This week the Countdown Cup qualifiers and knockouts have wrapped up. As usual we have a set of four teams who will be playing in the double bracket tournament next week. Let’s get into them.
Continue reading “Thoughts on week 18 of Overwatch League 2021”Thoughts on week 17 of Overwatch League 2021
It is the second week of the Countdown Cup, mid tier teams vying for the last few spots in to the postseason play-ins and we have a team getting their first win of the season. Let’s get into it.
The Games
The week started off with a shaky victory for the Toronto Defiant against the London Spitfire and that defined most of the week. With only three 3-2 series, the rest of the week filled with a sea of 3-1s and/or otherwise uninteresting series.
The Washington Justice fell flat so hard that people had Vancouver winning their series against them 3-0 but thankfully they were saved from that particular disgrace this week. They still look mostly mediocre however and continue to be the most disappointing team this season.
Speaking of disappointing, the Florida Mayhem were unable to close out their series against the Atlanta Reign in the final map. Their later victory against the downward trending Boston Uprising wasn’t particularly satisfying either, an unconvincing 3-1.
The most interesting match this week is a 3-0 series. In the best performance they’ve had this season the Vancouver Titans achieved their first match victory season against the Boston Uprising. With the power of Dalton’s Tracer and Teru’s Pharah, the team ended it all on Hanamura. Need I mention that we had achieved breadsticks by the first map of the series? It was meant to me.
For those of us familiar with the second season of the league will remember the Boston Uprising also gave the Shanghai Dragons their first win in the league. One of those is a fluke, with a second one, it feels like the legacy of the Uprising is they are a team that gives other teams their first victories.
That is all from me this week. I’ll see y’all next week as the Countdown Cup qualifiers come to an end.
Thoughts on week 16 of Overwatch League 2021
Here we are again, the start of another tournament cycle, the Countdown Cup qualifiers. This one is going to be the last of these tournaments for the season before the season playoffs begin. This also means that we have two teams that have qualified for the season playoffs already, the Dallas Fuel and the Shanghai Dragons.
The first week of tournament cycles always means a great degree of uncertainty when it comes to match results and this one was no different.
Let’s get into it.
Continue reading “Thoughts on week 16 of Overwatch League 2021”Thoughts on week 14 of Overwatch League 2021
We are here at the end of yet another tournament. The 2021 Summer Showdown has wrapped up in a manner that was unexpected by basically everyone. Let’s get into it.
Continue reading “Thoughts on week 14 of Overwatch League 2021”Zelda
This week reviews for the Skyward Sword HD remaster came out and it brought me to a realization. I realized that I don’t actually care about Zelda as a franchise.
The reason I played Breath of the Wild was because it was a novel open world game which encouraged exploration. Nothing about the characters or the story was particularly interesting or compelling. The final boss fight felt more like a obligation than a fun thing to do.
One thing that was interesting to me from reading this review was seeing the origin of ideas that got refined in Breath of the Wild. Systems like the stamina system and weapon degradation were present in a crude way in Skyward Sword. I hope BOTW 2 sees further refinement or even removal of the weapon degradation system because that was another part of BOTW that was not enjoyable at all.
Weapon degradation in BOTW meant that the flow of the already mediocre combat system got broken in the middle of a combat encounter. So you stop and switch to another weapon. Aggravating to say the least.