There, That’s Better – OWL Heavy Hitters

Phew! After week six of OWL2021 and the opening weekend to the June Joust, it certainly felt like the Overwatch League had blown its lid off and gone fully off the deep end. Seriously, at least half of the results from last weekend were upsets that massacred thousands of predictions and left fans scratching their heads as to what to expect from the rest of the month. Whether things would stay unpredictable or return to some sense of normalcy, one could only guess, but at the very least, we knew it would be an exciting time. 

Fortunately, stability is the name of the game in week seven of OWL2021. Outside of one arguable upset, this weekend gave everyone an equal opportunity to recover nicely on the points side of things, with a whole host of predictable 3-1 and 3-0 performances. One thing that became clear was, despite the volatility of the meta, the great teams are still great, and the worst teams are still the worst. Those types of boundaries are incredibly comforting - upsets and underdogs are cool and all, but for every match? Living in excess isn’t always a great thing!

So, for this week, who were the players who didn’t help contribute to an upset, but who put in performances to help seal a series shut in a coffin and buried in the Mojave Desert. Who hammered in the nails, who gave the death blows, and who wasn’t chosen as player of the match, when they most certainly gave plenty of reason to be?

LEST WE ALL FORGET – Fleta vs the LA Valiant

He "Molly" Chengzhi, received a deserved player of the match nod for his season debut and standout performance. It was the perfect match to come out in, simply to just mechanically outperform the LA Valiant on Moira, Baptiste, whatever the Shanghai Dragons fancied. It was a cleanup day for the Shanghai Dragon, a match they were supposed to win, but I don’t think anyone gave Byung-sun "Fleta" Kim the memo, because the man loaded into the server with nothing but murder on the mind. 

Fleta came out the gates with a disgusting performance on Echo, a simply terrifying display of skill that made the LA Valiant almost choke on whatever they happened to be snacking on mid-match. The scary thing about Fleta is that he doesn’t have a best hero, he will delete you from existence on anything with enough time, and even if he doesn’t have something like a Tracer to dismantle you with, a pocketed Echo will do just nicely. He does pull out the Torbjorn in this match, which for many might be a little troll, but what’s playing video games if you aren’t going to have a little fun, right?

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NOT MESSING AROUND – JJoNak vs the LA Valiant

Well, it certainly looks like it was bully the Valiant for an easy 3-0 in APAC this week, but New York is probably the team that took it the most seriously. Game faces on; the NYXL didn’t even let the Valiant take a single point this match, in a clean sweep that what was the second-fastest match in Overwatch League history. Alright guys, we get it; you needed to 3-0 here, but sheesh!

New York are angry, they want to prove themselves, and no one has really been showing that hunger more than Seonghyun "JJoNak" Bang. Seungwoo "FEATH5R" Lee got the nod for his Echo performance, but it was JJoNak who was the backbone for the Excelsior this Sunday, as it has been in all of their matches this season. JJoNak faced a lot of questions about his capabilities for season four, is he one of the best flex supports in the world still? Well, if you’re watching him in these games, then yeah, you better be saying that, because JJoNak, at least on his Ana, is kind of crazy, and the man has been trying hard to enable his team to succeed regardless of the situation.

Oppressive Anti-nades, quick Nano-boosts for his Echo to make plays, and basically putting players into comas with the number of sleeps landed, it’s a different season for JJ, a different team, but his impressive level of consistency and discipline so far in 2021 has been inspiring in matches like this. 

ALRIGHT RELAX – IR1S vs the Vancouver Titans

Yeah, the theme this weekend was just putting a worse team in their place. No mercy, these teams and players all said that we’re simply going to embarrass you if you let us, and for the Atlanta Reign, it was a massacre. Kai “Kai” Collins got the nod in this match, but really Seung-hyun "Ir1s" Kim’s Baptiste was nasty. A disgusting display of skill, Ir1s would simply not stop pounding the Titans with damage, having an Amplification Matrix available practically every fight. 

To put it simply, the Titans were pounded, severely outclassed, but it's not every day that a Baptiste player takes advantage of that skills gap and successfully capitalises on the difference. Many were hoping to see a stellar performance for Ir1s this season, and against the Titans, he certainly showcased that he has what takes to do it.

OH NO, HE'S NASTY AGAIN - Glister vs the Dallas Fuel

Perhaps the biggest highlight of the weekend was the incredible performance from Gil-seong "Glister" Lim on the one map he played against the Dallas Fuel on Sunday. Fans have been waiting for months to see what Glister on the San Francisco Shock looks like, and we're finally able to see what this kind of peak performance has in store. After a confusing May Melee from the team as a whole, all of the holes have been seemingly patched up, and Glister finds his place on the roster as an incredibly deadly hitscan player. His Widowmaker was completely unmatchable from the Dallas Fuel, he had the freest of games on Dorado, and it resulted in one of the nastiest dumpsterings we have seen in the Overwatch League.

It was only for one brief map, but for just a few minutes, we got to see the best of what Glister and the Shock have to offer for the Overwatch League. 

 

Images via Blizzard Entertainment