The first day of Alienware Merry Melee was full of suprises for the viewers on December 1st. Here's a quick look at what happened.
December's Melee started off with Group A, which held Kingdom Gaming, Really Cool Guys (RCG), Liquid and Cloud 9. This Melee was Really Cool Guys' debut, and it left the audience and casters with a strong first impression when they faced Kingdom and won 2-1. Mitch 'UberShouts' Leslie predicted the new RCG roster would be safe with practical compositions. This approach did not work in their favor on Lijang Tower with Kingdom winning 3-1, but did help them on Hollywood where they won 3-1. The deciding map, King's Row, was what stunned viewers the most. RCG used a Mercy single healer comp with a Widowmaker and Pharah as their offensive line, and it worked. Though this gave them the first point rather quickly, the map was close, ending in RCG's favor at 4-3.
Kingdom was then up against Cloud 9. These matches are where, what I like to call, the Pillow Composition (3-4 tanks in play) was seen in full force. Though the Pillow Composition was effective, Surefour with his Mei plays helped to solidify Cloud 9's win on Lijang Tower with a 3-0. Kingdom was not ready to give up after that, and they won the next two maps, Nepal (3-2) and Route 66 (2-0). A fair bit of the defense between these two teams was effective because of the opponents "staggering" their targets. Staggering is where you keep the final player, you typically want to focus a healer, from dying for a few seconds longer so that the spawn time for that player works in your favor. By staggering, the opposing team has to run offense with one less player. While Kingdom and Cloud 9 fought, RCG played and against Liquid, winning 2-0.
After their loss, Cloud 9 faced former members of their team in RCG in a grudge match (well, one in good fun). Lijang Tower was again the first map with Watchpoint and Gibraltar following after. Cloud 9 did finish off their former teammates with a 2-0 win, but not without a fight from RCG. Cloud 9 wiped RCG with a 3-0 win on Lijang, but RCG's offense was strong on Gibraltar. Cloud 9 held off pushes with a Sombra defense to the surprise of the casters, but Surefour dropped her towards the end of the first round in order to utilize Tracer's speed. On offense, the pillow composition of Roadhog, Rein and Zarya, with a Zenyatta to help deal damage, gained Cloud 9 their win.
Group B was up next with FaZe, Immortals, compLexitiy and Method gaming. Immortals faced off compLexity in the first match. The first map was Eichenwalde, where compLexity brought out their Sombra on offense. The game was full of good pushes from compLexity, and they nearly capped the last point on round one when the server crashed, forcing compLexity and Immortals to play the match again. The second go was not favorable to compLexity, who removed Sombra from the team composition in fear that they would be countered. Immortals won 2-1. Hollywood was next in the map pool. Much to the dismay of the players, the server crashed again, which rolled the stream into the last map between FaZe and Method.
FaZe's and Method's last map was King's Row, which was also the deciding map. Both of the teams manage to take the map into overtime. FaZe dominated in the first round though, leaving them 3 minutes and 43 seconds to push on the second round of attack. Method was not as quick, leaving themselves only 1 minute and 15 seconds. FaZe did win this map comfortably with 4-3 and won with 2-1.
After this, FaZe faced off against Immortals. FaZe held up to being the casters' favored team by winning 2-1. The win for FaZe seemed to be due to their pressure on Immortals. They played aggressively, causing Immmortals to go for passive attacks and defense, ultimately winning them the series.
FaZe and compLexity then faced off, starting with Hollywood. CompLexity's Sombra proved to be a force that FaZe was clearly unfamiliar with, which gave compLexity a win of 3-1. On Gibraltar, FaZe respected Sombra's offense by not grouping together and trying to watch and listen for her hacking. Thanks to their patience on defense and their aggression on offense, FaZe won 2-1. King's Row was the deciding map for these two, leading casters to think that Sombra would be of no use to compLexity. But compLexity used FaZe's discomfort and pulled her out for the attack. With her EMP, they were able to push to the finished and fully held during the second round against FaZe to win the series at 2-1.
Day one was full of close matches and steamrolls. Rly Cool Guys debuted, and it was well worth it. They have proven that they can roll with the big boys of Overwatch. CompLexity rolled with their unfortunate series of crashes, showing that a bit of bad luck (and Sombra hacks) can work in their favor. Looking onto day two tonight, viewers can expect lots of heavy hitting and close games.
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