At the Overwatch League 2022 Summer Showdown LAN in Toronto, Canada, the local team Toronto Defiant headed into the event with no playoff wins this season. But not only did they break that record with a win over the Washington Justice, they broke another curse earlier today.
After losing to the Houston Outlaws to get eliminated in both previous LAN tournaments, the Defiant finally got their revenge at home. They not only beat the Houston Outlaws, but swept them 3-0 and sent them back to Houston.
Defiant talk about their wins at Summer Showdown
With those two big weights off their shoulders, the Defiant look to be a contender for the rest of the season. Heading into this match, the team was underperforming in comparison to their great qualifiers. However, everybody on the team stepped up, with Lee “Twilight” Joo-seok especially standing out. His player-of-the-match performance against the Outlaws was a testament to how crucial he is to the Defiant’s success over this tournament.
“I never thought we were going to lose to London here,” Twilight said, “so when we lost, the mood was down. Even then, our scrims were going well. So, we took that success into the Washington win and this Houston one too.”
The Defiant said a similar thing after losing to London, about their scrims going well. During the post-match press conference against Washington, about that match, fans were curious as to why the team chose Ashe so much in comparison to Sojourn, the more common choice. The team confirmed that it was something they knew very well, plus that it should get more value consistently throughout a match.
After their first win, that talk was interesting — but it truly came to fruition against the Houston Outlaws. Jeong “Heesu” Hee-su didn’t play anything but Ashe in the series and another player from Toronto stepped up in the lower bracket of the Summer Showdown LAN.
HOTBA returns to form with great game against Outlaws
Heading into the Summer Showdown LAN, Choi “HOTBA” Hong-joon was struggling a bit on Junker Queen. Despite his evident skills in the hero to get the Defiant to the playoffs, a loss against London felt a sour taste in his mouth. However, after a win against Washington, his confidence returned.
“I lost quite a bit of confidence since our loss to London in the qualifiers,” HOTBA said. “So, I spent a lot of time since then looking at my VODs to learn. I used that along with our team practices to improve, and it showed today.”
No matter what happens, Toronto fans are happy
Getting the win against the Washington Justice was to save face; to not flame out at their own LAN. Getting the win and eliminating the Houston Outlaws like Houston did to them twice, that was true success to the local Toronto fans.
“I think all of us Toronto fans were worried even about the game against Washington,” Defiant content creator Fareeha Anderson said. “We saw Washington give the Dallas Fuel a run for their money, and the Fuel are arguably the best team in this meta. To see that Toronto were able to wipe Washington out, that was amazing. Then, to be able to continue that same performance today against Houston, I think everything else is a cherry on top from now on.”
