Match Recap: UCLA wins against Boise State University and Cogswell Polytechnical College

UCLA’s Overwatch Team A played challenging games against Boise State University (BSU) and Cogswell Polytechnical College (CPC) on Wednesday, Oct. 25 but emerged victorious in both series. That puts UCLA at 6 wins and 6 losses in Tespa’s Collegiate Overwatch Series.

The Bruins started the attack on Dorado with a strong push and a team composition geared towards taking close quarter fights. Noah “AnotherDax” M. played Reinhardt while Alexander “sireku” G. watched his back as Zarya. As usual, Brad “raxa” Jiang provided constant damage and cover for the team on McCree, while Brian “Pip” S. pushed the payload as Junkrat. Harsha “harsha” B. and William “Tsang” T. finished up the composition with Ana and Mercy respectively.

BSU attempted to stop UCLA’s advance with a composition centered around their own Junkrat, but their team could not secure any key kills on UCLA. Eventually, BSU replaced Junkrat with Tracer and was successful in holding the Bruins right before the second point. BSU showed the strength of their ‘dive’ composition, as their Winston and D.va coordinated well enough to throw off the Bruins’ teamwork. As a result, BSU’s ‘dive’ composition caused the Bruins to miss crucial kills. Although UCLA made a valiant attempt on defense, they were ultimately unable to withstand the onslaught of ultimate abilities from BSU.

UCLA started their defense on the second map, King’s Row. This time, the Bruins ran their own ‘dive’ composition with sireku on Winston, Another Dax on D.va and raxa on Tracer. It was evident that the Bruins were not used to playing ‘dive’ compositions because they got dismantled by BSU’s efficient dives. However, the Bruins redeemed themselves on attack, taking the first point quickly with raxa’s Widowmaker grabbing 3 kills. Well timed Transcendences from harsha and Rip-tires from Pip allowed the Bruins to push to the end and win the map.

The Bruins prevailed on Oasis against BSU’s formidable dives as a result of great individual plays from every member on the team. With a convincing win, UCLA then moved on to the game against CPC.

CPC ran an interesting combination with Sombra and Reaper on Ilios’ first point, but they were shut down by raxa’s Widowmaker and sireku’s Zenyatta. The Bruins experimented heavily on the second point with harsha hopping on Orisa and later switching to Tracer. The team looked to be in disarray as CFC dismantled them with superior team play. The Bruins went back to their familiar roles, this time with Pip on Junkrat and raxa on Hanzo. CFC tried to respond with a switch to Pharah but was quickly halted by raxa’s own switch to McCree.

CFC picked Volskaya Industries for the next map and attempted to use Sombra to gain maximum value out of the health packs. The Bruins once again ran an experimental composition with Tsang on Mei, raxa on Hanzo and harsha on Junkrat. CFC were unable to stop the overwhelming damage from UCLA’s composition and crumbled on defense. Understanding Sombra’s potential on Volskaya, harsha flexed onto Sombra during UCLA’s own defense. CFC however, were able to push through and complete both points as the Bruins were unable to capitalize on EMPs. Going into the tiebreakers, raxa surprised CFC with Genji and Pip took on the role of Tracer. CFC were not prepared for UCLA to run a ‘dive’ composition and were punished. With Tsang keeping the team alive on Mercy, the Bruins successfully took the second point and claimed a second win for the day.

UCLA’s Overwatch A team will be back same time next Wednesday on Overwatch’s Tespa Collegiate Series. Stay tuned for updates!