Before the weekend, we had the start of Week 2 of the Overwatch League where I was most interested in seeing how the Dallas Fuel responded to their 0-2 start. They faced off against their inter-state rivals the Houston Outlaws. Dallas went back to their EnVyUs lineup of chipsajen, harryhook, cocco, Taimou, Mickie, and EFFECT but it still wasn't enough as they got swept 4-0. Their early season performances have been sub-par and even their teamwork and coordination is off. It looks like the majority of the other Western Teams have improved immensely and possibly have surpassed the level of play originally set out by Dallas (a.k.a. EnVyUs). As a big Dallas fan, it is hard to watch them go through such a rough start early on, but as with traditional sports, sometimes you must endure the tough times before you can enjoy success.
On Saturday, it was the beginning of the NA LCS, where franchising was introduced this past off-season. You have 6 returning teams and 4 newly created teams in the NA LCS. The marquee match-up was Team Liquid vs Team Solo Mid, which was the first match of the day. The story lines and hype around this match up have been floating around ever since Doublelift was released by TSM and he signed with TL, instantly giving TL some credibility back. Most pre-season rankings had these 2 teams ranked #1 and #2, so it was exciting to see them square off so early in the season. The game started slow with very little action in the early game, other than an early dragon by TSM. First Blood went to TL as a result of great coordination between all their players. After this point in the game, it seemed like TL never looked back as they continually caught TSM out of position on the map and snowballed the pressure in several team fights that they handedly win. TSM are looking like a team that are still trying to figure out how to play together as they have 3 new players, while TL look like a well oiled machine with their 5 veterans. It will be interesting to see where these teams lie in the standings when they meet again in Week 8 of the Spring Split.
There was an overload of eSports events this weekend with the Overwatch League, NA LCS, Counter Strike eLeague, and Genesis 5 (Smashbros). I recently saw a video by the Score on the ICONIC Esports Moments: Armada and Mango's Incredible Genesis Rivalry! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gICyLBr5WCQ). I am a very casual Smash fan because of my friends, but I do like to follow the story lines. The one story line that always catches my attention is this idea of Five Gods in Smash Melee (http://liquipedia.net/smash/Five_Gods), Armada, Hungrybox, Mango, Mew2King, and PPMD. Only a few people can say that they have beat all Five Gods in a major tournament, Leffen did it back in 2015 and now he is considered on the same level as the other gods, while Plup is a more recent challenger who recently beat all gods. Leffen, Plup, Armada, Hungrybox and Mango were all in the Top 8 going into Champsionship Sunday. I wanted to see if Armada and Mango could somehow repeat their magic from the previous Gensisis'. It wasn't meant to be as both Armada and Mango got sent to losers' by Plup and then eliminated by Leffen, finishing 4th and 5th respectively. Winners' Finals saw Hungrybox vs Plup face-off against each other with Plup edging Hungrybox out. Hungrybox came back from losers' to meet Plup once again in the Grand Finals. The 1st set was quick with Hungrybox winning 3-0. Plup took very little time to regroup and started the 2nd set right away, losing the first game which had everyone worried this might be a straight set sweep. Plup calmed the crowd by taking the second game quite easily. This was now a match, back and forth they battled and Hungrybox took a 2-1 lead. Plup picked Pokemon Stadium again, as he did in the second set, and won to take it to a fifth and deciding game. Battlefield was the map, Hungrybox took the early lead, but Plup kept getting more comfortable and comfortable. It was down to 1 stock each, 9% lead for Hungrybox, but it was PLUP CLUB, Year of the Plup! Every other competitor came running on stage to congratulate Plup cause they knew that they witnessed something special. Even Hungrygox was humble and congratulated his opponent, Plup is the Genesis 5 Champion!
VOD at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHwpMvXq6lU.
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