Flubby, Head Coach for the Vancouver Titans, spoke with
Esports Heaven on his team's momentous win, how they’ve found their place in the Countdown Cup metagame, and if the team truly can turn it around.
In stunning fashion, the Vancouver Titans dismantled the Boston Uprising 3-0 to not only score their first victory of 2021 but to send a message; they’re not going quietly into the night.
As the 2021 Overwatch League season rounds to a close, the Vancouver Titans look to helm their own Cinderella run through the Countdown Cup and perhaps squeak into the Countdown Cup playoffs.
We saw a glimpse of the staff’s reaction after your victory on Havana, but with your first win on the board and the adrenaline finally wearing off, how are you personally feeling right now? Second to that, how is the energy like in the Titan’s locker room leading into your game against the Washington Justice?
Personally, I'm feeling calm. With that being said, we are all of the same mindset for this Washington game.
With everything going on lately we can’t afford to lose what composure we’ve gained. Confidence is what we feel, and controlling that is what we need.
Diving into the game for a moment, walk us through the thought process of swapping to Mei on Hanamura. Was this more to separate the tank line from the supports or to try and mitigate the enemy DPS from gaining strong sightlines?
This decision was made by the players in the heat of the moment.
We’ve never practiced Mei in this cycle so it was a bit of a surprise seeing it during a 4-4 2CP map but hearing them discuss the strategy and the reasoning for it, it was worth a shot.
It was a full team trust fall.
Obviously, the Boston Uprising are not the only team to break out this more slow tempo Orisa composition, teams like the Atlanta Reign have found some success with it as well. What’s your take on it? Do you feel like it has legs, in the long run, looking ahead to the Countdown Cup knockouts?
I think the Orisa composition is actually very viable. It has strong sustain, can hold its own versus Dive, and is only a few swaps away from controlling Pharah compositions.
I feel like it has its place in particular maps, as well as with particular teams.
Looking ahead I can see teams like Atlanta mastering the hell out of it and making people question what the meta really is.
As a side note; you’ll always notice a lot of variances the first couple weeks of a new cycle, a lot of different comps can work.
It’s certainly dependent on your teams/player strengths and if you can make it work early, any adaptations you need to make are minimal.
One observation from the Pharah variant of the Wrecking Ball composition that seems interesting is the speed at which the team has to play around it and the positioning she has to take to drive home that explosive impact. Was that a little awkward at first for the team to get used or did it just come naturally?
Yeah definitely a little awkward at first, sometimes it still is.
We didn’t see much of that awkwardness in the Boston match, and that was mostly due to them running majority Orisa compositions.
It gets quite different from, say, a mirror comp. To have it play naturally and feel that way depends on the team's trust and understanding of their duties in the [compositions].
We did that well today and we as staff are going to look to continue that recognition going into the rest of the cycle.
While he’s a new addition to the Vancouver Titans, Changsik has been around since the early APEX days of Overwatch. Could you talk a little bit about his role within the team? How does that experience shine through?
It's been rough for us as a whole and Changsik came to us in our time of need.
Since joining he’s been quite important to the team inside and outside of the game.
He’s been a great teammate to Teru, as well as the whole team, and I couldn't ask for anything more.
I think that experience shined through at its highest yesterday--Fusion University and their map 5s--during the maps he kept making sure we kept composure and not to get ahead of ourselves.
During Changsik’s post-match interview, he mentioned one of the big adaptations coming into this game was having a faster tempo. Could you elaborate on that? Was this more reflected in the compositions the Titans were running or more so just how you were running them?
A little bit of both, we also have a particular pace we want to play in the early fights against an Orisa composition and we tried to execute on that best we could.
In general, we tended to play on the backfoot in previous matches, and we wanted to escape from that mood or feeling.
If we can set our own pacing on our compositions, especially on the Wrecking Ball, there’s no reason we can get a few more wins under our belt.
On the topic of preparation, how comfortable or confident were you feeling coming into the Countdown Cup after seeing the hero pool that was drafted?
Oddly enough, very comfortable. Confidence came later as we neared the match weekend.
This 3-0 victory over the Boston Uprising seems like a statement victory moving forward and the team looked incredibly comfortable across the majority of the team fights, does this feel like a turning point for the Titans? Does it feel like something anything has changed leading up to this resounding win?
Yes, I really do think it's a turning point for us.
We’re going to be able to go out with our heads up and not staring at the floor.
There has been a large focus on team atmosphere and mentality and I know everyone, players included, hit the mark on making that happen.
It’s not easy to painfully tweet “gg’s” 12 times in a row, and it's even harder to be in a mental place to persevere.
It may be only 1 win, but it was the win the players needed to get back up. Now it's our chance to hold our ground or push on forward.
When we review your schedule in light of such a big win, your remaining matches for the Countdown Cup seem much more manageable. All things considered, the metagame, the team’s morale, and practice results, how confident are you moving forward? And as a follow-up, what would it mean to you and the team if you made the Cinderella run and booked a trip to Hawai’i?
We are certainly confident, we will ride this wave and the next until we hit the shore.1 match at a time.
Well… since we’re already out of playoff contention, Hawai’i doesn't sound like a bad place to vacation once our season ends.
Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLGs of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel.
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Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment. 
Volamel
2021-08-08 07:32:00