On May 12, history will repeat itself as the San Francisco Shock meet the Vancouver Titans in the Stage 2 Finals.





The Stage 1 Finals went the distance, with the Titans ultimately coming out victorious 4-3 after a strong hold on Rialto. However, both teams have perfect records in Stage 2, with the Shock only having lost a single map in the regular stage and playoffs combined. Upcomer talked with the starting off-tanks of each team, Hyo-bin "ChoiHyoBin" Choi of the San Francisco Shock, and Hyeon-Woo "JJANU" Choi of the Vancouver Titans after their semi-final victories against the Hangzhou Spark and New York Excelsior respectively.





Hyo-bin "ChoiHyoBin" Choi, San Francisco Shock

Image via Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment





After completing your 28-0 Golden Stage, you’re one game away from a practically perfect Stage 2. After the difficult Stage 1 Finals, how did you push through to get back to this point?





ChoiHyoBin: After losing the Stage 1 Finals, we just only looked at the next Stage Finals and worked to overcome.





With the Hangzhou Spark beating the #2 Seed London Spitfire so soundly in Quarterfinals, was there any adaptation to your game plan?





Against every team we’ll adapt based on their play, but we didn’t have to change too much for Hangzhou.





Many members of the Hangzhou Spark used to be your teammates on X6-Gaming. Does that make this match more exciting? Does playing with them in the past give you any advantages?





Because members had changed when I left, I don’t know them too well. Before the match, I can get a bit nervous, but every time I’m able to beat them, it gives me a sense of accomplishment.





Hangzhou’s Off Tank Seong-Wook "Ria" Park and you have both stood out, from eating ultimates to game-winning self-destruct kills. How much does the enemy D.Va impact your own play?





If I need to be aware of the enemy D.Va, I am, but I’m usually more focused on teamplay. The main goal is to take position and deny the enemy from coming in, and negating as much damage as possible.





The next semi-final will be between the NYXL and the Vancouver Titans. Do you hope to face the Titans again?





It’ll be fun to have a story where we have another match against Vancouver, but we’re so focused on winning the final so it doesn’t matter who we’re against.





What would it mean to you as a player and as a team to be the Stage 2 Champions?





We will use the momentum from the win to become the Stage 3 Champions!





Do you have anything you would like to say to the Vancouver Titans ahead of the final?





Because they haven’t lost a match yet, there might be a lot of burdens on their shoulders. By beating them, we’ll help them deal with that burden!





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Hyeon-Woo "JJANU" Choi, Vancouver Titans

Image via Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment





Congratulations on making it to the stage finals again! New York was a very strong opponent - how did you maintain positive mentality throughout this game?





JJANU: It is true that New York is a very strong team, but we never thought we would lose to them. So we went into the game with confidence, played accordingly, and stuck to our plans.





We saw more DPS compositions than usual from your team - why was this attempted especially on first point of Blizzard World?





The Reinhardt and Zenyatta comps are kind of weak against range-based heroes, so we tried to play further away and whittle them down little by little. I’m going to prepare even more for that composition!





You had an incredible 3 kill self destruct at the end of Point B on Rialto. Do you have any tips for players at home on how to get such impactful bombs?





Honestly the best use of Self Destruct is not the kills, but to destroy the enemy’s formation. So rather than just looking for kills, use the bomb to separate them, and then kill whoever is separated. Basically team play.





How does your team prepare for playoffs when you’re not sure who you will play and have a short amount of time to get ready?





Even though we aren’t sure who we are going to face beforehand, we will play teams before playoffs. We have scrims, VODs, so in the short time we have, we’ll look at those.





Speaking of preparation, you will face a familiar team in the grand finals - the San Francisco Shock. Are you excited to play them again?





We expected that we would face San Francisco again because the meta hasn’t shifted too much. We expect to beat them once again!





What do you think will allow the Titans to defeat San Francisco again?





We have re-watched how we played in Stage 1, so we’ve been planning a lot. We’ve faced them twice so far, and it’s true that they’re a great team, but we’re also a great team, and will win.





What would it mean to you to win back to back stage finals?





We’d be the first to win all the games in 2 stages, so that would be special, too. Also, we’re a new team coming into Overwatch League, and still wouldn’t have lost yet.





Do you have a message for the Shock before the final?





I’m not the type of person to trash talk too much, and we realize that San Francisco is so strong, but so are we. I want both teams to try their best, and give the audience the best show possible.



