With two weeks of action completed for Stage 2 of the Overwatch League, the meta has had a chance to finally settle down and become clear for teams and fans alike. With a fairly diverse meta, quite a few teams have been able to thrive and find success early on in the season. For the Philadelphia Fusion, however, it’s been a mixed bag so far. Entering Week 3 with a 2-2 record, let’s take a look at how the Fusion has been performing in the current meta of Stage 2.
Goats are gone! (not really ...)
The main cause of the Fusion’s struggles during Stage 1 was their difficulties with playing a goats compositions. Luckily for them, things are going to be different in Stage 2. While the demise of the goats meta was greatly exaggerated, it has become weaker, opening the way for new team compositions on certain maps.
However, goats compositions are still fairly prominent overall in the current meta as teams that are experts with the compositions such as the Vancouver Titans can still continue to run it in most situations. This becomes an issue for the Fusion as they continue to struggle with the execution of the composition such as in their series against the London Spitfire. While both teams struggled for most of Stage 1 with the goats meta, their rematch in Stage 2 was decided on who was better with goat compositions as well. In the end, the Spitfire had shown the most improvement with the composition as they took the series 2-1.
News
If the Fusion wants to find more success in Stage 2 they must face the reality that they need to improve their play with goat compositions. While it is possible to play other compositions into it, the overall strength of goat compositions is simply still too strong to match in certain situations. This was the case in the Fusion’s Week 1 match against the New York Excelsior, where the Excelsior’s superior play with goat compositions stopped the Fusion in their tracks as the Excelsior would take the series 4-0.
Although the Fusion has found some recent success with goat compositions in their Week 2 victory over the Toronto Defiant, it’s still one of the weak points of the team. If they want to make a deep run in the playoffs, it will be an important aspect to improve on going forward.
Hunker down for bunker compositions!
Blizzard Entertainment
One team composition that has gained popularity thanks to the arrival of Baptiste has been bunker compositions. Overall the composition has been seeing a lot of play on certain maps, with the Paris Eternals using this composition the most overall.
While the Fusion has not played too many games with the composition yet, they did play a variation of it on Junkertown against the Florida Mayhem in Week 1. Overall, the team had a decent amount of success on the map as they would win it and take the series 3-1.
While there hasn’t been much play of the bunker composition from the Fusion yet, that will likely change as Stage 2 progresses. It would be a better idea than playing more goat compositions as DPS players Jae-hyeok "Carpe" Lee and Josh "Eqo" Corona would be able to play and thrive on various DPS characters instead.
DPS heroes make their return?
Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment
The best news for the Fusion coming into Stage 2 was that DPS characters were making a return to into the meta. This has allowed Carpe and Eqo to dominate and have a more meaningful effect on the game.
This was most apparent in their match against the Mayhem as Carpe and Eqo were amazing on DPS characters like Hanzo and Pharah on Temple of Anubis and King’s Row. While the Fusion’s triple DPS composition struggled to get the win on Oasis, the team as a whole looked great with their DPS compositions.
While triple DPS compositions still struggle against goat compositions, the fact that DPS characters are available still provide a huge boost to the Fusion’s chances at having a strong finish despite a very tough Stage 2 schedule. Whether they find success or not will depend heavily on the play of Carpe and Eqo.
Looking ahead
With some difficult matches still remaining against the Excelsior again and the San Francisco Shock, the Fusion’s chances at making the playoffs seem low. However, if they are able to improve on goat compositions, they could still find themselves with a low seed qualification. In the end, it’ll mostly depend on if players that have been underperforming like tank player Su-min "SADO" Kim can step up. Despite the odds, will the Fusion make a miracle run into the playoffs? Only time will tell.
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