Vancouver Titans are looking to turn around their season with a new coach

Written for Daily Hive by Rui Yang Xu of Akshon Esports

To say the Vancouver Titans have had a rough season so far would be a huge understatement. 

Halfway through the 2022 Overwatch League season, the Titans currently sit at the bottom of the standings with a 0-12 record. The team has a long road ahead of them if they want to find themselves in the playoffs at the end of the season.

After the change in coaching from Steven “Flubby” Coronel and Ali “Pew” Anwar to former Los Angeles Gladiators coach, David “Dpei” Pei, the team has made slow strides of improvement throughout each game.

Submitted/Vancouver Titans 

While joining the roster midway through the season is less than ideal, Dpei has been able to get a lot out of a struggling team that many believed were much better than what their record showed. 

“We joke about it as a team that we’re unlocking different parts of the map because we normally don’t cap second and then we’d have to figure out third on the last day,” Dpei said. “We need to solve problems one at a time as they come but there are too many problems essentially. So, we kind of need to do that in a less crunch timeframe than what we’ve been currently doing.”

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The step-by-step approach has been effective so far with the final game before the team’s break ending in an incredibly narrow 2-3 defeat at the hands of the Washington Justice, which saw the Titans lose the final map in heartbreaking fashion.

Looking ahead, the upcoming Summer Showdown tournament will be the Titan’s best chance to earn some much-needed tournament points to put themselves back in contention for a shot at the play-ins for the playoffs. 

“We have to make the tournament if we want to reach our goal, so that is pretty much the situation from our side,” says Dpei.

Luckily, the Titans will have a relatively easy strength of schedule to make it happen. Apart from one match against the 9-3 Houston Outlaws, the Titans will only be facing teams with even or negative records for the tournament.

Submitted/Vancouver Titans

With an important tournament coming, so too will many changes to the game as the development of Overwatch 2 continues. Highlighted by the introduction of the new tank hero, Junker Queen, to the game, the Titans will need to make sure they have the right read on the meta heading into the Summer Showdown, a challenge that Dpei is excited to tackle. 

“I think that’s the part of coaching that a lot of strategic coaches really enjoy and that I enjoy as well. [I like] figuring out what’s the next meta. How do we play? [You have to take these factors and] balance out with your team strengths. What direction do we want this meta to go? It’s a very interesting set of problems. That is, I think, infinitely complex because the meta is never really solved unless you play for a very, very long time,” said Dpei.

While the Titans won’t find themselves at the top of the standings anytime soon, there’s still hope to extend their season, but it’ll be on them to perform. In the meantime, the team will enjoy a long break from competition before returning to action again on August 12 against the Toronto Defiant in the Summer Showdown.