Chapter 102: Semifinals – 4

Rea​d on ​KatReadingCafe

The core principle of the 3-3 composition is as follows:

Based on Lucio’s speed boost, all six members push forward together.

They induce chaos—what is commonly referred to as a brawl—to overwhelm the opponent.

Then, with overwhelming force, they seize control of the objective and the payload first.

If you ask where this power comes from, it’s all about sustainability.

Lucio and Brigitte’s area-of-effect healing abilities.

The durability of three tanks, making it nearly impossible for most damage dealers to break through.

And even if they take damage from the enemy, the overwhelming healing allows them to charge their ultimate abilities even faster.

Moreover, Reinhardt and Zarya, who would normally struggle to charge their ultimates, find themselves in constant skirmishes with the enemy, allowing their ultimates to cycle quickly. This means that if they win one team fight, their ultimates will be ready again soon, giving them an advantage in the next engagement.

In short, the strengths of the 3-3 composition can be summarized in two points:

Overwhelming sustainability for chaotic brawls and brute force and the ability to snowball—once they gain momentum, they can roll over the enemy like a growing snowball.

****************

『Hanzo, fall back!』

『It’s fine! I’ll take the high ground! Just focus on the front line!』

『Got it. While Lulu watches Hanzo, let’s push. I have Shield Bash, right? I’ll coordinate with Lucretia.』

『Okay.』

『I’ll activate the speed boost right now!』

However, there’s one minor drawback.

Since the composition relies heavily on organic teamwork, team coordination and communication are extremely important.

When to use Lucio’s speed boost to overwhelm the enemy.

Ultimate ability combos and the ability to quickly focus down key targets.

All of this stems from team synergy.

And the Blue LUV team moved as one.

The moment Lucio’s speed boost activated, they all rushed in, ignoring the payload and diving straight into the enemy.

Clang!

When Chae-yoon’s Brigitte broke through Reinhardt’s barrier and stunned him, the once-impenetrable barrier disappeared in an instant.

Seizing the opportunity, Ra-hee’s hammer erupted with flames.

[Hammer down!]

Boom!

【Ah! As soon as Lilith lands her Shield Charge, Lucretia’s Earthshatter follows up perfectly!】

【This combo is absolutely insane! It doesn’t look like something they’ve only practiced once or twice!】

【That’s right. While the Reinhardt and Brigitte combo is essential in the current meta, even considering that, their coordination is truly spectacular!】

• Their combo is insane lol
• They can’t even compete in a brawl…
• What’s the point of running double snipers here?
• Did Reinhardt just use his ult? It’s back so fast, damn wtf

As everyone except the two snipers on the high ground fell to the ground, cheers erupted from the commentators and viewers alike.

Especially when Ra-hee’s ultimate, which she had already used when entering the second point, came back before they even reached the end of the second point, leaving everyone in awe.

It felt like she was using her ultimate every 30 to 40 seconds.

【The Blue LUV team! They take the third point with overwhelming force!】

While the opposing team was still reeling from the unfamiliar composition, they gave up three points.

As the roles switched and the Blue LUV team now had to defend, the same composition as before appeared on the screen as they left their base.

【This team is truly amazing. The ‘Mom Said Eat Your Food’ team must be having a headache right now. Even though they’re running double snipers, they’re completely shut down and can’t do anything, right?】

【But since they’re on attack now, wouldn’t it make sense to use a character like Pharah?】

【Yes, I think that’s the best option. Fortunately, the only way the Blue LUV team can deal with Pharah is with D.Va.】

Pharah.

At this point in Overwatch, she is the only damage dealer capable of aerial mobility.

Most aerial mobility either involves briefly flying before falling or simply jumping high, but Pharah, with her own capabilities and if left unchecked, can literally fly indefinitely in the sky.

In any case, the current weakness of the Blue LUV team is that, as anyone can see, they lack damage dealers.

This means they have almost no means to deal with long-range threats.

Of course, earlier, D.Va did a good job of suppressing the snipers and since the barriers prevented the snipers from finding angles to deal damage, their weakness wasn’t very apparent.

But in the case of Pharah, who can fly over barriers and deal damage, the story is different.

Moreover, for an enemy team that sticks closely together, Pharah, who can fire missiles and deal splash damage to multiple targets, is a nightmare.

『I’ll take Pharah. But Mercy, stick with me instead of the main team.』

『Yeah, that sounds good. If Mercy doesn’t stick with me, D.Va’s harassment will make it tough anyway.』

『Then what should we fill the other damage slot with?』

『Let’s go with Hanzo for now. We need to break the barriers anyway.』

『Okay.』

And just as the commentators predicted, the ‘Mom Said Eat Your Food’ team also planned to run a poke composition centered around Pharah.

Of course, from an objective standpoint, this isn’t a bad choice.

After all, a perfect counter to a composition that has just made its debut in the world is something even pro players would struggle to come up with.

[The attack has begun. Transport the payload.]

The base doors finally opened, and Pharah, who had jumped out from the second-floor exit, flew out with Mercy to scout the enemy base.

The composition looked the same as before, a 3-3.

Reinhardt, Zarya, Brigitte, Lucio, Zenyatta.

They were all there.

『…Huh? I don’t see D.Va?』

Just as she was about to say that, TonightsDinnerIsDuck, who was playing Pharah, muttered in confusion.

For some reason, D.Va was nowhere to be seen.

『Did they switch comps? Maybe to Hanzo or something?』

『Why would they? Even if they switch to Hanzo, we can just switch to double snipers and end it.』

A teammate offered a plausible opinion, but to TonightsDinnerIsDuck, it didn’t seem like a good idea.

Then, was she hiding somewhere?

She couldn’t understand why D.Va, a tank, would be hiding at this point.

Ping!

As TonightsDinnerIsDuck pondered this while continuing her callouts, a sharp sound rang out, and her vision was clouded by a dark, hazy effect.

It was the effect of Zenyatta’s Discord Orb, which appears when a target is discorded.

Since Pharah is an easy target in the air, this debuff is usually fatal to her, but given the enemy team’s composition they couldn’t effectively deal damage to Pharah, so TonightsDinnerIsDuck smirked and flew over the building, gliding leisurely above the enemy team.

But at that moment.

『Lulu! Pharah’s discorded!』

『Got it!』

A sharp voice echoed from the Blue LUV team’s voice chat and D.Va, who had been hiding by the window on the second floor, boosted out.

Da-jeong, who had predicted that the enemy would bring Pharah against the 3-3 comp, had been waiting in the standard route Pharah would take.

Whoosh!

『Huh, huh…?!』

BlueLUVLulu > TonightsDinnerIsDuck

With the 30% damage increase debuff from Discord, D.Va suddenly appeared and body-slammed Pharah, unloading her missiles and primary fire. In the blink of an eye, Pharah was shot down and fell to the ground.

【Lulu! Is she insane?! She predicted they’d bring Pharah and hid there!】

【And her aim was so clean just now! Even though Pharah was discorded, TonightsDinnerIsDuck couldn’t even react and just exploded!】

• She’s a wall, I swear lolololololololol
• She predicted Pharah and waited there lolololololol
• CEO Kang’s call out was so good
• Wow, her tracking is insane…

Not only did Da-jeong’s game sense and mechanics shine, but the perfect teamwork displayed by the team left the commentators and viewers in awe.

『Let’s rush them before they can rez!』

『Go go!』

[Let’s move quickly!]

Mercy frantically tried to rez the dead Pharah, but the Blue LUV team, anticipating this, rushed in with Lucio’s speed boost and overwhelmed the main team.

In the end, Mercy and the teammates who came to cover her were wiped out, and the team fight ended just like that.

After a prolonged back-and-forth, they ultimately failed to achieve any meaningful results, and time was running out.

『Damn, we can’t break through….』

『No, we still have one last chance. Lucio and Zenyatta’s ultimates are down, so let’s push with Zarya’s ultimate.』

『Yeah, I have my ultimate too, so we can do it.』

The atmosphere of the ‘Mom Said Eat Your Food’ team was slightly dampened by the overwhelming solidity of the enemy team, but the remaining teammates encouraged each other, reminding themselves that there was still a chance.

In fact, they weren’t wrong.

Because the previous team fight had dragged on for so long, the enemy team had used two crucial healer ultimates to hold the point until the end.

On the other hand, their own ultimates had charged later, giving them one last opportunity.

Specifically, the combo of Zarya and Pharah’s ultimates.

Zarya’s ultimate, Graviton Surge, is a powerful team-fight ultimate that forcibly pulls enemies within its range into one spot.

On top of that, Pharah’s ultimate, Barrage, fires a massive barrage of missiles in a certain area, making it the highest-damage ultimate in Overwatch.

If these two ultimates could be combined the enemy team, with no defensive ultimates left, would have no way to counter it.

Of course, the enemy team might still have Graviton Surge, but they had Zenyatta’s ultimate to counter it.

If they lost this set, it was over.

So, after steeling their resolve, the ‘Mom Said Eat Your Food’ team rushed forward as soon as Pharah took to the air.

【The ‘Mom Said Eat Your Food’ team! They’re rushing in with the mindset that if they land the Graviton Surge, they can take the point!】

【That’s right! They can’t afford to drag this out! Haebom’s ultimate charges so fast that we don’t know when Transcendence will be back!】

Boom! Boom!

Pharah’s missiles exploded all over the place.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

As Hanzo’s rapid-fire arrows chipped away at Reinhardt’s barrier, Reinhardt’s barrier finally began to reach its limit.

Crack!

[The barrier’s down!]

Just as the enemy Reinhardt’s barrier was completely destroyed, a voice line played.

The enemy Zarya calmly assessed the situation.

‘D.Va will try to eat my ultimate no matter what. I need to chase her away first.’

The reason was none other than Da-jeong, who was playing D.Va.

D.Va has an ability called Defense Matrix, which deletes all projectiles within a certain range without question.

Since Zarya’s Graviton Surge is also a projectile, if she carelessly fires it in front of D.Va, it could get eaten.

So the Zarya player decided to chip away at D.Va’s health and force her out of the fight.

Moreover, Zarya was capable of doing this.

Her primary weapon, the Particle Cannon’s left-click isn’t a projectile so it couldn’t be eaten by D.Va’s Defense Matrix.

And if D.Va kept taking damage from the high-powered Particle Cannon, she’d eventually have to retreat.

Zap zap!

【Oh! Zarya is going one-on-one with D.Va! D.Va’s getting wrecked! D.Va’s getting wrecked!】

【Zarya figured it out! If she destroys D.Va’s mech, there’s nothing to stop her ultimate!】

As D.Va, who had moved to the right flank to absorb the ultimate, tried to retreat, Zarya strode forward and fired her massive laser.

Thanks to the Particle Cannon’s ability to increase damage based on absorbed damage, Zarya’s damage output was terrifying after taking so much damage on the frontlines.

D.Va’s 600 HP began to melt away in an instant.

‘Use your boosters, use them.’

Now, D.Va had only two choices.

Either temporarily give up on marking Zarya and use her boosters to retreat, or continue marking Zarya until her mech was destroyed.

But in the latter case, once the mech was destroyed, the team fight would essentially be over, so Zarya was certain D.Va would choose the former.

Whoosh!

‘Yes!’

And just as expected, as soon as Da-jeong used her boosters and turned her head, Zarya, seeing D.Va retreating, immediately used her ultimate, Graviton Surge.

Just as the massive energy orb launched from her cannon was about to engulf the Blue LUV team—

Beep!

[Ultimate blocked!]

As D.Va’s cheerful voice line played, the energy orb that had been heading straight for the enemy disappeared without a trace, and D.Va’s playful voice echoed.

That’s right.

Da-jeong had known from the start.

The moment Zarya started walking toward her, she predicted that Zarya would chip away at her HP, force her to use her boosters to retreat, and then use Graviton Surge.

So she deliberately took damage until her HP was critically low, then used her boosters to retreat, creating an opening for the enemy to use their ultimate.

This was a classic mind game between D.Va and Zarya during the peak of the 3-3 meta.

【Wait, Lulu! She ate that?!】

【Zarya must be furious right now! She clearly used Graviton Surge as soon as she saw D.Va boosting back, but it was all a trap!】

• The queen of eating ultimates lol
• Her game sense is insane
• Did they just outplay each other?
• The Zarya played well too lolololol

The sheer brilliance of Da-jeong’s mind games left the commentators and viewers in awe, shaking their heads in disbelief.

But the problem didn’t end there.

The moment Pharah from the ‘Mom Said Eat Your Food’ team heard the call for Graviton Surge and saw it being launched, she also activated her ultimate.

[Barrage deployed!]

Beep beep beep—

Countless missiles launched from Pharah’s equipment, raining down on the Blue LUV team, but,

[Well, nice try!]

As if she had anticipated this too, D.Va immediately turned her head toward Pharah in the air and used Defense Matrix to eat all the missiles.

D.Va’s special interaction line after eating an ultimate sounded particularly mocking today.

『I ate the Graviton Surge and the Barrage! Activate speed boost and push!』

Despite pulling off a super play that would be rare even in professional matches, Da-jeong calmly continued her callouts and, along with her teammates, overwhelmed the demoralized enemy team.

And so, the winner of the semifinals was decided.