Well, this match may not have really meant much, but it did include the Shock, so let’s do a offseason writeup about it! I’m back to talk about the Shock’s…uh…interesting performance at the California Cup. Please note I’m only covering the match that was played on normal competitive rules; trying to find something to analyze about the fun matches was useless and I don’t draw well enough to talk about that either.

This match was interesting because both teams came in showcasing some new additions: Smurf for the Shock, and Iyazaki for the Valiant. These two were the big stories for both teams, and everyone wanted to see how they did, and how their teams would work with them. How did the brand new Blue Boy work out for the Shock?

Well, the Shock took a 3–1 loss, and none of their map losses were particularly close. Shock fans will recognize this as your textbook Shock loss; marred with inconsistency and frustrating strategies. I was hoping that the Shock could have put this behind them but…ah well. What went wrong here?

Ilios and Kings Row actually had exactly the same issues, despite the Shock putting in a different roster. After you watch the Shock for a while it becomes pretty easy to see when they aren’t on the same page. The Boys from the Bay have this odd tendency to switch between two different styles of play; Aggressive Pushes and Bait and Punish style. I have no idea if this is what the Shock coaches want the players to do, or if this is what the Shock do when they get discombobulated. Either way, when it doesn’t work it just looks straight up bad, with different players trying to play different dive styles.

This weird play style swap up was happening on both Ilios and Kings Row, with the Shock seemingly hesitant to actually engage and then struggling to disengage when fights were lost. I think what the Shock were trying to do was bait out a dive and then go in themselves, but this doesn’t really work when the opposing team’s dive causes your entire team to scatter like a bunch of ants.

The most frustrating thing is that the Shock show these spurts where they run both the Aggro style and the Bait and Punish style really well. When they run things right it looks absolutely brilliant, with the Shock cleaning up a fight like it’s no problem at all. It just…doesn’t work right that often. This was displayed on Well, where the Shock cleaned up a few fights that they ran correctly but just couldn’t seem to finish it out. Most of the fights the Shock lost were due to someone really not being in the right spot. I’ll give the Valiant credit; they weren’t making it easy for the Shock. Fate in particular had himself a map to remember, but it still isn’t a good look for this new team. Ruins was even less impressive, with the Shock getting shellacked in a GOATS ditto. The Shock seem to prefer running GOATS with Zen instead of an Ana. This pick has some merits, but I personally am not a fan of it when it is run against a more traditional GOATS comp. The reason for this is Zen’s big pull is his Discord Orb, but these days Ana has the capacity to heal through that, not to mention the fact that Zarya can bubble to remove the orb in a jiffy. The presence of a Zen rather than an Ana or a Moira limits your ability to push in as well. Not being able to push in in a GOATS ditto is an excellent way to lose, and the Shock showcased that here, never really getting in and allowing the Valiant to take control of the pace of the game.

King’s Row, despite subbing out Architect for Sinatraa and Super for Smurf, was more of the same. Both teams opted for a Sombra dive, although Valiant went with the Doomfist and Shock opted for Genji. Sombra dive dittos are interesting because both teams are trying to do exactly the same thing; hack a target and then dive. Therefore it becomes a competition of “who can hack a high priority target first”. The Valiant largely came out on top of this Hacker war, with the Shock struggling to put together a good dive thanks to both good Sombra play from the Valiant and the Shock’s general incompetence at running this style of dive. I’m not exactly sure what was the biggest issue here, (Babybay’s questionable Sombra and some really uncoordinated tank play being the prime contenders) but I do know that the Shock’s spin on this comp didn’t seem to work very well. It wasn’t as aggressive as your typical Sombra dive, but it wasn’t quite Bait and Punish either; it was some bizarre mix of both that usually ended up with one tank going in without the other and Shock players dying in places that made me go “How the hell did he end up there in the first place?” Eventually the Shock brute forced their way through using a clutch EMP, and then slowly slogged the payload through most of Street phase before getting stopped cold before the second checkpoint. The Shock did a good job capitalizing on the Valiant’s mistakes; the problem was that they didn’t make very many.

On defense the Shock actually played pretty well, pulling out an entrenchment style anti-dive with an Orisa, Junkrat, Widow, and Mercy. The Shock are good at this because you are forced to play this composition one way and one way only, which makes it hard to not be on the same page. Ok, that’s a little harsh, this composition was actually run super well by the Shock, who clearly have a good grasp of how to make this work. Unfortunately the Valiant ended up brute forcing their way through, and then steamrolled their way through streets once the Shock switched off the comp to a dive. If the Valiant worked like a well oiled machine, then the Shock were working like a Model T trying to go up a steep hill.

Anubis worked much better for the Shock. After a really shaky first point running, you guessed it, dive, the Shock switched to their take on GOATS. This was risky; the Valiant were still running a Sombra/Doomfist dive, a comp that was first created with the intention of countering GOATs. Fortunately, this composition switch took the Valiant by surprise. It seems that this GOATs comp with a Zen works better against Sombra/Doomfist dive than a more traditional GOATS comp does; without a Zarya on the opposing team it’s much easier to get value out of Discord orbs. As a result, the Shock took Point B with time to spare. They then ran the same entrenchment defense that they ran on Kings Row, putting together a good hold before being beaten back at the end of time. The Shock then switched to dive and lost Point B fairly quickly. I’m beginning to see a pattern here.

The Shock ran GOATs with Ana in the next round, getting Point A and then holding off the Valiant with their entrenchment comp defense (seriously, the Shock are damn good at this composition).

Busan was a new experiment for both teams; this brand new map has three of the most bizarre points in Overwatch. I was interested to see what both teams would bring out. Both teams tried dive at first on Sanctuary, before switching to GOATS about halfway through. I don’t think either team really knew what to do here; the map is super open but also feels claustrophobic at times, and I think both teams felt that effect here. It what was quite frankly a super messy point, the Valiant came out on top, punishing the slightest Shock overextension and taking a 1–0 lead.

The Shock then attempted to run dive tanks with Pharah/Doomfist/Mercy/Ana on Downtown. To say the Shock had issues with dive today was an understatement, and that was the case here, as even more bad coordination undid them, losing the map and the game.

Is this cause for concern?

Not really. People can say what they want about bad dive, or Smurf looking terrible, but the truth of the matter is that this is a new meta with new players. This doesn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. We will have to see what happens when both teams become more accustomed to their new lineups, and the new meta. This may not have been a good showing for the Shock, but I definitely haven’t lost hope for Season Two. Yet.