Overwatch League 2020 Week 21: San Francisco Shock's Top Plays, Prize Money
June 29, 2020
In the last weekend of qualifiers for the Overwatch League's $275,000 Summer Showdown, the San Francisco Shock locked in the No. 1 seed and cemented themselves as the top team in the Atlantic Conference.
The Shock have had an interesting season, after winning the 2019 Grand Finals, the team lost 2019 OWL MVP Sinatraa to retirement and traded top-tier DPS Architect to the Hangzhou Spark. Those midseason damage-dealing losses put a lot of pressure on the team's rookie hitscan, ANS, but the sniping prodigy has been absolutely unfazed.
With one win this weekend, a certified drubbing of the formerly 15-2 Philadelphia Fusion, the Shock wrap up an undefeated stretch of Summer Showdown qualifiers and head into next week's tournament as confident as can be.
Saturday, June 27
Chengdu Hunters 1-3 Guangzhou Charge
Seoul Dynasty 1-3 Shanghai Dragons
Hangzhou Spark 0-3 London Spitfire
Florida Mayhem 3-2 Houston Outlaws
Dallas Fuel 3-0 Toronto Defiant
Vancouver Titans 3-0 Boston Uprising
Washington Justice 1-3 Los Angeles Gladiators
Sunday, June 28
Shanghai Dragons 3-0 Hangzhou Spark
Chengdu Hunters 0-3 Seoul Dynasty
New York Excelsior 2-3 Guangzhou Charge
Los Angeles Valiant 1-3 Paris Eternal
Atlanta Reign 3-0 Vancouver Titans
Philadelphia Fusion 0-3 San Francisco Shock
Washington Justice 3-1 Boston Uprising
Full schedule and standings available here.
Architect and Sinatraa played a huge role on the road to and in the 2019 Grand Finals. Each was highly esteemed as one of the league's best DPS, but so were the team's other two damage-dealers: Striker and Rascal.
While most expected the Shock to continue excelling without their two stalwarts, few realized how seamless the transition would be. Against the Fusion, San Francisco was pitted against Carpe—widely considered the best DPS in Overwatch history and a 2020 MVP front-runner.
Carpe has long been considered in arguments for the OWL's best Widowmaker and Tracer, but he was routinely outdueled on each hero by the Shock's two specialists. Striker handled 1v1s on Tracer, as ANS dominated the entire match on Widowmaker.
Credit to the two for hitting their shots, but much of the credit must also be attributed to the Shock's tanks and healers for consistently bullying Philadelphia and creating space. If it wasn't for Choihyobin's dominant Sigma play or Rascal's ability to easily transition into playing healer as Brigitte (and then back to DPS), ANS would not have been able to put up a blistering scoped critical hit accuracy of 56 percent.
The Shock swept the Fusion 3-0, not allowing Philadelphia to even finish a map or win a single map on Control. They head into next weekend's monied tournament with a firm reminder that they are not only an imposing team but also the most versatile roster in the league.