Shocking the Competition - Rascal's use of Baptiste

On 12th July 2019, the San Francisco Shock faced the Seoul Dynasty in the stage 3 quarter finals. The Seoul Dynasty are a difficult team to prepare for, with a highly interchangeable roster. Many expected the Dynasty to enter the game with a triple DPS set up, likely running the Sombra/Pharah duo alongside another damage hero (such as Hanzo). This was seen as their only option because, as we have seen before, you cannot beat the Shock in a GOATs vs GOATs match up. In the purely GOATs meta of stage 2, they didn't drop a single map. Therefore, Seoul would need to beat them using a different style. This high mobility, high damage set-up certainly can work against tank-centric line-ups, as shown by the Shanghai Dragons beating the New York Excelsior the day before.

While the Shock are the best team running the 3/3 composition, even they knew the standard line up of Brigitte/Zarya/Reinhardt/Zenyatta/D.Va/Lucio wouldn't be enough to resist the immense pressure of Seoul's damage players. In order to maintain high healing, while gaining the ability to deal with Pharah, the Shock's Brigitte player, Rascal, swapped onto the new hero Baptiste.

Rascal has been the only player to consistently play Baptiste outside of Paris and Hanamura defences, utilising him in triple tank, triple support compositions. The use of Baptiste's hitscan damage can discourage Pharah players from diving back lines, forcing her to wait for healing from a Mercy before she can engage with a barrage. Pharah needs full health before using her ultimate if she even wants a chance to survive, as she is left completely immobile and defenceless. Furthermore, the immortality field provided by Baptiste can create enough time for the Shock to appropriately react to a nano-boosted barrage.

When dealing with Sombra, using Baptiste over Brigitte is a somewhat safer option. Unlike Brigitte, Baptiste cannot interrupt an EMP, as he does not have a stun. However, Baptiste does not lose all of his healing abilities when hacked; his primary source of healing comes from his secondary fire. Consequently, if the Dynasty engage with an EMP, Rascal can sustain fellow team mates Super and Sinatraa and allow them to continue fighting even without their abilities.

The match started in Oasis, a control map famous for its Pharah usage. On this map, the Dynasty did indeed roll out with a Pharah, Sombra, Wrecking Ball, Triple support line-up. Their use of nano-barrage combos was impeccable and outmatched the Shock's 3/3 and 'Slambulance' compositions; the geometry enabled Marve1's wrecking ball and provided Michelle the necessary open space to out-manoeuvre the less mobile heroes ran by San Francisco and pelt them with rockets to build his ultimate rapidly. Also, the Brigitte and Roadhog attempted by Rascal were simply unable to provide the necessary value. Consequently, the Shock lost Oasis 2-1.

Heading into Numbani, San Francisco finally decided to have Rascal play Baptiste. Fortunately for the Shock, Rascal had the map of his life! In their point A attack, he duelled Marve1's Wrecking Ball using his immortality field, secured the kill onto Fits' Sombra before he could escape and eliminated the Pharmercy duo of Fleta and Jecse using his Amplification Matrix ultimate. It was truly a spectacle to watch. The Shock carried this momentum through and finished their first attack with 3:15 remaining, a considerable time bank. However, this advantage never had to be used, as the Seoul Dynasty were unable to complete the map and, as a result, lost the map.

On Volskaya Industries, Rascal continued to run Baptiste on their point B attack and initial defence, able to pump out large amounts of damage and healing simultaneously, alongside saving his team from Marve1's earth shatter using his immortality field. This led to the Shock taking the map after a last second retake against Seoul on defence, preventing the Dynasty from matching their capture percentage.

With a 2-1 lead in favour of the Shock, the set moved onto the payload map Dorado. The Baptiste was once again utilised in the second half of San Francisco's attack. His placement of Amplification Matrix was placed almost solely for his own benefit, which may appear questionable at first, but the damage pressure was enough to help finish off the remaining members of the enemy team in order to secure the capture of point C. On defence, Rascal took full advantage of the high ground in order to build fast ultimates and provide both healing and damage from a wider sightline. While the Dynasty did indeed finish the map, they left themselves little time to capture even a single checkpoint on their second attack! With this, Rascal and the Shock easily pushed the payload to where the Seoul Dynasty left it, taking the map and winning the series.

Rascal was awarded "Player of the Match", boasting highly impressive stats. On Baptiste during the series, he achieved 20313 damage, 30287 healing, 10 final blows, 2561 damage amplified and 9 deaths prevented. All of this occurred with only 11 deaths on the hero!

Tonight, the Shock face the Los Angeles Valiant, another team which has seen success with a new Sombra player, Shax, and a projectile veteran, Agilities. It will be interesting to see whether San Francisco can deal with this resurging team, who recently ended the 19-game win streak of the Vancouver Titans; after this, the Valiant must be full of confidence. If we're lucky, we may even get to see Rascal pull out the Baptiste again; I certainly hope so!