Overwatch League Finals Preview – Clash of the Titans

The Grand Finals for the Overwatch League are set. After a full season of play, the field has been whittled down to two teams, the Vancouver Titans and the San Francisco Shock. The Shock have been to hell and back, dropping their first game in the playoffs to the Atlanta Reign, then climbing all the way through the loser’s bracket to secure their berth in the Grand Finals. The Titans, on the other hand, have dominated the upper bracket, sending three top 10 teams to loser’s on their way to the Finals. This is the game that Overwatch fans, and Overwatch bettors have been waiting for. If you like Overwatch betting, you’d be a fool to miss this game. Odds by Betway as of 9/24/19.

Vancouver Titans +140 vs. San Francisco Shock -200

Titans vs. Shock, a showdown for the ages. These two teams are two of the “Big Three” in the Overwatch League, at least for this season. The Titans and the Shock, along with the third member the New York Excelsior, went a combined 70-14, which is obviously absurd. The Titans squeak out the best record at 25-3, beating out the Shock’s 23-5 record.

I can hear you asking, if that’s the case, why are the Shock favored at -200? Good question. If you started following in the playoffs, you’d see that the Titans are in the upper bracket, and the Shock are in the loser’s bracket. Experienced Overwatch bettors will know, however, that isn’t the whole story. First off, you’ll notice that while the Titans did beat the New York Excelsior 4-3 in the winner’s finals, the Shock beat them 4-0 in the loser’s finals. That’s a big difference right off the bat. Next, if we look at the standings from Stage 4, we can see that the Titans went 5-2, which pales in comparison to the Shock’s intimidating 7-0 record.

The Shock haven’t just adapted to the forced 2-2-2 meta, they’ve flourished in it. In contrast, the Titans looked far more dominant during the GOATS meta, with two back to back 7-0 stages in Stage 1 and 2. Not to say that the Shock were anything less than incredible at GOATS either, they did complete the first perfect stage in OWL history, going 28-0, not dropping a single map in Stage 2.

These two teams are the absolute pinnacle of competitive Overwatch, and we get to watch them duke it out in a first to 4 in less than a week. This should be fun.

The DPS

When we’re talking about DPS when talking about these two teams, and talking about the OWL in general, the first name we mention has to be sinatraa. Seasoned OWL viewers and bettors will recognize him as the reigning MVP of the Overwatch League. He’s one of the best DPS in the game right now, and he dominates on several heroes, although in the 2019 playoffs he’s stuck mostly to Doomfist with 86.2% of his time spent on the hero.

This shouldn’t be a surprise, as Doomfist is one of the best heroes in the meta right now, in any role. His ability to deal massive amounts of damage, quickly and through shields, is a huge advantage in a meta dominated by Orisa and Sigma. Not to mention his ult synergy with Orisa. Once or twice a game you’ll see a team pull off the Halt – Meteor Strike combo, which is incredibly effective at dealing with squishies and tanks alike. In fact, Doomfist synergizes well with Sigma’s ult as well, making his ult one of the most valuable in the game, a big turnaround from its value during the GOATS dominated metas.

SeoMinSoo and Haksal are Vancouver’s answers to sinatraa’s dominance. SeoMinSoo is a Reaper player and a Bastion specialist, and his stats are unbelievable. 11.58 final blows and 26.47 eliminations per 10 minutes put him at 3rd and 2nd best in the League respectively through the playoffs. Combine this with Haksal’s Doomfist, putting up 11.67 final blows and 25.41 eliminations, good for 2nd and 4th best in the League, and you have an intimidating DPS duo.

In the Shock’s match against the Excelsior, sinatraa was unstoppable. He topped the server in kills, and it wasn’t close. One of the big questions for the Titans will be can they shut sinatraa down?

Something else to note is that the Shock are far more willing to switch their DPS around to some extent. While the Titans have been rolling out the same squad for every game they’ve played, Rascal and Architect, the Shock’s secondary DPS line has gotten significant playing time. They use them for niche maps, where Rascal can pull out both the Mei and the Reaper, while having Architect on the Bastion. Look for substitutions on maps that lend themselves to bunker, and to pirate ship. (Also as a side note, Architect is actually first in final blows, with 11.91 per 10 minutes)

The Tanks

Blizzard introduced a new Tank, Sigma, before the playoffs started. This sort of behavior shouldn’t be foreign to people experienced in Overwatch betting, but it’s aggravating nonetheless. Due to the change, the most popular tank composition right now is Sigma – Orisa, a shield heavy composition that has eliminated one of the most popular heroes throughout the history of Overwatch, D.Va. This change has also made Reinhardt obsolete, which means we aren’t going to see RunAway legend BUMPER on stage.

Instead, Vancouver has JJANU, the Sigma specialist, and TiZi, a reject from the London Spitfire in Season 1 who has found a new life as an Orisa main. The most striking thing about these tank players is JJANU’s damage numbers. Take a guess at what they might be, go ahead…

10,633.13 per 10 minutes. Know where that ranks in the League through the playoffs? First. He’s dealt the most damage out of anyone in the League through the Season 2 playoffs, which means 19 maps. That’s a pretty sizable sample.

This tank line is the foundation of the Vancouver Titans, and they certainly seem formidable.

The Shock, on the other hand, also have an Orisa – Sigma duo, in Smurf and Choihyobin respectively. While neither of them have any stats that jump out like JJANU does (Choihyobin ranks eighth in damage), they’re certainly a strong tank line. Choihyobin has some of the best survivability in the League, clocking in at 5.58 deaths per 10 minutes, which puts him at 32nd.

The Supports

The support slots are the ones with the most variety in the current meta. While Lucio and Moira are the most played supports on both teams, Mercy, Baptiste and Ana have all gotten non negligible amounts of playtime from both teams.

Vancouver’s support line is made up of Twilight and SLIME, with Twilight on Moira duty and SLIME playing mostly Lucio. Unsurprisingly, Twilight ranks high on the eliminations leaderboard, grabbing the number one spot with 28.38 per 10 minutes. While that’s not surprising for the meta that the League is in, it’s certainly a good sign that Vancouver has the number one tank and support in eliminations. Supports and tanks that can hold their own will help them immensely in dealing with Doomfist.

The Shock have Viol2t and moth, and it’s hard to overrate Viol2t. He ranks top five in healing, eliminations, and deaths, which is what you want to see out of your Moira player (he also flexes to Ana semi-regularly).

Picks

This is a tough call. Obviously Shock have been on a roll recently, and they look unstoppable, but it would be foolish to underrate Vancouver, who are still the most accomplished Overwatch team ever, dating back to their time as RunAway. For this matchup, I like Vancouver at +140. I think this matchup is a lot closer than the odds indicate, so I’ll happily take the underdog.

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