While the term "Cinderella story" is usually reserved for sporting events such as March Madness, one such esports story rose to prominence during the first two weeks o🍌f the 2020 Overwatch League Playo✅ffs.
To say the Washington Justice struggled during the regular season would be something of an understatement. They finished 19th overall in the standings, out of 20 teams, and ended with a record of 4-17. They had struggles with their damage players, who both retired in the middle of the season, and although they picked up replacements, the pandemic prevented them from meeting up to train together.♕ These issues appeared to continue when they picked up a somewhat controversial new player near the end of the season — however, it was this player, Giu-woon "Decay" Jang, along with a favorable meta switch, that g🐻ave the Justice a true shot at glory.
With Decay — who is normally a damage player — taking over a tank role, the Justice formed t✃heir own meta that played to their strengths, and focused their efforts on the off-tank duo, Roadhog and Zarya. The rest of the team began to revolve around the tanks creating space — and, fortunately for the Justice, that's exactly what they did.
The Justice smashed their way through the play-ins, takin🌸g both the and by surprise with their unorthodox team composition — they easily swept both teams and knocked them out of the playoffs for the season.
Now with a spot in the double elimination bracket, the Justice 🅠had to face their toughest opponent yet: San Fransisco Shock, #2 seed and 201🌳9 Champions. They pushed the Shock to their very limits, making the most out of their composition, but in the end, , getting knocked down to the Loser's Bracket.
The difficult opponents didn't stop there. The Justice destroyed , , and — all much higher ranked seeds than the #12 Justice — and stood to face their final foe in the Loser's Bracket Final, to💛 fight for the last spot in the Grand Finals.
Butꦇ the Philadelphia Fusion would not be denied, and they turned the destruction back around on the Justice, and knocking them out of the playoffs for good.
Washington ended up with a 5-2 record in the , giving them more wins in tไwo weeks than they had during the entire 2020 season, and they finished 3rd in the North America division. Not bad for a team who started at the bottom.
The Fusion join San Fr🌜ancisco Shock, Seoul Dynasty and Shanghai Dragons in the , which will take place in South K🌞orea from October 8-10.
Sources: ,