Titan watch: OWL Stage 2 week one

Vancouver Titans match recap

By Brittney MacDonald, Business Manager

Moving into Stage 2 saw the Vancouver Titans face off against the Hangzhou Spark for the first time. The Titans won Stage 1, going undefeated during the match phase and surviving the single elimination playoffs. The Spark failed to qualify for the playoffs, and finished 13th overall.

The first game saw the players meet on the control map, Oasis. The win conditions are fairly simple on control maps; capture the point, hold the point to build control percentage—the longer you fend off the enemy team after gaining control, the higher your percentage. The first team to reach 100 percent wins the round. The game is a best of three rounds.

The Titans deviated from the familiar GOATS setup—three tank three support, a popular formation from Stage 1—allowing Stitch to run a DPS Soldier 76 against the Sparks’ initial Pharmacy—DPS Pharrah and Support Mercy combo (Sasin and IDK, respectively). The Spark were the first to capture—holding the point till 49 percent. However, a well-timed Nano Boost from Twilight’s support Ana to Stitch’s Soldier 76, buffing his damage, saw the point cleared and mercilessly captured by the Titans. Careful control over the high ground and some bad ultimate coordination on the side of Spark, saw the Titans hold out till that required 100.

Round two started out rough for the Titans. Despite capturing the point first, and building to 22 percent, the Titans were unable to sustain through GodsB’s DPS Sombra hacking health packs—making them inaccessible to the Titans—and Sasin’s Pharrah rockets. Stitch switched to a more long-range DPS McCree to deal with the Pharrah, but the Titans were still rocked by Adora’s highly mobile DPS Tracer. However, JJANU managed a triple-kill with tank D.VA on IDK’s Mercy, Adora’s Tracer, and GodsB’s Sombra; ensuring the Titans ultimate advantage in the next team fight. The Titans managed to capture the point and hold it till 100, winning them the game.

The second game was on Hanamura, an assault map. Assault maps have two capture points worth one point each. Each team alternates between attack and defend. In the event of a tie, teams used banked time—unused time during their attack round—for a second attack round. They do this until one team has more capture percentage than the other.

The Titans returned to GOATS and rushed the first point, capturing it quickly. Some good debuffing Biotic Grenades from BeBe’s support Ana, as well as suppression fire from Guxue’s tank Orisa, kept the Titans from steamrolling that momentum into capturing the second point. However, this did not last. The Titans regrouped and bullied the Spark off the point, then keeping them in their own spawn room. The Titans captured point two with a little over four minutes remaining on the clock.

During the Spark’s attack round, the Titans defended, wearing down the Spark until they were forced to capture the second point in overtime. Due to this, the Titans only had to capture the first point partially during their second attack round to win the tie-breaker—since the Spark had no time in their bank to perform their own second attack round. The Titans then took game two with a score of 3-2.

Game three was played as a hybrid map. The map in question is King’s Row, which features a single control point that will unlock a car that players will then have to escort to the end of a track. Teams alternate between attack and defend. Attacking players want to unlock the control point, and then get the car as far as possible, while defending players want to stop them. If both teams complete the map, a tie-breaker is settled in the same way as an assault map—with the use of time banks until one team fails to get farther than the other.

Round one had the Titans on defence. Again, they began in a standard GOATS formation, which the Spark mirrored. The Titans failed to stop the Spark from capturing the control point, and then had issues with Bumper’s over aggression on tank Reinhardt. Unable to keep their main tank alive, the Titans failed to defend and the Spark were able to complete the map with three minutes and 56 seconds in their time bank.

In round two, the Titans retained their GOATS formation. They rushed the control point aggressively, pushing the Spark away to gain unhindered control percentage. The car unlocked and the Titans escorted it, taking advantage of Haksal’s tank Brigitte’s Rally to buff the entire team and make them more formidable to face head-on. This prevented GodsB’s Sombra from being able to get in the middle of them and use her EMP to shut them down. The Titans completed the map with five minutes and 16 seconds in their time bank—setting a new attack record on King’s Row.

The tie-breaker was won by the Titans, as they succeeded in preventing the Spark from taking the control point during the Spark’s second attack round. In their own second attack round the Titans had Haksal go DPS, allowing him to play his signature Genji. Twilight’s Ana Nano Boosted Haksal, who used a now-buffed Genji Dragon Blade to get a triple kill on Guxue’s Reinhardt, IDK’s support Lucio, and Adora’s Brigitte. The Titans then went back to GOATS and captured enough of the control point to ensure victory.

At this point, having secured the three-game win in a best of five, the fourth game didn’t really matter in terms of who would win the match. However, the Titans did secure a win, improving their placement in the overall OWL standings. The Titans finished their match against the Hangzhou Spark 4-0.