I get pretty expressive when I watch OWL. I yell and groan. I fist pump while I analyze and bash my head on the desk when stuff goes wrong. This week during the Shock games I was kind of perpetually in “Cover face in disbelief and disgust mode”.

The reason for this was the Shock’s matches, two travesties of a Pro Overwatch match with incredibly poor coordination and cringe-inducing mistakes from every side involved.

This week started off with the Shock’s archrivals, the Valiant. Although this rivalry has taken a back seat to the Houston/Dallas rivalry, this is still a competition worthy of comparison with Giants v. Dodgers, Actors v. Techies, Smails v. Czervik, and Son of Beast v. Subgrade Lumber. At least that’s what I would like it to develop into.

Volskaya was a good start for the Shock, with SF taking the opening map 3–2. Bizarrely, the Shock have done very well on Assault in Stage Two after it was their worst map type by a mile in Stage One. This is largely because Volskaya and Hanamura are not evil maps that require the Shock to swap off of the double hitscan that is their most comfortable composition. The Shock put up a good defense after collapsing on point A, keeping the Valiant from capping until OT. The Shock then blitzed through their own attack round before comfortably taking point A in round three to win the map. The frustrating thing about this game was that we saw what the Shock were capable of during this map. There were some mistakes here and there but overall it was a good performance. Meanwhile, the Valiant looked average at best with some bizarre positional mistakes and a few questionable decision. While the Valiant didn’t necessarily improve over the course of the game, they didn’t get any worse either. The Shock regressed hard. This was clear on Lijiang in particular, where apparently the comms stopped working and no one told anyone. The Shock completely forgot how to group up for the majority of the map, trickling in for the entire map and never taking a clean fight. The issue was that the Shock would get a few picks every once in a while, and no one ever thought of saying “Maybe we should back up and get ourselves into a position where we can win the fight instead of getting some useless kills.”

I’ve had some pretty big facepalm moments in my life. The Giants blowing the lead in the NLDS in 2016 was one of them. Or the time I got nailed by the “Hidden Ball Trick” at a college camp with scouts watching. But the Shock’s final attack round on King’s Row was one of the biggest. Both pushes at the beginning were fairly run of the mill. Nothing special, although some interesting compositions were showcased, like the Valiant’s triple sniper attack strat. The next attacks were anything but normal. In an incredibly messy attack round that had picks and swings going in both directions, the Shock made their biggest mistake of the night. The Shock were close to capping the point with little time left, but were forced off of it momentarily. Babybay tried to drop on but it didn’t really work, and Sleepy was too far away to get to the point and touch to keep OT going. Danteh was the only one who could keep OT going. But he didn’t keep OT going. He used RIP-Tire. You could see it unfolding as it happened. I still have the image of Sleepy trying to make it to the point and just barely missing it. It was awful. The Valiant then capped, taking the map. Gibraltar was much the same, with fairly normal first attacks and then bizarre second rounds that involved positioning mistakes from both sides. In the end, the Valiant took this incredibly scrappy round, winning the match 3–1.

This was a match that the Shock should have won. Aside from that forgettable Lijiang round, the Shock had flashes of brilliance throughout the entire match. The individual performances were excellent. Danteh has been showing up so far in Stage Two, putting up insane performances on his trademark Tracer, and this game was no different, aside from the massive brain fart that cost the Shock King’s Row. Babybay has also been pretty good, and Sleepy remains underrated, putting on a good show on his trademark bloodthirsty support. But Dhak and Nomy remain inconsistent, and Nevix is beginning to regress somewhat. But these issues are taking a backseat to the much bigger problem of stupid mistakes and poor teamwork. The teams the Shock play aren’t winning these games; rather, the Shock are losing them. This has gone on for a while now, and something needs to be done.

Nothing like a good game against the Dragons to boost a team’s morale. The Shock hammered the Dragons in what was honestly just a terrible game to watch. I love seeing the Shock win, but you gotta feel for the Dragons. The Dragons’ have the same issues the Shock do; namely, shitty teamwork and decision making, but the Dragons problem is much, much worse. Again, they have some good players. Undead and Diya are proven DPS players, Fiveking is a great Lucio, and Roshan has really picked it up. But they don’t work together as a unit, leaving open holes for other teams to take advantage of. They vary between being much too passive and way to aggressive, and their dives (Particularly MG’s) are uncoordinated and nonsensical. This entire game, all the way through, was just a cringe fest. The Dragons would get a few picks here and there and then not engage. Or MG would get picked. Or they would stack their support ults. It was just….terrible. And the Shock were just on cruise control the entire time, not really making any big plays (The exception being Babybay who was godlike on Widow) but taking their time and pouncing whenever the Dragons screwed up.

There was good news at the end of the week however! A leak stated that the Shock would be picking up Architect and Choihyobin. I wouldn’t blame you for being a little suspicious, as an earlier leak stated that the Shock would be picking up Quartermain, which hasn’t happened (yet). I’ve heard that this one is reliable, however, so let’s break this down. Architect and Choihyobin both played for X6-Gaming back in the APEX days. Architect is an excellent projectile player, known particularly for his Genji and Pharah play. He also showcased a good Doomfist, (although this is largely irrelevant in the current meta) and he is serviceable on heroes such as Soldier. Choihyobin is an off tank, who has played a lot of D.Va in the past. Assuming this leak is true, the Stage Three starting lineup might look something like this:

Sinatraa/Architect/Super/Choihyobin/Dhak/Sleepy

The bench would consist of Danteh, Babybay, Nevix, iddqd, and Nomy. Babybay would likely become the Shock’s version of Pine, coming in on maps where Widow and McCree are good choices. We also might see some Danteh on maps where the Shock want to run Zarya, as Danteh would come in for Choihyobin and play Tracer while Sinatraa takes up Zarya duties, although I personally find this to be unlikely. Either way, this lineup is looking a whole lot better than the current one. I’m praying that this leak is true, because it would solve a lot of current problems that the Shock have. The teamwork would still be in question, but stacking the starting lineup with this type of talent is definitely a plus.

The Shock play the Fuel and the Excelsior next week. The Fuel have looked better lately, thanks in no small part to the presence of xQc and aKm, who have both been turning in big performances. This matchup was a pretty convincing win for the Fuel last time, even with their crummy Stage One starting lineup, so I’m not that hopeful. I’m even less hopeful for the Excelsior game. NYXL hasn’t been quite as dominant as they were in Stage One, but they are still taking care of business and more. This is gonna be a rough week. Let’s see if the Shock can piece it together and upset some of the biggest players in the league.