With the Overwatch League 2023 Pro-Am underway, we’re seeing a lot of unique strategies come from both Contenders and Overwatch League teams. This was no different when the Toronto Defiant matched up against the Houston Outlaws in one of the closest and strongest matches so far.
However, when the Defiant won the first map of the three-map series, all eyes were on Isaiah “Hydron” Rodriguez as he clutched up the second and third rounds of Nepal. The second round in particular stood out not only because of how crucial it was to the map win, but because it was on Symmetra.
It all went down on Nepal: Village
Let’s run down the moment first. The control point capture percentage is 94 to 99 in favor of the Outlaws, but the Defiant push onto the point to capture it. The Outlaws use a lot of ultimates, but a key kill from Colin “Coluge” Arai keeps Toronto in it. After an ultimate from Lee “Fearless” Eui-Seok on Ramattra killed two, both teams were down to just two players each.
This is where Hydron took the stage. For this round in particular, the Defiant were running Symmetra and Mei to get onto the point and hold it. While Mei is known for her strength on this map, Symmetra is more of a gamble. You can use Symmetra to get onto point or get out of spawn faster, but if you aren’t on point, her value tanks.
It turns out it isn’t a gamble at all for Hydron, who uses turrets and his teleporter to hop on and off point, get a kill and prevent the Outlaws from getting any value. He starts the fight on low health, but needs to stay alive and contest for the Defiant to win, and that’s exactly what he does.
Watch this video from Reddit, as the first half of it shows the way Village ended.
Fans, players and analysts go nuts over the Symmetra clutch
It’s been a very long time since we’ve seen clutches like this, with how long the Overwatch League off-season was. On top of that, one of the best ones we’ve seen yet was on Symmetra of all heroes. She’s one of the lowest pick rate heroes of all time in the Overwatch League, and Hydron lead the Defiant to a map win with her.
One of the first teams to react to it was Contenders team WISP, making a quick and extremely scientific graphic to show off Hydron’s power.
One watch party that included analysts and former players also reacted to this moment over on Twitch. The watch party was hosted by former player Connor “Avast” Prince, analyst Jonathan “Reinforce” Larsson, analyst Harry “LEGDAY” Pollitt, analyst Jack “Jaws” Wright and Florida Mayhem GM Albert “yeHHH” Yeh, and all of them are dumbfounded by the play.
Some of the standout lines from the clip includes Avast referencing a popular Symmetra one-trick; saying “SteveO wishes.” LEGDAY chimes in with a simple “He’s him,” before Jaws summarizes the whole event by saying, “Oh my god, how is that possible.”
With how infrequently Symmetra is chosen, and how hard it is to get moments like this, this might be the best Symmetra clutch you’ll probably never see again.
