Three Peat Denied! Atlanta reign Eliminate two-time OWL Champions San Francisco Shock

The Overwatch League is down to its last few matches. The two-time OWL Champions, San Francisco Shock were playing for survival against Atlanta Reign in the lower bracket. The winner of this match would go ahead to play against Dallas Fuel later in the day.

Atlanta had an impressive run through the lower bracket taking down Washington Justice and the LA Gladiators. With this win over SFS, Atlanta look poised to make the dream run through the lower bracket. 

The series started with a 2CP map, one of the last 2CPs in the Overwatch League. Atlanta had the initial control, but San Francisco quickly captured the point to start their capture progress. Choiyobin eating the Blizzard allowed SFS the dominance on this map. An amazing D’va Bomb by Hawk allowed Atlanta to take back control. Atlanta built up their capture percentage all the way up to 99% before a game-changing Earthshatter allowed Shock to win back control. 

After winning Village, the two teams moved on to Sanctum. The Shock took early control of the point and had a huge advantage going into the subsequent team fights. Sanctum favors the defending team and Shock took complete advantage with  better positioning and ultimate usage. San Francisco Shock won Nepal Sanctum in just two rounds and in a very dominant fashion. There were a couple of errors that the Atlanta Reign could have avoided. 

You might have missed Atlanta Reign taking point A if you went to get coffee. It happened that fast. With a 6-minute time-bank before the second point, Atlanta Reign looked dominant, a clear departure from their Map 1 performance. The second-point defense was miles ahead of the first-point defense. But a last hoorah defense saw Atlanta Reign’s time bank fall down to the sub-1 minute mark. Atlanta Reign finished the second point with 58 seconds 

The Shock chose a mobility-based lineup on their attack. They got through the initial chokepoint easily but there was no fighting Pelican’s Echo. The Shock’s Zombie comp was repeatedly bashing against the defense and quite unsuccessfully as well. The Shock used all their ultimates, but Atlanta’s players were quick on their buttons. The EMP was used, but Masaa’s Mercy was quick to Valkyrie. There were only 30 seconds left on the clock when Shock managed to win the team fight, focusing on the right opponents. Still, the timebank was very small and Shock still had to win the map. 

The second point looked woefully similar to the first point. Shock was unable to go through the Atlanta defense that had an overload of ultimates in their bank. But a misstep by Pelican’s Echo allowed Shock the entry to the second point. In the overtime rounds, Atlanta Reign showed they were able to deal with Shock’s composition easily. Atlanta won Hanamura 3-2 to tie the series.

An early spawn pick with Kai’s Widowmaker caught Violet off-guard. The early pick allowed Atlanta Reign to walk on to the first point uncontested. An unforced error saw the Reign take point 1 with a 5.46 timebank. 

The Atlanta Reign rolled over San Francisco Shock during the second point. The Reign had the momentum and were constantly pressing their advantage. The Atlanta Reign finished all three points on King’s Row with just over a minute to spare. Finishing the map with over a minute is a significant part of the Hybrid map. 

On their offense, San Francisco Shock had a decent start. It was nowhere as close to the Reign’s Atlanta Reign put together a last-second defense on their defense. The Atlanta Reign managed to win on the Shock’s map pick. They had the lead and were one map away from eliminating the two-time OWL Champion, San Francisco Shock. 

And then we move to Havana. Escort has been Shock’s worst map type this season, but surprisingly, it has been their best type against the Atlanta Reign. This time, the best Mei in the league, Pelican got the opening kill, opening the fight for Atlanta Reign. The Shock had two quick team fight losses as the Payload seemingly did not stop. Atlanta Reign completed the first point in near-record time and looked extremely dominant with their forward momentum. 

With 3.5 minutes after completing checkpoint B, Atlanta Reign looked unstoppable. A big part for Reign’s dominance was the players’ better positioning and individuals getting pick-offs early into the fight. 

The San Francisco Shock had a very quick start, quite similar to that of Atlanta Reign. The payload continued moving all the way to the last point. But a spirited defense saw Atlanta Reign emerge as the winners, sending home the defending champions. 

Atlanta Reign was always the better team and it would have required a massive effort from the Shock to win. Unfortunately, it was not to be. San Francisco Shock is now eliminated from the Overwatch League 2021. 

Atlanta Reign move ahead to play against Dallas Fuel, yet another epic battle in the Overwatch League 2021.

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