How did the Titans manage to escape the Trick Room? A young DPS prodigy helped score the team its second Pro-Am win.
A new, young roster and one of the most hyped rookie talents of 2023 led the Vancouver Titans to victory today in a 2-0 win over Trick Room in the Pro-Am West event. The win comes 24 hours after the Contenders team scored a massive upset over former, two-time champs the San Francisco Shock. However, don't let the 2-0 score fool you: Trick Room played each map close but in the end couldn't overcome the Titans DPS prodigy Kamden "Sugarfree" Hijada.
The win gives much-needed confidence to a Titans franchise still haunted by the ghosts of past rosters. A year ago the squad was a mishmash of hangers-on players. Vancouver look to make a statement in 2023 and started with a potential trap game gone right.
Titans escape the Trick Room
May 6, 2020 stands as one of the weirdest days in Overwatch League history and perhaps the worst day for the Vancouver Titans. This was when the franchise announced the departure of its entire squad, coming off a 2019 Grand Finals run with the former powerhouse Korean Contenders squad of RunAway.
It all came crashing down when, amid accusations that the team was burnt out and felt mistreated, the team org let the entire squad free. From that point until only this year the Vancouver Titans were the walking dead. Various rosters made up of whoever was available to fill a seat, constantly shambling in the shadows of what could have been.
December 2023 changed all of that, with the Titans making a number of smart acquisitions. This included former Houston Outlaws and Team Canada support William "Crimzo" Hernandez and the aforementioned Sugarfree, who sat last season until he came of age.
If yesterday's win against Timeless wasn't enough to show that the Titans are on a new path then today's decisive, yet hard fought victory over Trick Room is proof positive.
Trick Room loses their keys
The Trick Room that defeated the Shock yesterday were dynamic, dogged, and coordinated. However, the Contenders team that showed up today against the Titans looked sluggish and more concerned with typing in match chat than finishing off close maps. The team still saw stellar play from DPS standout Mason "Boat" Earle on Mai and Tracer.
However, the difference was that the Titans' DPS players were more than willing to defend their supports and close ranks on pressure from Trick Room's dive compositions. Trick Room looked completely out of sorts by the final point on the third map of Hollywood.
Was the win over the Shock just a capitalization of right time, right place? Maybe. However, this is a young Contenders team that took on a Vancouver squad with something to prove. We won't know for sure until we see more of both teams. The Titans will next take on Florida on Saturday, while Trick Room faces against another Contenders squad in Timeless on Sunday.
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