Chengdu Hunters produce first Mercy MVP of OWL Season 2

Olivia Richman Published 01/08/2019

Even with the insanity that is the first week of the 2-2-2 role lock, the Chengdu Hunters somehow managed to still surprise people with their gameplay and team compositions.

That’s what helped the Chinese team defeat the Boston Uprising after finishing the match with a 3-2 score.

“Even though we’ve gone to 2-2-2, they remain the most unpredictable team,” said analyst Robert “Hexagrams” Kirkbride, referencing the still undecided meta the teams are wading through in the first week since the death of GOATS.

Most teams have opted to run Sombra, Pharah, or Hanzo now that DPS are once again viable in their being required. But the Chengdu Hunters go beyond that.

“They’re playing every single DPS hero and you never know what, when or why they’ll throw in what they throw at you,” Hexagrams said.

Analyst Auguste “Semmler” Massonnat quickly agreed.

“There’s nowhere to go. Nowhere to stay safe,” Semmler said.

Both commentators further agreed that flanking with the two snipers shouldn’t have worked. But it did for Chengdu.

In fact, they noted that it’s because of their seemingly random compositions and strategies that they always seem able to take the fifth map of a series.

“They’re mentally taxing to the other teams,” said Semmler. “By map five they have broken down the other team.”

First Mercy MVP of Season 2

To rub it in further that they’re always going to remain unpredictable, the Chengdu Hunters’ Xianyao “Yveltal” Li was awarded MVP of the match for his Mercy play. This was a hero that wasn’t seen for almost the entirety of the first three stages of Season 2.

“He deserves the love, too. Mercy is very hard to play. But he got key resurrections, preemptive valkyries. He also knows when to flip the switch from healing to damage increase, to put pressure on enemy back lines. He was finishing off kills,” Semmler said. “So not only do you have to worry about snipers from all these different angles, now Mercy is hunting you down, too!”

Yveltal got five final blows as Mercy, proving Semmler’s point.

But more importantly, he did more than 29,500 in healing and resurrected 15 of his teammates during the time he played Mercy.

After the match, Emily Tang interviewed Hu “JinMu” Yi about the 2-2-2 role lock. The DPS main was able to play a lot of Hanzo and Pharah in the series.

“I absolutely think I’ve had more of a chance to shine and more opportunity to show off my skills,” JinMu said.

The Chengdu Hunters already have two wins in Stage 4. They’re in fourth place for the stage and 11th in the overall season. They’ll be facing the Los Angeles Gladiators on Friday at 7:30 PM PST.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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