As the Overwatch League teams assembled, they each took on names to identify themselves. Some were for grandeur, Dynasty, Valiant, or Excelsior. Others took motifs, Outlaws or Dragons. In the case of Boston, they took on the role of the underdog as they named themselves the Uprising. They were a challenge to the established order, underdogs that wanted to topple the regime, and they set out to do just that.

Among the brand names, the Uprising felt provident. It was a callback to Boston’s sports history. A recollection of Chris ‘HuK’ Loranger’s own experience as a competitive Starcraft 2 player. After all, he was a ‘foreigner’ in a game ruled by Koreans and he spent his career rebelling against the established order. Finally, their initial pickups felt lackluster compared to the other teams in the league. In rankings pre-season they were collectively picked as one of the worst teams

However there was a method to the madness. While the roster of: Nam-joo ‘Striker’ Kwon, Stanislav ‘Mistakes’ Danilov, Lucas ‘NotE” Meissner, Young-jin ‘Gamsu’ Noh, Kristian ‘Kellex’ Keller, Se-hyeon ‘Neko’ Park, and Jonathan ‘DreamKazper’ Sanchez’ didn’t pop off the page, they all had one thing in common. All of them were specifically chosen because of their high coachability. This was then combined that with the strong vertical structure of with HuK, Jackson ‘Shake’ Kaplan, Rollon ‘Mini’ Hamelin, Da-hee ‘Crusty’ Park, and Mohid ‘MrBleeple’ Asjid. The players were the raw resources and the staff’s job was to shape them into one of the best teams in the league. In that regard, they had a head start compared to their competitors as in-game leadership both inside and outside of the game has slowly become the most important characteristic to have for a successful team.

So when Overwatch League started, no one saw the rebellion coming. They oustripped expectations by a large margin as they were one of the better teams in the middle tier throughout stages 1 and 2. By the time stage 3 happened, their core was rock solid. Their teamwork was impeccable and DreamKazper had made a name for himself as a strong flex DPS player. However the controversy surrounding DreamKazper had him removed from the season mid Stage 3 and it wouldn’t have been surprising if Boston had slowed down. Instead they ramped up. Mistakes was put into the roster and did a better job than expected, though not nearly to a star level. What really changed was Striker as he became a superstar level talent. He was arguably the best Tracer in the entire league and he gave Boston the extra firepower they needed to become the best dive team in that meta. With Striker leading the pack and with the staff able to coach the perfect dive into the team, they went 10-0 in Stage 3. It was an incredible feat for a team that people expected to be bottom tier going into the league.

The rebellion had taken over the League, but they could not get past the final boss, the New York Excelsior. In the title mates of that Stage they were beaten by 3-0-1. Three losses and one draw on Volskaya, their home map. Even with that loss, the Uprising had proven their strengths as their idea of coachable players and vertical structure had paid off far more than anyone could have imagined.

Then the Blizzard Nation attacked and everything changed. HuK has had experience with this before given his own career in Starcraft 2. Once a top foreigner Protoss, his downfall came once Blizzard buffed the queen and infestor and were partially responsible for negating his own strengths in Wings of Liberty. In the same vein, the dive meta was nerfed with the introduction of Brigette. At the same time Crusty left the organization to join San Francisco Shock leaving a hole in the coaching staff.

So when they went into Season 4, Boston had a hard time adjusting to the meta. It was no longer viable to just run a dive composition as it was in the past. It required shifting compositions and styles depending on the matchup and circumstance at hand and they bottomed out in the first few weeks of play before having a small uptick at the end of Stage 4.

Those results were hard to read as the more meaningful matches had happened earlier on in the schedule and the less meaningful and easier matches happened in the latter stage. At the very least the eye test showed that they were a better team than they were at the start. Though not enough to think them as a plausible threat in the playoffs.

So when they headed into the playoffs, the Uprising found themselves in a similar situation as they did at the beginning of Overwatch League. Underdogs looking to try to make their mark against the big names of the league. By the end of the first best-of-give against Philadelphia Fusion they were convincingly beaten 3-1. They were destroyed 2-0 on their original home map, Volskaya Industries. Any hopes of ending the season on a high looked dashed. With two days remaining, Boston needed to figure out an answer to what the Fusion were dishing out if they wanted a chance at victory.

They did just that as they decided to stick to the formula of having Striker on Widow and Mistakes on the flex DPS role. Mistakes had a far better game that series and became one of the win conditions for them. Their transitions and overall performance was better on both their double sniper compositions and dive comps. In addition to that, they looked stronger on the maps in the second best-of-five compared to the first. In the end they were able to grind out a 3-1 victory and forced a deciding third best-of-five.

Once again the Boston Uprising had performed beyond expectation. The Philadelphia Fusion had shown a level of teamwork in the playoffs that they had hitherto not shown throughout the regular season. People rightly expected a blowout in the second best-of-five, but Boston broke those expectations. However they could not do it a third time. In the end the amount of pressure and skill exhibited from the Fusion ruled the day as they were able to constantly force Boston into awkward positions and then have Jae-hyeok ‘Carpe’ Lee or Josue ‘Eqo’ Corona take advantage and take out the Boston support player, Kellex.

Boston fought hard, they fought with everything they had. They even made the analyst desk believe that they could do it again in the third best-of-five, but it was not to be. The rebellion had shaken the Overwatch League ended there.

While Boston Uprising did not end where they wished to, they have continually surpassed expectations. Even at the end, with all of their problems in Stage 4, they still forced Philadelphia Fusion to the third best-of-five. When they went into the first season, they were mocked and derided for their player roster choices. By the end of it, they have come to be respected as one of the best teams in the league, a team that everyone must come to respect. Though the uprising has ended, they have left their mark on the first season of Overwatch League.

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