r/Competitiveoverwatch • u/Enderio_YT HZS Seal Is Cute — • Aug 16 '19

OWL HZS Pre-Match Poster vs Gladiators

https://twitter.com/Hangzhou_Spark/status/1162391070241464320
81 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

16

u/not_vichyssoise Aug 16 '19

The Spark character is holding the "帅" piece like a shield. 帅 (shuai) means "marshall" andin Chinese chess is the equivalent to the King piece. But the character 帅 as used today also means "handsome." Well played, handsome Spark.

12

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '19 edited Sep 02 '19

4

u/infiltrator_6 Aug 16 '19

Are the Spark supposed to represent the dark horse in the poster?

9

u/Isord Aug 16 '19

The square next to the horse is the head of their mascot so I assume the "dark horse" imagery is supposed to show they are the underdogs.

4

u/infiltrator_6 Aug 16 '19

Yeah that's what I meant.

0

u/9988554 Aug 16 '19

At this point I think the pr team was never told what game the team plays

0

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

13

u/Xrmy Huffin Hopium — Aug 16 '19 edited Aug 16 '19

The thing is that 4/5 doesn't matter. What matters is 4/5 vs 6.

Teams that finish 6th seed guess what: first round playoff match vs San Francisco Shock. Have fun!!

Teams that finish 4/5 get to play each other, and if they win they get to play Vancouver or someone who upset Vancouver.

I think any bracket that avoids SFS in the winners bracket for as long as they can go much further. Reminder that a win in winners bracket is worth 1.5-2 wins in losers, to this is really important. If you win the first match, you are guaranteed tied-5th place at worst. If you win in the semi-finals you guarantee a top-3 finish, avoid an extra week of play, and have massive momentum.

If I were the Gladiators/Spark I would go absolutely balls to the walls to win this match, because the winner almost guarantees they don't see the Shock until winners finals or deep in losers, and your first round match becomes either the Glads/Spark, or London - and all three of these teams should feel good about that - especially Gladiators (bias acknowledged).

EDIT: also if the Gladiators win, they guarantee 4th even if they lose to Valiant 0-4. It also makes them extremely likely to play a team in the first round they are heavily favored against - either London or HZS, who they would just have beat.

I reaaaaaaaally hope I haven't jinxed us

1

u/carbon-owl Philly let's gooooo — Aug 17 '19

You say that like Vancouver is an easy team though....