The start of Stage Three marks the beginning of the second half of the 2019 Overwatch League season. Both support player Harrison “Kruise” Pond and tank player Cameron “Fusions” Bosworth came into the season as Overwatch League newcomers. After the first week of Stage Three, their respective teams, the Paris EternalandBoston Uprising, both sit at 7-9 in the standings. If either team wants to secure a spot in the Season Playoffs, it’s now or never.

At this same point in the Inaugural Season, many players were experiencing bad cases of burnout and fatigue. While there have been some significant schedule changes to avoid such a situation occurring again, there’s no denying that life as a pro player can still be demanding. Sitting on the halfway mark of this season though, Kruise isn’t necessarily feeling the pressure. On the contrary, he’s reveling in it. “I knew the Overwatch League would be a marathon. I knew you’d have to be mentally in it for the long haul, but I didn’t realise how much I would enjoy that,” he said after his first match of Stage Three, a victory against the Toronto Defiant.

“It’s such a big step up from Contenders and World Cup. That’s the biggest difference. It is very, very hard.” – Fusions

“It’s so much fun looking forward to each game week by week, and preparing for it and [preparing] for different opponents, doing different things based on them. It’s a lot of fun playing in the league, and I guess I didn’t realise how much I would enjoy the marathon side of it.”

Similarly, Fusions knew the league would be hard, but isn’t enjoying the grind as much as Kruise is. “It’s very exciting, just being able to do it every day, doing what you love. That’s the obvious answer. But I guess I expected it to be difficult, to be hard, but it is [still] very stressful. It’s very difficult. The level of commitment that you have to put in every day, including days off, just whenever… It’s quite hard. It’s such a big step up from Contenders and World Cup. That’s the biggest difference. It is very, very hard.”

Despite the grind-y nature of the league, both teams have good systems in place for the players to make the most out of practice and the season. “We have a set amount of breaks and stuff like that,” said Kruise. “If anything, I want to play more. On the breaks, I’m starting to miss scrims … So it’s almost the opposite [to burnout]. But I think that’s a good way to be. I’m thirsty … I’m not burnt out at all.”

Fusions seems to be in a similar mindset when it comes to practice structure. “The actual process itself requires a lot of effort, and at times it can be disheartening if you don’t see results, but it is also very rewarding,” he said. “Every time something goes well or you have a good match, you’re reminded why you put in all the effort. The grind in itself is a lot of fun, but obviously has its ups and downs.“

Both Fusions and Kruise arrived in the Overwatch League at the beginning of the 2019 season, alongside the GOATS meta. It’s a meta that is vastly different to what professional Overwatch veterans like Kruise had played for most of their careers. Despite that, Kruise enjoys playing GOATS even if he understands why others wouldn’t. “My role in GOATS is really fun. I have a lot of impact,” said Kruise. “I enjoy it personally, but I can see why people are not a big fan of it.”

The problem with GOATS, from an entertainment level, is that the devil is in the detail. “It’s not as entertaining to watch if you don’t look at the little things that make GOATS entertaining,” said Kruise. “The little plays, the little tendencies [of] people. That’s what makes it entertaining and I see those, so I enjoy it.”

For Fusions, GOATS actually helped him transition in to the Overwatch League. “Coming from EU, I had a head start on GOATS. So I was pretty confident, even playing against these really good players. I was on a bit of a roll from World Cup … So I wasn’t really scared.”

“We’re a brand new team. We have to experiment and see who molds well with people, who gets better over time.”– Kruise

The hardest part of playing GOATS for Fusions has come later in the season, as players get better and better. “The commitment and keeping up are the hardest parts,” he said “There’s so many good and talented tank players in the Overwatch League. The more time goes on, the more you see them improve and [you see] the tiniest things that they improve on every single day.” Fusions cited the improvement in Gesture’s Reinhardt play, from the beginning of the season up to London’s match against Boston this week, as a clear example of this. “I’m doing my best to keep up with [all the other players] as best I can.”

However, it’s not just individual skill that comes into play. At this point in the season, with so much information from past matches available, strategy becomes key. “Different teams will do different things. They’ll play different variants of GOATS – Sombra GOATS, Doomfist GOATS. You can play Bunker, DPS [comps] or Winston or Reinhardt GOATS,” explained Kruise. “There’s a lot of changes that can be made – where they put their players, what they do with their players… It’s almost like chess – every move makes a big difference throughout the whole entire game. The first fight, [or even] the first bullet shot, can affect the entire game.”

The Paris Eternal have used a lot of their season so far deciding on which of their chess pieces to play. With a stacked 10-man roster, the Eternal have tried various different combinations over their first 14 games. To Kruise, the trial and error approach to the roster is a necessary evil in order to find the right combination. “In a way yes, it does mess with the whole overall team structure, because it’s not consistent … But you have to [do that] – we’re a brand new team. We have to experiment and see who molds well with people, who gets better over time.”

“Right now, I’m feeling really good and I think we’ve found a super good fit. Now it’s about just knuckling down and getting everything consistent once you’ve got that fit.”

Boston, however, has faced a different kind of roster problem. The nature of their roster – less experienced players, who are more ‘coach-able’ – has meant that consistency has been a recurring problem this season. “It’s hard with a lack of experience in a roster to keep stable results. Obviously we have to learn more than a lot of teams do.”Fusions pointed out that in Boston’s match against London last week, not one player on the starting roster had played in the Inaugural Season. Every player on Boston’s roster for that match had only started playing in the league this season. “There’s a lot of stuff that’s harder for us to learn, because we’re newer players, but Boston invests a lot into us as talent and trying to make us better players. It is difficult because of that, but the coaches we have do a really good job of it. The actual process itself is good. We have very good direction in what we need to do and what we need to improve on.“

For both Boston and Paris, it’s crunch time. The season might be half over, but if either team wants to secure a Season Playoffs spot, then it’s now or never.

In Week Two of Stage Three, Boston play the Outlaws and the Fusion, while Paris play the Excelsior and the Mayhem. You can view the full schedule here.

Featured image by Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment.

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