Boston Uprising in Stage 3 Week 2 lose their star DPS Dreamkazper and then come back to defeat the near undefeatable #1 seeded NYXL and in the very next week they smash through the #2 & #3 seeds London & Seoul back-to-back. It's safe to say that the Boston Uprising are taking the league by storm, so this week on Less Than Epic we're taking a look at their game with the London Spitfire to break down what has taken this team from the middle of the pack to the #2 seed in the Overwatch League.
What's up everyone! I'm your host Radical Edward and last week on League Analysis we analyzed the Dreamkazper-less Boston Uprising. This week the story must continue as Boston has shown that they may be the best damn teams in the league. London & Seoul, despite having some struggles in stage 3 of the league, are still in the top 3 strongest teams in the league, yet this week Boston pushed them both out of the way to take that #2 seed. Both games were definitely great, but as a London Spitfire fan I wanted to really analyze this week why Boston were able to take down my boys in baby blue.
The game between Boston & London went to 5 maps, with London taking the first 2 in a Dominant performance and then Boston taking the reverse sweep to win the game. It's safe to say the game was close, but there was a definite turning point for Boston after the half-time break. So the real question of this match was "What did Boston change after half-time?" (that allowed them to get the reverse sweep)
Taking a look at the first half between these two teams, Boston actually had a 100% win rate on one of the maps they lost, Temple of Anubis, which is now down to 78% after this week. Boston was having some obvious communication issues in the first half with Gamsu and Note, the tankline on the side of Boston, diving completely different targets at times. Their lack of coordination frequently left their healers Neko & Kellex completely vulnerable, a trait we've seen from Boston far too often. Neko & Kellex of Boston died a staggering 79 times in this series while the London supports Hagopeun, Closer, Nus & Bdosin Died only a combined 59 times. It's safe to say this was a huge factor in Boston losing the first 2 maps in this series.
Striker & Mistakes continue to be the starting DPS line for Boston, but in the first half of the series both of their timing and coordination with the rest of their team was just off. Particularly, Mistakes in map 2 had a favorible matchup against a Mcree with his Genji pick. Despite this Mistakes had 18 kills and a staggering 13 deaths, showing that his execution, positioning & timing were very off on this map. Boston wasn't able to overcome that weakness and thus went down 0-2 at halftime. On his teams struggles in the first half of this game Note had this to say in his post game interview:
I noted the lack of coordination & communication and Note confirmed that that was indeed the issue his team was having. We've gone over what Boston did poorly in the first half, so let's go back to our question: "What did Boston change after half time that allowed them to get the reverse sweep?"
Jumping into the second half here's what I noted: Boston had far superior positioning as compared to their first half performance right out the door. In the clip I have rolling Boston's positioning was so good they are actually able to win their first engagement with only a single kill on a DPS. Taking a look at another example of superior positioning from Boston on Junkertown, the 4th map in this series, we see London who was on defense get completely pushed to the opposite side of the objective. This positioning play from Boston got them the first objective and eventually the win on this map.
Boston also sported a completely revamped ult economy in the second half of this game. Once they used their superior positioning to take objectives, Boston intelligently staggered out their ults to hold those objectives. This was exemplified on stage 2 of Ilios where Boston staggered the point to 99% before London was even able to take it, and they did this by outplaying London in the ult economy. This tactic was carried over to the final map in this series Oasis which Boston was able to take in overtime bringing London's win % on this map down to a pitiful 27%.
So to recap, before the half Boston had communication & coordination issues which caused their supports to die too easily and their dives to be unsuccessful. After the half Boston completely revamped their positioning and ult economy game which allowed them to take the next 3 maps in a heroic reverse sweep. One final note I have to add is Striker continues to be an absolute monster on the Tracer sporting a +35 KDR in this match to Mistakes -13 KDR. Striker is key to this teams success and we love watching him play, great job dude and on a personal note I love the emotion you bring to the game.
Anyway that's going to do it for our analysis of Boston & London's game. If you made it this far in the video i'd like to thank you for watching. We do 3 weekly series covering the Overwatch League here at Less Than Epic including Power Rankings, Game Predictions and League Analysis videos like the one you just watched. If you like that kind of content be sure to hit that like button, subscribe to the channel and hit the little bell icon so you get notified when our videos go live. Thanks for watching everyone and this is Radical Edward, signing out.
- What did Boston change after half time that allowed them to get the reverse sweep?
- Where is Birdring and why is Hooreg stepping in for him in the starting lineup?
- Game 1: BOS had a 100% win rate on Anubis coming into this match and still lost the map.
- Game 1: Gamsu and Note diving different priority targets. Their DPS are cleaning up for them but this lack of coordination is an issue for them.
- Game 1: LON ult economy and ult baiting is far better. For instance at 2:30 LON baits out Mistakes dragon blade by actually using the zen ult and then countering the blade with the rip tire. BOS eventually takes the point but LON push them all the way to OT.
- Game 1: BOS not protecting Neko & Kellex again. This is one of the largest weaknesses of this team and it def lost them this first game.
- Game 2: LON staggered ult economy is countering BOS offense.
- Game 2: Mistakes target priority with Dragon blades is hit or miss.
- Game 2: When the fights mattered neko and kellex get dove successfully again...
- Game 2: Mistakes went 18-13. He is dying way too much.
- Game 3: BOS has superior positioning as compared to the previos 2 games and it shows right out the doors in game 3. They take the point first with only 1 kill, dominating the positioning battle.
- Game 3: stage 2 of this map really showcases BOS much improved ult economy and ult stagering. They stall out the point with their ult economy and positioning to 99%. They lose 2 fight, then win 1 with a monster EMP from Mistakes and then take the map.
- Game 4: Again BOS show superior positioning by forcing LON to basically swap sides with them while on DEF. The positioning allows them to take fights and push the payload. BOS only takes 1 point but they full-hold LON and send the series to a game 5.
- Game 5: This is LON worst map by far.
- Game 5: Boston still not protecting Kellex & Neko. The supports are getting dove far too easily.
- Game 5: When Mistakes can run the sombra while Striker runs the tracer BOS looks dominant no matter what team they are facing. It can't be understated how good Mistakes is at hacking the right targets and how good striker is at that Tracer.
- Game 5: Mistakes EPIC stall on sombra + profit choaking + Striker playing out of his mind with only 4 deaths + backup from team to actually protect the supports = BOS wins.
- In post game interview Note confirms that they were having communication issues in the first half of the game.