An Overwatch League pro dazzled fans by showing off the most ingenious use of Sombra’s EMP in the history of the game in a brilliant play that’s going to be on highlight reels for years to come.
EMP is arguably the most powerful ability in Overwatch, ultimate or otherwise. With the power to completely remove shields, annihilate shield health, and cancel enemy abilities, many fights can be won with EMP alone.
Shanghai Dragons DPS Jae-won ‘LIP’ Lee showed off that EMP doesn’t just have to be about removing enemy utilities from the game. You can actually use it to score kills as well if you time it correctly.
During the winners match of the Summer Showdown tournament, the Dragons took on the Hunters in a barnburner of a match that seemed to have a bit of everything.
.@socutelip makes a calculated EMP play!
…what was his grade in math again? 🧮#ShanghaiDragons #OWL2021
💻 https://t.co/tbTGBrUfiE pic.twitter.com/g8WOqLt5WB
— Overwatch Esports (@OW_Esports) July 17, 2021
With the Hunters running the Pharah Mercy opting for aerial supremacy on Ilios, LIP took matters into his own hands to deal with the menace in the sky.
Normally, Sombra players want to use EMP on the enemy squad grouped up so the rest of their team can capitalize and secure frags, but LIP had another idea in mind.
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After throwing his Translocator into the air, LIP instantly teleported and managed to catch both of the Hunters players with it, removing their ability to stay in the sky.
As a result, the Mercy, Li ‘Yveltal’ Xianyao fell to his death while Yi ‘JinMu’ Hu barely managed to make it to safety as Pharah by the skin of his teeth.
Still, the calculations and tenacity to go for such an over-the-top play cannot be ignored. Taking Pharah and Mercy out of the fight was well worth trading his own life for.
The best part of the play is that it’s something anyone can use in their ranked games if the enemy is running Pharah and Mercy on a map with environmental kill potential.
It’s plays like this that make the Dragons the favorites heading into the Countdown Cup and the overall league playoffs, of which they’ve already earned enough points to qualify having won the Summer Showdown.