ESL UK/IRE Overwatch Cup week 3 recap, MVPs and match reports: King's Row Edition

overwatch uk cup first rundown 1

Last week in UK Overwatch, we saw 25 teams joining in for the competition. In this article, we will go through the games on the first ESL UK Twitch stream to get a feel on how UK Overwatch is shaping up.
But for this week’s challenge… can anyone end GLB’s winning streak? And just how many times will a match be played on King’s Row? Craig Robinson reviews last week’s matches.
 
The first game of the night was between CU @ LAN and Placeholder.
The game started on King’s Row with CU on the attacking side in the first round, and Placeholder on the attack in the second round.
To sum this series up, the game was very fast paced and no team seemed to be able to put a formidable defense on every objective point. Both team white-washed each other on either side of the map, up until the very end, where CU @ LAN managed to set themselves up a hold at the final stage of the map to take the series.
MVP – Kyle1. We gave this to Kyle1 because we got to see him prepare the Reaper drop down ultimate that contributed a heavy part in the solid defence CU @ LAN put up at the final stages of round two.
 
Stream game 2: LootBox Horse vs DoubleUTeeYou on King’s Row, with LBH starting on the attack side.
Compared to the last match, the map seemed much more dependable with DUTY holding onto objectives much longer than the previous game showed us. And this defensive strength helped them take the first round.
In the second round, DUTY showed their attacking prowess and took the game quickly and convincingly. Good set up and initiation from tank ults won them the game from our eyes and allowed DUTY to advance up the bracket.
MVP: Gloaty. The Play of the Game (POTG) showed his high energy Zarya passive ripping apart the enemy in the second phase of the map. The set up for the team fight at the third objective – from the ult – also contributed to the team’s win in this match.
 
Stream Game 3: Royal Plebs vs Letter Spam (the casters called them this and so are we in order to make things easier here) on King’s Row… Spam name takes the first attack, then RP were on attack in the second round.
Like the last game, the first round seemed to be well defended on the first objective. Seeing some more pics coming into the game allowed it to go more in favour of Spam, in order to suit the needs of their victory conditions.
RP didn’t make this easy for them, and a strong defence with Valkia Pharah flanks allowed the game to go into overtime, where SPAM took the game.
The second half was much more dominating for RP. In this game we got to see the double Winston shield strat open a quick first objective. A little bit of resistance came in for SPAM in this game, but the pressure of RP seemed too much for them to handle. RP pushed the second and third objectives in a moderate time frame, due to constant skirmishing.
MVP: Valkia. This is for the pressure from the Pharah aggression. Valkia’s constant fighting, flanking and dropping those strong ults at the right time helped take and defend those cap points – and earned him a number of multi kills throughout the game.
 
Stream Game 4 (Semi Final): Royal Plebs vs Better than a Scrim in a Bo3
R1 – Lijang tower control centre
There’s not too much to talk about on this as KOTH maps seem to be complete blood baths, but BTAS managed to take the first round.
R2 – Night Market
Plebs get destroyed before the control point even unlocked. BTAS got 40% of the point and then lost a team fight at the point. They then got to 39% and wiped.
Eventually, BTAS took 99% of the cap but lost the overtime, with Plebs looking to take the round.
R3 – Garden
Plebs took the opening cap and kept them in their base for a few moments. Backward flank from the houses allowed BTAS to get to the cap. Both teams had Zaryas and it’s just gravity’s worse nightmare here.
Empe’s Tracer ult picked up a cluster of people trapped in one of the ults to take some advantage, and RP took the cap back at 96% to hold out in that game.
BTAS’ recap in overtime forced the final fight that lasted a while, with constant shutdown on everyone’s ults. Eventually BTAS took Lijang tower with a well-fought victory for the final cap.
MVP: Gibbay. This was very hard to call because this game was just constant fighting. We’ll give it to Gibbay for the reaper chaos created from ults and overtime extensions. The control centre is very CQC and we believe they played it well for the champ.
 
G2: King’s Road… (we are officially sick of Kings Road)
BTAS took the starting attack side and the first two objectives rather quickly; like with other games tonight. Within 3:37 of constant rushing, ultimates and flanking, BTAS took the game there and then, and proceeded to round two.
R2
RP were on the attack side this time. They tried the standard Winston fly and shield strat, but this time it wasn’t successful. Empe’s Reaper sat in the side and picked a 5k from the ult.
Due to the time limitations on the RP side, BTAS held the objective long enough to win G2 – and moved to face GLB in the finals.
MVP: Empe. This was for the constant Reaper ults shutting down the RP attacks in game two.
 
Finals: BTAS vs GLB
G1 Lijang Tower – Garden
Once again the KOTH matches are a death match. The first fight began near the bridges and ended in favour of GLB, with BTAS getting killed through weaponry, and by falling off the map from a sneaky knock back from Lucio.
Here GLB capped the objective and proceeded to create a ‘choke’ hold that restrained BTAS to their base, ending the game 100% – 0% fairly quickly.
R2 – Control Tower
Once again the early fight went in favour of GLB. Once the cap was taken, GLB headed over to the doors of BTAS’s spawn area to hold them down for another 100 – 0 round.
However, BTAS foiund their way into the building and set up some nice moves to secure themselves some movement. Unfortunately, the resurrections and respawns on GLB’s side got them to the site before BTAS could get even the slightest percentage on the cap; once again GLB took another 100% – 0 round, giving them 1-0 in this BO3.
MVP: GLB in general. A performance like that on Lijang tower makes it almost impossible to select an actual MVP – yes, that’s a cheeky way for us to get out of this one…
 
G2 – King’s Row: R1 GLB attack – BTAS defence
Unlike the other games, GLB headed though the hotel and out around the back of the first cap. The move seemed successful as they gained control of the first cap fairly well. On the second section, GLB took down BTAS in the streets, but MrZombax got a five-man resurrection to keep his team in the game.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be, as Chipsa reaper ulted to clean the area out for the second cap of the map! The third cap was the same again. GLB rotated DPS to suit the needs of the third stage from Reaper to Genj and charge them to the final cap point. They won the game with another dose of convincing domination!
R2
BTAS were on the attack on the second round. They joined in on the hotel drop down entrance to get onto the site. Picks began to come in for BTAS and started to cap the site. Chipsa’s Reaper once again found the opening to eliminate a few capping members on BTAS and hold the site for the time being.
Take two was much more successful as they won the fight and MrZombrax even resurrected his team that died on the point, to ensure they could keep the cap ticking in their favour. This came at consequence, by losing two minutes to catch up on the four-minute marker GLB created. And the timer would win them the game.
GLB escaped the death of the streets that we had seen tonight and held BTAS at the gates of the first objective for the rest of the time frame.
This means that for three weeks in a row GLB have won the ESL UK cup, so GG to them.
 
What’s next?
This week, will we see a team take down GLB? With GLB’s players moving over to Choke, expect some changes this week.
Maybe BTAS will get their revenge, or maybe someone will knock them out in an early round upset? Who knows? Check back later this week at twitch.tv/ESLUK to find out!

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