OT: Vancouver Titans | Overwatch ESports League

[Rowlet]

titans have signed very skilled dps player Shockwave as their #7

 

[Rowlet]

Shockwave, shredlock and Dalton are honestly kinda pounding today, the Titans have looked quite strong on defense

 

[Hansen]

It seems like anything Aquilini touches eventually turns to ****.

I don't know if it was directly his fault, or the people he hired to do marketing and PR, etc, or decide the team ops, but this guy is just allergic to competence.

It's really fascinating how much this situation was ****ed up. Like, not even telling the team when the games are to prepare for them.. How ****ing bush league is that? And skimping on marketing when you have a HUGE opportunity to create excitement and bolster your fanbase. Wow.

Honestly, what a shame.

I watched the Titans, not even ever playing or watching Overwatch, because I thought Runaway's story was intriguing. The fact they played together and did great things as underdogs was an awesome thing, and coming in and dominating the league was incredible to watch. I became a fan without ever playing Overwatch or even really bothering with e-sports because of that story. The only reason I found out about Runaway and the Titans was this thread: @Rowlet and @Pip. Else, I doubt I really would have cared much.

How terrible does your marketing need to be when you don't capitalize on such a great story? Sure, they did a few videos. One relatively brief one of their house in Vancouver they set up for them and a couple others I think. But wow. What a missed opportunity. Like, they could have brought them all to a Canucks game, had them meet the players, take photographs, opening puck drop etc. It seems like a no brainer, to me, to do something like this. Especially with a team with such a great history together. Why not market the Titans alongside the Canucks? At least for one night. Other than that one time during the 2nd intermission where they showed the video and such, what else have they done?

In all, just a huge failure. It makes it hard to support the current rendition of the Titans. Not only cause they suck, but because of the bad taste left in fans' mouths due to just how badly this situation was handled; losing a top 3-5~ team for the forseeable future due to sheer incompetence. Incredible.

The absolute incompetency in marketing is organization wide. I'm really curious now about who has the handle on CSE PR, because they should be watching their back between the storm with Brackett and stuff like this coming out.

I mean just look at the Canucks coverage, we get next to nothing aside from lazy mic'd up vids once or twice a month. We got next to nothing from prospects camp last summer, not even a streamed scrimmage. We got no draft coverage. Our training camp coverage is a joke.

You look at the fanaticism for stuff like Spitting Chiclets (which I cant stand) and how desperate hockey fans are to feel connected to the lives of players and see some personality; there is a massive demand for that kind of content. The stale personality is a hockey wide issue for sure, but like would it kill a team to have cameras around the rink doing some mini-series and showcasing who the people are?

 

[Pip]

Up 2-1. Shockwave is a revelation on the Echo

 

[Pip]

All tied up going into a deciding map 5.

 

[Rowlet]

Toronto clutched up in the last map, I really enjoyed watching Shockwave, he's so good.

 

[Pip]

Not Vancouver Titans related but Decay just put on a historic performance vs the Outlaws on Rialto. Likely the greatest widow performances of all time.

 

[Pip]

Watching the Glads/justice game I can fairly confidently say that if the Titans played the Justice today they would have won. Not that it means a whole heck of a lot but still. Washington looks awful.

 

[Pip]

Toronto getting stomped by Atlanta. Doesn’t make the Titans close loss to the Defiant look anywhere near as impressive

 

[Indiana]

Overwatch League Tokens are back.

2020 Overwatch League Streaming & Rewards Guide - TOKEN DROPS NOW HERE!

I've always thought it was a mistake not having it anymore.

 

[mossey3535]

Runner and Flowervin talk about it. Seems like it was definitely managements fault sigh. I feel sorry for Runner and Flowervin.

The state of the franchise is that this story isn't surprising at all. You have an all-Korean team in a league where all-Korean is practically a given, and you don't hire a translator? That's sheer incompetence. The team was announced on December 2018 and they didn't hire a translator until June 2019...which apparently didn't matter since the lack of schedule etc seemed to be a persistent problem.

 

[Pip]

Not sure if everyone watched the game against Toronto from last weekend. Obviously Toronto isn’t the best team but my takeaways:

-Shockwave is legit. Outclassed Surefour on the Ashe. Mei was clearly not his character (they need someone to grind Mei) and he did feed on Anubis defense.
-Dalton is a decent hitscan player.
- They should get Tsuna to grind some flex dps esque heros like Mei. He is clearly the third best hitscan player (although is playing with ping)
-Shredlock I think is still finding himself. Winston is solid, Orisa is decent (syncing up with Dalton well with pulls/pulse bombs)
- KSAA is decent but I still think he’s finding himself. Not sure if he should be more focused on peel, seems to always flank which I know is a big thing for him. Would have to VOD review to really know. (Ping still an issue)
-Roolf can play ok. Still below average imo. I wonder if he not getting enough peel.
- Carcar is struggling. Having to flex onto the Zen was a weird choice by the coaching staff. Even on MS I haven’t been impressed. Peel may be an issue.

The spawn camp strat on Anubis is legit good but the issue is that you can not invest more ultimates than the other team. You are eventually going to get pushed out so you can’t allow a team to snowball that into an advantaged fight. The whole idea is to get the attacking team to over-invest to get out of spawn. Just seemed like a veteran Toronto team vs an inexperienced Vancouver team but I do LOVE the confidence to pull something like that in OWL. Not sure if it was an in game call or something the coaching staff suggested.

 

[Pip]

First win, especially being a 3-0 was nice, however, without Decay, Dallas is a Washington-caliber team. Being able to win still shows a lot of improvement with the team. Shredlock looks really comfortable and his halts were on point. KSAA really impressed as well. The Shockwave/Dalton DPS duo is legitimately decent and I think can go against most others in the league. Roolf and Cacar looked much better when keeping Roolf on Zen and Carcar on Bap. Carcar especially looks much improved.

things are definitely looking up

 

[Pip]

Summer Showdown this weekend!

Recap from last weekend:

win against Boston
- DPS, especially Shockwave looked good
- Boston was becoming a middle of the pack team, however them getting 3-0’d by Washington on Sunday makes me think they are not as good as their previous stretch suggests
- Shredlock looked good
- supports were decent

loss against Atlanta
- Atlanta is the true gatekeeper of the middle of the pack. They always beat who they should beat
- DPS was decent. Thought the storyline of Babybay mentally booming Shockwave was overblown. Was entertaining though.
- tanks looked weak this game. Really want them to bring over KSAA to lower his ping issues.
- Supports were a liability. At this point I think their individual skill has to come into question. I think upgrades are needed at both positions to put this team into the middle of the pack. Not really sure why Carcar was so touted in NA contenders.

 

[Pip]

Summer showdown:

- they get a by for the first round and choose their opponent.
- In my opinion their best chance of success is Tracer/Echo dive mixed with Ashe/Tracer. I don’t think this team has a Genji player. Roolf looks best on Zen. Put Carcar on Brig.

I think Washington could be a dark horse to go far in this. Ttuba is a very good Genji player.

 

[Rowlet]

We looked pretty good against Boston last week

 

[Pip]

So the Titans have had a rough stretch (against good teams) and looked like they took a step back. They were never supposed to win, however, they didn’t look competitive at all.

last weekend against Toronto and Boston was better, but those teams are lower caliber teams just to keep in mind.

couple of thoughts:

- Dalton has been really grinding the Genji and it shows. I don’t believe he really had much experience with this character before.
-Shockwave, while a bit overconfident at times, is a legitimately good hitscan player, probably top half in the league.
- Roolf looks improved and more comfortable
- The team looks much better with Orisa in the hero pool, and with KSAA on Sigma. Their dive does not look great.
- the team struggles against symmetra comps (typical tank on control), and against junkrat.

They play Atlanta in the countdown cup. Without Babybay I don’t think they have a top tier hitscan. Edison is good but not crazy good. Erster is obviously a nutty Genji/projectile. I don’t love the Atlanta tank line of Gator and Hawk/FRD. They had a lot of hype going into this year but I don’t think they hold the advantage there. Supports are somewhat even (I think MASAA is better than CarCar, and Dogman is a wild card). Should be an interesting matchup.

 

[Pip]

@Rowlet

I’m sure you heard that Dallas dropped Decay. Imagine an alternate universe where the old Titans were still here and picked up Decay.

Decay
Haksal
Fissure
Jjanu
Slime
Twilight
Spare: SMS, Jehong

 

[Rowlet]

@Rowlet

I’m sure you heard that Dallas dropped Decay. Imagine an alternate universe where the old Titans were still here and picked up Decay.

Decay
Haksal
Fissure
Jjanu
Slime
Twilight
Spare: SMS, Jehong

Yeah, that would have been nifty. Really wish we could have seen more of that year 1 team. **** covid and management.

 

[Pip]

Offseason update: tons of moves leaguewide and a lot of very good western players available as I imagine they won’t be signing any Korean players.

- Vancouver resigned: Roolf, Shredlock and Dalton
- Vancouver dropped: KSAA, CarCar, and Tsuna
- Shockwave is testing free agency

My thoughts:
- KSAA and CarCar are decent players (esp KSAA playing on crazy ping). Surprised they were dropped when I believe the Titans had a team option on their contracts. Tsuna was never given a fair shake here.
-Resigning Roolf seems a bit strange from strictly a talent perspective but there may be more to what he brings.
- Dalton and Shredlock and good young players with good potential. Glad they are resigned
- For this team to be any good Shockwave needs to be resigned. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him land in London.
- Crimzo is available and would be a massive pickup
-Note is available and is a good off tank
-Is Zykk available?

 

[Pip]

@Rowlet you see the Paris/Dallas moves? Crazy stuff

 

[Pip]

Washington loading up with re-signing Decay and picking up Mag.

Dallas is pretty nutty with Hanbin, Sp9rkle, Doha, Rush etc

Floida sounds like they have gotten SanGuiNar and are going full EU which means Glister is on the market.

 

[Pip]

I’m not too familiar with the Western contenders talent but targets for Vancouver if it were up to me:

McGravy/Note
Crimzo
Agilities
Kruise (I assume he will go to London)
LhCloudy

 

[Pip]

Main support is very interesting. Kinda wish they re-signed CarCar.

Options:
Fire
Paintbrush
Halo
???

 

[Pip]

@Hansen thinking Winston is an off tank