Rogue was recently crowned the Atlantic Showdown champions, taking home a sizeable portion of the $100,000 prize pool in what was essentially the first major international Overwatch tournament. Given their recent form it was especially interesting for me to note the performance of Faze as a relative newcomer and a team that the community is yet to agree on as a potential top contender.
Faze ended up taking the win 2-1 over Rogue with some spectacular aggression in the team fights. However, more than just pure aggression, it is important to single out how Faze was able to create opportunity through early picks that they then instantly capitalized on, a few of which we look at below.
Full VOD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr4njxozd48
Map 1: Kings Row - Faze attack point 1
Note how the commentators mention Twoeasy's death as one that will stagger the next attack. However his Mccree was in fact sacrificed to pick off the Reaper, meaning that the DPS output of Rogue would be much more limited given the longer time of the defenders to rejoin the fight - this reminds us of the high risk, high reward play that attackers sometimes need to go for. Rogue were perhaps at this time feeling somewhat too comfortable, as Faze knew that the next push forward by Winz on the Zarya could be immediately punished without a Reaper in their faces to contest it, leaving Rogue with just 4 members on the point and an easy take for Faze. Smart play by Twoeasy to open this section of play up.
Map 1: Kings Row - Faze defend in Streets phase
Another interesting team fight set up which relies primarily on speed boost into a Mccree and Genji ulti. Normally this sort of ulti combination is not that rare but what is different is that Genji engages from a very elevated position right above the Rogue team, meaning that Rogue needs to shift their vision almost 90 degrees upwards and have to choose between two different fights to take. Shadowburn's position on Genji immediately prioritizes the opposing Mccree as he knows that during the split fight this is the only hero who can stop him getting off a full duration blade. Use of elevation in these sorts of areas can really add another dimension to your standard team fights.
Faze did not end up winning Kings Row, but the point is to highlight the type of gameplay required to go toe to toe with experienced team on a well rehearsed map. I won't single out any clips from Hollywood as I feel like it was more a case of Rogue never having enough ultimates at the same time and their DPS players getting a bit singled out by the deathball play of Faze. However, there are certainly some good ones to pick out from Anubis...
Map 3: Temple of Anubis - Faze defend final point
With Rogue's first attack round looking like it will be wrapped up, with 5 men on point and 4 members of Faze dead, this proves to be a great hold for Faze as work closely together to ensure maximum possible contesting time. It opens with a Winston ult followed soon after by Zarya and Mei entering into the arena with their natural tankiness and stalling ability respectively. Twoeasy on Tracer takes advantage of this stalling by entering in on the backside and only really being taken notice of after Zarya and Mei fall. Note how Winston then only hard commits to the edge of the point as his fellow Genji is about to die. Each use their ability to stall for a few seconds which then builds into a gradual accumulation of spawns and slow whittling down of Rogue's health. Of course it was also critical that Shadowburn's Genji managed 2 kills before going down, as a lack of kills in the stalling phase of the final defence will make it very difficult to pull this sort of tactic off successfully. A similar team fight can be found immediately after this one in the VOD.
Map 3: Temple of Anubis - Faze attack point 1
This next clip is slightly more straight forward in its strategical depth, but nevertheless acts as an important reminder around avoiding ult stacking. The first point of Anubis can be very tough to break, and it's clear that Faze struggled with this before having enough ults. Once you're in a position of holding onto multiple ults, you cannot afford to waste this opportunity. Sound Barrier is first used to block the initial spam thrown their way, then Transcendence to effectively walk through to the point, giving significant time for the DPS players of Faze to do what they need to do. This is all wrapped off nicely by a Zarya ult which could have been thrown out earlier on the bridge, but Zombs showing us the power of self-control to make sure the fight is all but won as they step up to the point.
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Final words
Faze is certainly a team to keep our eyes on. The Overwatch meta is still in its early stages and there is no guarantee on any team retaining their position at present. With this in mind it's important that we dig a little deeper into some of the more exciting games to find out where we can improve in team fights over and above the comments you'll hear at the time of the game.
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