Overwatch 2 Week 3 match recap – Student Champs 2022/23

Overwatch 2 was back on the Student Champs stream last week, and saw four new teams in their final battles before the Group Stages.

Bryony-Hope ‘Athxna’ Green takes a look at the Overwatch action between MidKent Hercules and Wilmington Academy 2, and Vlad ‘WaXeN’ Catusanu recaps the match between the Craven College Crusaders and Dragon Blades.

Highlights from these Overwatch matches are currently available on the British Esports YouTube channel, or through the link below.

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Game 1 – MidKent Hercules Vs Wilmington Academy 2:

MidKent Hercules:

GooseGamer
Owen
Drizzy
L25
Pugzz

Wilmington Academy 2:

Crozon
JumpyWizard
QuirkyFrog
DillyWacka
SneezyDwarf

Map 1 – Esperança:

Both teams kicked off the Overwatch series with a strong composition to begin the push, but MidKent managed to gain the lead early on with Drizzy’s double on Bastion. Wilmington fell back eagerly awaiting the return of their fallen allies, and managed to do a little bit of ultimate farming whilst MidKent pushed the robot forward.

A lack of aggression from the Wilmington side allowed MidKent to capture the first checkpoint with ease, and GooseGamer on the Reinhardt took this opportunity to push forward and pick off DillyWacka on Lucio. Having taken out the biggest counter for the Shatter, GooseGamer rushed in to get three people in their Earth Shatter – but Crozon’s Sigma came in clutch with the Gravitic Flux to stop Rein from immediately taking down the team.

Wilmington regrouped and recentred themselves to take another push and got a few picks before Drizzy on Bastion and L25 on Mercy wanted to do some trading. Picking off healers and DPS, MidKent were still in full control of the robot, and continued to move it with ease. A last minute attempt to regain control meant that Crozon swapped over to Reinhardt, but GooseGamer and Pugzz’s (Ana) team kill was too much to let Wilmington have any control. MidKent took the first point of the series with absolute ease.

Map 2 – Blizzard World:

Having stormed the previous map, MidKent stuck to their guns and stayed in a Rein-Bastion composition to attack in true Overwatch fashion. After a slow move forward, GooseGamer took out Wilmington’s DPS and gave MidKent the space they needed to clear the rest of the team and secure the payload.

Crozon on the Orisa pushed quite far forward in comparison to their team, however this gave MidKent a prime opportunity to wipe out the Wilmington backline and maintain their momentum. After capturing the first checkpoint without the payload being contested, Wilmington were able to finally get some picks to hold the MidKent offense in the castle. Crozon’s quadruple kill on Orisa was not enough to stop MidKent from getting a clean team kill, and capture the second checkpoint to end the round.

Wilmington needed to change their strategy to attack, and JumpyWizards brought out the Bastion to go head-to-head with Drizzy. Some big plays from Owen on Reaper meant that MidKent were able to hold the point with ease, and caused Crozon to swap to Sigma for more team protection. A solo shatter in the final seconds meant that MidKent secured another series point, and stopped Wilmington from making any objective progress.

Map 3 –  Busan:

Starting Downtown, MidKent once again stayed with the same brutal composition, whereas Wilmington took a risk putting QuirkyFrog on the Widowmaker from the start of the round. 

Before Wilmington even had a chance to get towards the point, MidKent had already made themselves comfortable on it and showed no signs of leaving their spot. Between ultimate shutdowns, staggering, and a team kill. MidKent held their ground and easily secured the first round on Busan.

Moving over to Sanctuary, QuirkyFrog decided to stick with the Widowmaker pick despite its struggles in the previous round, but Owen teleported as Reaper directly to them and picked them off. Control of the objective turned over quite swiftly when Crozon went on a Sigma rampage to take out three MidKent players, however GooseGamer was not ready to lose. A triple shatter, and a few kills from Drizzy secured MidKent the point once more, and brought the game into overtime. 

In all the action, Wilmington forgot to touch the objective, and MidKent earned their third and final series point, ending the match 3-0. 

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Game 2 – Craven College Crusaders Vs Dragon Blades:

The two teams taking stage for the second Overwatch fixture of the day, Craven College Crusaders and Dragon Blades are new teams competing in the Student Champs this split.

Vlad ‘WaXeN’ takes a look back at all of the action between the two teams, and shares the ups and downs of the series.

Craven College Crusaders:

Infuzed (Tank)
BigAndy (DPS)
BigFudge76 (DPS)
Noodle (Support)
Soulzz (Support)

Dragon Blades:

Rukuchan (Tank)
LXCKY224 (DPS)
XEFDY (DPS)
MILKII (Support)
WALTERHWHITE (Support)

Game 1 – New Queen Street:

In Game 1, Dragon Blades started off hot, punishing Infuzed’s Zarya pick very early on. After the first successful skirmish, MILKII already had Mercy’s Valkyrie available. Despite the utility advantage, the second fight went in favour of Craven, with Infuzed converting a double kill and Soulzz on Moira with one. The small advantage was quickly overturned with WALTERHWHITE and Rukuchan popping off together, first isolating BigFudge76’s Junkrat from their team and then cleaning house.

Upon conquering the 2nd checkpoint with the robot, Dragon Blades’ choice of retreating and regrouping was instantly punished by Craven College who managed to take advantage of the offered space and win the following fight. The breaking point of Game 1 was BigFudge opting to go all-in for a WALTERHWHITE kill, sacrificing their own life, only for the opponent to be rez’d instantly by MILKII, thus leaving Craven, at a player disadvantage in the subsequent team fight. An effort to overturn the point in overtime from Craven was abruptly ended by Rukuchan’s Orisa, pushing the Crusaders off the robot, granting Dragon Blades the first victory in the series.

Map 2 – Midtown:

As predicted by the panel, Infuzed replicated Rukuchan’s Orisa pick in Map 2, upon both teams noticing the impact she had on the first map. Despite the change in composition, the choice to run DPS-heavy healers from Craven proved ineffective as they got out-sustained by the Mercy / Bap combo from Dragon Blades, allowing Rukuchan to first take Infuzed out and convert the rest of the first team fight into a victory, with MILKII using their ultimate twice in less than a minute to the Shock of Servitude and Gehan.

After a few moments to recompose themselves, the Craven Crusaders adopted a new tactic, snowball aggression to take over the point, but they unfortunately fell short at the hands of WALTERHWHITE (Baptiste) and Rukuchan (Orisa) who now found himself at a 10 Player Kill Streak. With less than a minute to spare, BigAndy and BigFudge76 managed to turn the tide around with a huge team kill, with BigFudge’s Rip-Tyre getting three of the five kills. Craven managed to finally get their hands on the payload, and truly begin their attack..

This resilience empowered them to conquer the first checkpoint on the back of a Reaper double kill from BigAndy taking out Dragon Blades’ healers, but in the end all the wasted time taking the payload made them run out of time to replicate their success for the final checkpoint.

Now with their backs against the wall, the Crusaders had to stop the Dragon Blades’ push and out-of-meta pick from Xefdy on Symmetra. Pushing behind Rukuchan’s Orisa, Dragon Blades made easy work of Craven, taking over the payload in less than a minute. This 5 player juggernaut was almost unstoppable, as they made easy work of Craven, being able to capture the first checkpoint with ease, and reach Craven’s distance all in under 4 minutes. Despite some great RIP-Tyre usage from BigFudge’s Junkrat, it wasn’t enough to hold the Dragon Blades back from another series point. 

Map 3 – Busan:

Despite signs of life during Maps 1 and 2, the back-to-back losses clearly stunned the Crusaders, who were unable to find their footing during the early stages of Busan, losing the point on MEKA Base without being able to contest a single percent.. Hope was emerging for Craven on Sanctuary as they were able to finally secure the objective with the help of BigFudges’ Junkrat plays once again.

The discrepancy between the two teams’ self-confidence was highlighted by the teams’ confidence in their hero picks, with Dragon Blades sticking true to their guns, and Craven entering desperation mode, attempting to swap heroes between points, just hoping they could make anything happen and turn the series around. Infuzed’s D.Va and BigAndy’s Reaper finally came to life for Craven towards the later portions of Sanctuary, managing to contest, but with Dragon Blades already at 99% and going into overtime, it was up to the Craven five to play flawlessly if they wanted to begin the comeback of the century.

In the end, it was a Lucio diff, with WALTERHWHITE prevailing over Noodle, ending Craven’s dreams and undefeated streak in the Student Champs thus far.

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Eager for more Student Champs action? You can catch weekly streams over on the British Esports Twitch channel at 4pm every Wednesday, with the next stream featuring two Overwatch 2 matches.

As well as this, the Overwatch 2 Women in Esports Division of the Student Champs will be starting again in the next few weeks, with streams being featured every week over on the Women in Esports Twitch.