Hello hello, welcome back to The OverSeer guys! This post will highlight my predictions for Week 20, after a delightfully-accurate Week 19. The Hero Pools for Week 20 are still the same as before: Echo, Sombra, D.Va and Brigitte will still be unavailable to play. We already know that teams are inclined to play Double Shield comps with the occasional Ball-Winston Dive because of these bans, but that really depends on which team is in the field, so let's see what's on the table for Saturday, and try to determine what's going to happen.
DAY 1
1. Seoul Dynasty vs. Guangzhou Charge- Dynasty wins 3-1. Despite the Dynasty's soul-crushing defeats (you see what I did there) by the Charge in recent weeks, I think they'll have the upper hand in this matchup. Whenever the Charge have beaten Seoul, it's been in an Echo-centric meta. With Echo gone this week, I'm confident the tides can and will turn in the Dynasty's favour. Seoul's Double Shield execution is rock solid, and I'm sure they can beat Guangzhou in a mirror matchup, but Guangzhou has a ton of versatility, which could cause problems for Seoul, since they're not good at adapting on-the-fly. Well there go my chances of securing a perfect winner score this week. In a very close series in which the Charge beat the Dynasty 3-2, we saw Seoul lose to nothing but their own inconsistency. I was a little disappointed by FITS's performance in particular; he was totally outclassed by Happy, and couldn't find the picks his team needed unless either Happy was out of the fight, or his team had set something up for him. Profit's performance was very impressive, as he played a carry-level Tracer, which his team evidently couldn't keep up with. Not the outcome I predicted, but we all know how streaky Seoul can be.
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| Match of the Day: No Ana is going to be safe if we see some Wrecking Ball action! |
2. London Spitfire vs. Chengdu Hunters- Hunters win 3-2. This is the meta for Lord Ameng to rise. Sombra and Brigitte's absence from the Hero Pool means that two of Wrecking Ball's strongest counters are off-the-table, meaning Chengdu can use their signature Hammond-centric strats way more often than usual. I won't be surprised if we see Ball-Winston Dive with Tracer-Genji-Ana-Zen/Lucio, or even the Ball-Orisa Spam comp (with Pharah-Hanzo-Ana-Mercy) from them for most of the series. They should be able to break through to a close victory against the Spitfire, who I don't think can play up to Chengdu's level in this meta. London has swept Chengdu before, but times were different, and the meta was different; now, the Hunters can hunt once again. One thing I want to see in this matchup is Jihun's Wrecking Ball against Ameng's; they're both pretty much known for their Hammond play, so their clash should be interesting to watch. Yikes Chengdu...yikes. I don't know what the Hunters' coaching staff was thinking, but it was not what any of us expected. Who would've thought Chengdu would play Orisa comps more than Ball comps in this meta?! I obviously didn't. After losing the first map to London's Anti-Dive setup (which was basically Clestyn's Roadhog), Chengdu seemed to shy away from Ball comps, and played Double Shield for most of the other two maps. They also tried out this wonky Winston-Zarya strat on Blizzard World defence which was so terrible I don't even want to get into it. All-in-all, I think the Hunters lost not because they played badly; I mean, sure, performance played a part in it, but their game plan itself wasn't in the right place, and that caused them to suffer. The final score was 3-0 to the Spitfire.
3. Hangzhou Spark vs. New York Excelsior- Excelsior wins 3-0. Listen, I know the Spark signed Architect, and even QoQ as of a few minutes ago, but after New York crushed Seoul last week, I don't think this match is even going to be close. Versatility is the Spark's only weapon, since they can throw many different looks, but unfortunately for them, so can New York. Should be fun to see how this plays out. Okay, fine, I was wrong again. This is so bad honestly. Architect's pickup has really elevated the Spark's level of play, and they managed to win a close 3-2 against New York because of it. It remains to be seen whether this meta had anything to do with this win, or whether Architect continues being so POG (he probably will), but yeah, kudos to this team for such a fantastic performance. Guxue had a fantastic game as well, really popping off and clutching out fights with his team. There's almost this hidden storyline attached to the Spark now, since most of them were picked up from X6 Gaming, which Architect used to play for before he joined the Shock in 2018, and it's beautiful.
4. San Francisco Shock vs. Paris Eternal- Shock wins 3-0. The Shock recently tweeted out that if they sweep the Paris Eternal, they'll be the first team to have swept every other team in the League, and I can see that happening. I think San Francisco's fast and aggressive playstyle is the perfect counter to Paris' own aggression, and considering that they can play Double Shield comps all day, which are some of their best, they should be fine. To add to that, they're calculated, practised, and adaptable, so I'm pretty comfortable saying that this could even be one-sided. Thanks to stellar performances across-the-board, the San Francisco Shock were able to steal this relatively-easy victory from the Paris Eternal.
5. Atlanta Reign vs. Toronto Defiant- Reign wins 3-0. Another one-sided affair seems to be lined up for us. Although most people aren't high on the Atlanta Reign, I don't think they've been doing too badly. Sure, they make some questionable decisions about whom to field, but other than that, their performances have been fine. They should look especially swell going up against the relatively-unimpressive Toronto Defiant, so expect a sweep in this one guys. GGs. Perfect prediction.
6. Los Angeles Gladiators vs. Houston Outlaws- Gladiators win 3-0. I don't think I need to say a lot about this matchup. The Glads are a stronger team, are more consistent, and look much better in this meta compared to the Outlaws. In an unexpected series of events, the Houston Outlaws managed to pop-off in this match and beat the Gladiators. I must question dpei's compositional choices on Busan, since he went for a Rein-Winston comp which lost them the first point and made things even easier for the Outlaws. Danteh proved to be a real beast, along with the occasional carry from LiNkzr, and a surprisingly-good performance from Rawkus. Houston seemed to be on the same page for the first time in a long time, and that's a great indicator of how they're developing as a roster. The final score was 3-1 in favour of the Outlaws.
7. Dallas Fuel vs. Vancouver Titans- Fuel wins 3-0. Again, no need to explain this one; it's basically the same situation as the Gladiators and the Outlaws. You know, it's almost as if all the teams have mutually agreed that my predictions need to be ruined, since there's no other way there can be so many upsets on a single day. That said, the Titans were fantastic in this match; especially Shockwave, who kept picking off members of Dallas no matter which hero he was on, and his team capitalised on that. The Fuel fielded new recruit Onigod in this match, and he actually did pretty well. I'd say he was the best player on the Fuel in this match, but sadly, lost it 0-3. It makes me wonder if running Decay as usual would've been the right decision, and whether Aero put Onigod in despite his lack of synergy with the team because he expected this match to be easy. I can't say for sure, but either way, don't risk anything at this point, Dallas. You need to make it into the Playoffs.
DAY 2
1. Guangzhou Charge vs. Hangzhou Spark- Charge wins 3-2. I'm sharing this prediction with quite some caution, since both these teams are on very similar levels right now. While the Charge have shown us higher peaks than the Spark, the latter's sudden surge in skill cannot be ignored, especially since Architect has a skill ceiling few others possess. That said, I think the Charge have overall shown more promise than the Spark, who relied heavily on Architect's pop-off potential to beat the NYXL earlier today. The Charge impressed me more as a whole, especially due to their deadly DPS line as well as Shu, who fragged out hard on Zenyatta. I think teamwork will ultimately trump the Spark's solo carry, albeit not by a huge amount. Honestly, this match could go either way, but it's set to be a nail-biter for sure. The OWL teams felt bad for me, and decided to help my predictions succeed a little more on Day 2. In lieu of that, I predicted this insanely-close 3-2 victory for the Charge, and a reverse sweep at that!
2. Chengdu Hunters vs. Shanghai Dragons- Dragons win 3-0. I don't think I need to give any reason for this. Don't even think Chengdu will secure a single point if Shanghai bring their best. The Hunters somehow managed to challenge the best team in the region, despite losing to one of the weakest ones just a day before. What an odd bunch of people! Anyway, the Dragons still managed to thwart their efforts, and also reverse-swept their way to a 3-2 victory.
3. New York Excelsior vs. London Spitfire- Excelsior wins 3-0. Although London showed a ton of potential yesterday, they did so against the Hunters, who are far from a great team. They'll need a magical performance to beat the NYXL on Sunday, so I wish them good luck, even though it won't be nearly enough to win them the series. A decent effort from the London Spitfire got them a map in this series, mostly because Glister and Babel played out of their minds. However, the Excelsior were the better team, and ended up winning the series 3-1.
4. Boston Uprising vs. Philadelphia Fusion- Fusion wins 3-0. Yes, Boston is improving, but we're talking about the Fusion here. There's no way they drop a single map in this series, even considering Punk's addition. That was a really easy prediction. Honestly, despite people saying Boston has improved, they're not doing much to actually climb my power rankings (which I don't really reveal over here). They definitely look better with Punk than they did without, but it's still not a fantastic look. In this match, Colourhex really tried to salvage a few fights with his stellar Tracer play, but Carpe and SADO's Halt-Pulse Bomb combos just won them point after point. What a team!
5. Los Angeles Valiant vs. Florida Mayhem- Mayhem wins 3-0. A lot of people are high on the Valiant because of KSP and Shax's potential, but I think the team is quite inconsistent. Even though relying on two players to execute their share of their game plan has worked for them in the past few weeks, it's only been against weaker teams. The Mayhem won't take any of that; with the dynamic duo of BQB and Yaki, backed up by an amazing off-tank like Gargoyle, I believe Florida will laugh their way through this series. If things go sideways and the Valiant win, I'll consider it an upset for sure. Okay, it's official! Shax is the best Western Tracer in the League! The man hard-carried his team (which actually played pretty well) and beat the Runner-Ups of the May Melee Tournament. The trio of Yaki, BQB and Gargoyle actually played really well, but the Valiant looked much better overall than they usually do. I'm still not convinced the Valiant can put up such performances consistently, but at least we know how scary they can be in the right meta.
6. Washington Justice vs. San Francisco Shock- Shock wins 3-0. I don't even need to watch how Shock do against the Eternal to know how this match'll go. EZ clap. I can't really comment on how this match went, because I went to get a glass of water and missed all 3 maps. Shucks! Jokes apart, the Shock absolutely dismantled the Justice. I think Washington exhibited more synergy than usual today, but they're still very much a bottom-tier team, so don't expect great things from them just yet.
So in Week 20, I got 7/13 (53.85%) winners and 5/13 (38.46%) scores correct. That's too bad. I thought I could go for a perfect score on the winners this week, but a ton of surprise results made sure that I was disappointed. I think we'll be fine again from next week on though; there's always an 'upset week' every couple months or so, so we'll get some semblance of normalcy again in a few days. Hope you guys return to see what I have to say about Week 21, so hang in there, subscribe to the blog, and stay safe!
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