty solid, but their damage dealers aren't versatile enough, and their tanks are largely unproven and probably somewhere in the middle-of-the-pack. In addition to that, none of their Korean players except for Axxiom has got mixed-roster experience, which means the language barrier could cause this squad even more problems than they anticipate.
It's quite unfortunate, but I'm going to have to say they're a bottom-5 team, and I don't think they're going to break out of that unless they make some serious additions to their roster.
That concludes my thoughts on the Boston Uprising's roster for 2020. If you liked what you read, do share this post around with other OWL fans and subscribe to my blog for more similar content (button on the top right part of the page). If there are certain points I made that you disagree with, feel free to elaborate on them in the comments section; let's just try and keep the discussion civil and respectful. Anyway, thanks a lot for reading this post; I really hope it was comprehensive enough and made some good points. That's all I have for you in here, so this is Proilios, signing off, until my next article about the Houston Outlaws. Cheers.
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