British Esports Championships Overwatch week 9 recap: How do the standings look at the end of 2020?

Due to a scheduling issue in last week’s British Esports Championships broadcast, a friendly match took place between the hosts/casters and Wyke Gamer Girlz from Wyke Sixth Form College!

Elsewhere, the Farnborough Harriers took on Kennet Klan. Alex Moore recaps the Overwatch action.

 

The talent vs the talented: British Esports casters and admins face Wyke Gamer Girlz

Both teams opened on Lijiang Tower Night Market with meta compositions Reinhardt and Zarya. The difference was British Esports running Pharah to Wyke’s McCree.

Wyke, not expecting Pharah, conceded first control to British Esports. But after regaining control they captured 90% of the zone until some sneaky kills from a flank allowed Itsjoeb to finally get a good barrage off and flip the point, which the British Esports team held to win.

On Control Center, Wyke were better suited to stalling out the point, with Reaper’s self-healing and Kinderegg’s on-point Immortality Field timing. This second round ended with a 99% to 99% fight, but Wyke’s superior discipline and coordination led them to victory.

Then in round 3 on Liijang Gardens, both teams opted to run Wrecking Ball, hoping for some elusive knockoff.

Wyke’s Pharah (a classic choice for Lijiang Gardens) beat out the less usual Echo to hand first control of the point to Wyke.

After some hero plays from the British Esports dps, they regained control for a few fights until a surprise Death Blossom from Wyke’s Reaper Cleggy turned the tide in a way British Esports could not recover from.

On the second map, King’s Row, Wyke’s sniper duo of Widowmaker and Hanzo quickly wiped out the British Esports tank line, allowing Wyke to walk onto Point A and capture it.

Once the British Esports team committed fully to a dive composition, they looked much improved, stalling Wyke at the beginning of Point C.

Wyke patiently waited for the kills to come through, and slowly but surely ground out the final few fights to finish with a strong 2:40 timebank.

Going into round 2, to give an idea of how desperate the British Esports team were, they considered changing the rules to play the removed GOATs composition!

They settle on a Rein Zarya brawl composition with Lucio and Moira, and Wyke matched them with Rein and Zarya plus a Pharmercy for aerial damage.

The British Esports team made it to point C, where Icestorm on Roadhog had great fun hooking several members of British Esports into the pit.

The valiant cobbled together British Esports team learned that no matter how many times you say “winnable” in chat, some fights just aren’t.

Wyke 2-0 British Esports  

 

Sticking to the meta or having a ball? Farnborough Harriers swoop onto Kennet Klan

The teams went into this match with fairly even records so far (Kennet Klan with a 3-3 record to Farnborough’s 4-4). However, all three of Kennet’s losses were in a row before this match, putting extra pressure on them to bounce back in this game.

In map 1 (Nepal), both teams opened on Sanctum with Sigma. Kennet opted for an aggressive brawl style with Roadhog and Lucio vs Farnborough’s ranged composition, double hitscan Baptiste and Zenyatta.

The teams traded control of the point until an Amplification Matrix from Jellyfish set up 3 kills and a decisive retake. Despite an even fight, Kennet was never able to recapture the point, giving Farnborough the first point.

And Farnborough continued their dominance on Shrine, with Nemo aggressively diving with Wrecking Ball, disrupting the enemy while Guleisgoo and Polytrich picked them off.

Despite strong individual performances from Doorhankle and AlexG123, Kennet were never able to fully capture the point, going down 0 to 100% and losing Nepal 0-2.

On map 2 (Eichenwalde), the casters explained what Kennet could do to improve… ‘Stop! That! Hamster!’

Kennet needed more crowd control abilities to limit the disruption caused by Nemo on Wrecking Ball.

The onslaught from Farnborough was halted right at the end of the map with a nano-boosted Reinhardt and ThiccBandico’s slick Tracer play. The relief was short lived, however, a quick 2-kill Deadeye leading to Farnborough finishing their attack with 2:50 to spare.

In round 2, with Kennet Klan attacking, they tried something to counter Wrecking Ball. Switching ThiccBandico onto Sombra forced Nemo onto Orisa, showing the first double shield of the night. Even so, it took another Nano Boost onto AlexG123’s Reinhardt to take Point A.

The Sombra pick showed its worth, with a textbook 6 player EMP setting up DoorKhandle for 4 kills and getting so close to the end of Point B. So close and yet no further. Farnborough weathered the storm of Kennet’s ultimates until the time burnt down, putting them at match point.

Map 3 saw the sides do battle on Havana. With Farnborough attacking first, they decided to bring out something different for this map: dive tanks Winston and D.Va instead of the Sigma and Wrecking Ball. Kennet opted for the same composition they had ran in every map so far.

Nemo now got us to show us that his aggressive Winston is just as impactful as his aggressive Wrecking Ball. Every time they dove, it was with the confidence that the healing will was to keep them alive.

While Kennet did stabilise at a few key points this round, they could never quite handle the aggression that Farnborough were throwing their way. That, along with the consistent damage and kills coming from the Farnborough dps duo, got them to the end of the map with over 2 minutes to spare.

With Kennet attacking in round 2, they went with same composition they had been running all match: a Reinhardt Zarya brawl style. Despite their best efforts they couldn’t pull off a decisive enough fight win to get the first point. It all ended in rather spectacular style, a Gravitic Flux from J3ster leading to a team kill and a full hold on Havana for Farnborough Harriers.

 

Post-match discussion

The casters did not mince words in their post-match analysis. Itsjoeb showed a Funko-Pop Lucio figure to explain to Kennet how the hero would have helped their team rush the enemy and be more effective.

Servitude gave his MVP award to Neon for their excellent aggressive play, and effective synergy with their whole team.

For Puppeh it was Jellyfish’s consistent healing performance that made them the MVP.

Itsjoeb picked Sirixi as their MVP, highlighting how they always knew the opponents win condition, and held their Transcendence until the right moment to counter it. 

 

Elsewhere in the British Esports Championships: Standings and more

As the Group Stage comes to a close, we can see how each of our teams performed across the nine matches they have played so far.

Three teams, Circinaes in Group 1, GCS Owls in Group 4 and Braintree Basiliks in Group 5, have all yet to lose a match, and finish top of their groups. 

Keep an eye out for these top flight teams when they meet later on in the Championships. 

The Coventry Crosshairs narrowly missed out on being a part of this list, receiving their first loss of the Championships at the hand of Kennet Klan. 

The other teams worth watching are those that have managed to turn their losing streaks around in recent matches, perhaps an even tougher challenge than staying on top. 

CrosskeysKings in Group 2 end the stage on a two-match win streak despite losing their first seven matches. 

Group 1’s Papyrus Alpha also showed great improvement, claiming three of their four wins back to back to finish the stage in the centre of their group.

We’ll be back in January with more British Esports Championships action!

Click here to see the Overwatch Winter Qualifiers standings so far.

Click here to see the Rocket League Winter Qualifiers standings so far.

Click here to see the LoL Winter Qualifiers standings so far.

Broadcast talent

Host: Terry ‘Servitude’ May
Caster: Joe ‘Itsjoeb’ Burton
Caster: Puppeh
Proucer: Elliot Bond
Observer: Harry ‘GKNinja’ Garbutt

 

British Esports roster

Servitude and Rinqedow – Tank
Itsjoeb and Foxeh – Damage
Emmacat95 and Suzie – Support

 

Wyke roster

Mehow and Icestorm – Tank
Cleggy and Harley – Damage
Kinderegg123 and Kingkempy – Support

 

Kennet Klan roster

Alexg123 and Thunderyhail – Tank
Doorkhandle and Thiccbandico – Damage
Anonymous01 and Raccoon – Support

 

Farnborough Harriers

Neon and J3ster – Tank
Polytrich and Guleisgoo – Damage
Jellyfish and Sirixi – Support

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