Now, THIS is the kind of week I was waiting for. Not only did the Shock comfortably win both games that they played, but they also looked very good in the process, playing like a well oiled machine with few mistakes.

OK, you could argue that part of this was because of the teams the Shock played. The Fuel looked even worse than they normally do, and the Fusion were clearly out of gas after an insane five game set against NYXL the night before. While I might agree with you somewhat, the Shock played like a team that could have given even the best teams a run for their money last week. It was very encouraging.

To say this week got off to a “good start” might be an understatement. The Shock’s first point defense was absolutely lockdown, as the Shock killed Fuel players 20 times while the Fuel killed a grand total of…One Shock player! After languishing in the backline for well over half the round (This isn’t an exaggeration either) and doing nothing but killing Architect’s venom mines, aKm (Who was on Genji) somehow managed to kill Architect. Of course, Architect was immediately rezzed, and then aKm went on to waste a Dragonblade and dash headlong into a hallway with 4 Shock players in it and die in short order. It’s unfair to say that aKm was the problem…Ok, he was a big part of it. Taking Three Minutes and 45 Seconds to charge a Dragonblade (yes, that’s how long it took) is inexcusable. This was potentially the worst Genji round in a professional game. Ever. The plan seemed to be for aKm and Effect to get behind and kill Architect on Widow while the rest of the team pushed through towards the point. Unfortunately, for this to work aKm and Effect actually needed to engage, which they never did. It’s possible they were waiting for the Fuel to get to the point (which they never did because Danteh was on a roll on Junkrat) but at some point you have to do something. They literally never did. It was laughably bad. The Dallas defense was slightly better (Mostly thanks to Effect’s Widow) but eventually the Shock pushed through. This wasn’t a super notable round, although it did display that aKm isn’t good at Junkrat either. Seriously, if you aren’t gonna play Soldier or McCree just keep this man out of the lineup.

The match was a tad more even on Blizzard World, although that’s not saying a whole lot. Dallas rolled on through a shaky Shock defense, carried by aKm’s McCree and precise dives. Then aKm switched on to Widow and proceeded to do nothing on Point B, and the Shock didn’t give the Fuel a break, with Nevix, Danteh, and Super working together about as well as I’ve ever seen them, assassinating supports and causing havoc within the ranks of the Fuel. An overextension on Danteh’s part gave the Fuel a window, but the spawn of Point B and Architect’s Widow shut down the Fuel a few meters from the checkpoint. Once again, the Fuel defense looked better, although this entire round was just a mess, with scrappy fights breaking out in bizarre spots. This is probably the worst the Shock looked during this match, with some questionable ultimates and timed engages, but they got the job done in OT in the end.

The second half kicked off with Nepal Village, where the Shock had problems dealing with the Seagull’s Mei and Effect’s Reaper. Again, fight choice and ultimate usage was questionable here, but things got much better on Sanctum, where Sinatraa got his Grav 45 seconds into the match. The Shock didn’t stop the constant pressure for the rest of Nepal, taking both Sanctum and Shrine relatively easily.

Junkertown got off to a bizarre start, with Sleepy being subbed out for…Nomy. Yeah, I was confused too. On one hand, Triple Tank with One Support is a common strategy on Junkertown, but this becomes less effective on Point B and doesn’t really work at all on C. So I was interested in the Shock’s plan. At first I thought that Nevix might go back to his roots and take up the flex support role. Well, that’s not what happened. After the Shock’s point A defense collapsed with less than a minute to go and failed to reform to really defend point B at all, the Shock axed the single Mercy and brought in the Zen.

Played by Super.

This interesting experiment had mixed results, with Super turning in some good right clicks but not really doing much other than sitting up top exposed. Fortunately, no one really took advantage of this on the Fuel. Either way, the Dallas offense petered out right after the second checkpoint, (Mostly thanks to Nevix’s four man D.Va bomb) and then the Fuel C9ed to end the game. They had six ultimates available for use.

The Shock then steamrolled through on their attack, with Architect having an unbelievable round on Widow. Super didn’t even need to go Zen here, as the Shock never needed to swap off of the 2/3/1 comp all the way through, and they wrapped up Junkertown with relative ease.

I didn’t look too much into this performance. Sure, the Shock 4–0’d, and looked great in the process, but the Fuel have been struggling for the entire season, and it was no surprise that the Shock picked up the win here. I was more looking to the Fusion game, which was the real test.

The Fusion were coming off of a tough five game set with the NYXL, during which they got reverse swept. The Fusion had some misplays during this game, but taking XL to five games is no small feat, and they have some incredibly talented players in their lineup. Going from playing the Fuel to playing the Fusion is a bit like surfing some 1 foot rolling waves before going to have a surf session at Jaws. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3qEtjW82JA Link for the uninitiated.)

I was interested to see how this game was going to play out. Philly’s incredibly aggressive style of dive versus the Shock’s Sombra and Widow play was an interesting matchup to behold, although I frankly didn’t expect all that much.

It didn’t start out all that great either, with Philly using it’s hyper aggressive tank play to cut off the Shock supports while Carpe went to work, and Philly took Point A relatively easily.

Then everything changed.

Philly’s Point B dives weren’t working as well as they normally were. Despite getting some kills and gradually building up percentages, the Shock managed to keep Philly largely at bay, mostly by making Neptuno’s life a living hell for the next six minutes. Philly’s divers had a penchant to focus really hard on one target (which you are supposed to do) but then they would tunnel vision and not adapt to changing situations, which left the backline exposed. Sinatraa and Architect got the job done, killing Neptuno over and over again and repeatedly forcing Boombox to use Transcendence away from the point.

The Shock then went to work on offense, taking point A almost as easily as the Fusion did. Carpe’s Sombra was on point on Point B, but Sinatraa was putting on a show as well. This was bad news for both team’s backlines, and most of the fights on Point B were very scrappy and had supports dying left and right. Eventually, the Shock muscled through in one of the messiest fights I’ve ever seen on Volskaya Point B. One thing, however, was clear: Fusion did not look like the powerhouse that we’ve become accustomed to.

This couldn’t have been more obvious on Blizzard World. Although the Fusion’s attacks showed signs of brilliance, more often than not they made a horrendous positioning mistake that left them vulnerable. Danteh almost always was there to capitalize, and Philly’s attack ground to a halt halfway through the third point. The Shock then did…well, basically the same thing they did on Volskaya, capitalizing on mistakes, constantly harassing the backline, and just ended up muscling their way through.

One play on Nepal kind of sums up this match. In the first fight on Village, Super messed up a dive, and was surrounded by basically the entirety of the Fusion. Not only did Super somehow survive, but he also managed to kill Carpe in the process. I’m not sure if there was a complete communication breakdown or what, but either way it was just unbelievably awful. Philly did end up winning this map, although overall they didn’t look that much better. The Shock just didn’t look as good, going on some stupid flanks, getting caught out in said stupid flanks, and then wasting a huge amount of time. Also EQO saved Philly’s butt more than once.

The Shock put their foot down on Route 66. The DPS came alive, making life a living hell for both Boombox and Neptuno. All the way through the map the Shock dominated, capitalizing on mistakes from Fragi and Poko, while punishing Carpe missing shots that he should have been able to hit. This was a massacre.

The Fusion clearly weren’t up to scratch today. Their normally balls-out style of play seemed off, with Fragi and Poko not working together properly, and Carpe wasn’t hitting his shots. Either way, the Shock took care of business, and capped off a week where everyone played incredibly well.

At first glance an 0–2 record seems likely in Week 4, as the Shock play the Spitfire and the NYXL, but the Shock have looked great recently, while those two teams have been struggling somewhat. These will be very interesting games, and the Shock could cement themselves as a real threat if they even make these games close.