Unite Roster Build on Perfect Start to ZGUL
Team Norse Thunder's Pokemon Unite roster kept up their impressive start to their Zapdos Graph Unite League campaign with a 2-0 win over Shin Force as they built on their opening week win.
Thunder beat Evil Family with a comfortable 2-0 win last week, and the roster has since set their sights on reaching the league's playoff stages. Going into the game against Shin Force, Thunder knew two more wins after the first should secure them a playoff spot, with four wins in total being a complete guarantee.
Game one of the match saw Thunder select a team composition of Decidueye, Delphox, Mamoswine, Slowbro and Machamp, while Shin Force picked Buzzwole, Tyranitar, Gardevoir, Dodrio, and Trevenant.
A slightly nerve-filled opening saw the game tilted in Shin Force's favour, but as soon as Thunder settled down, the team pulled ahead and the win never really looked in any danger. Thunder won the game with a scoreline of 352-231 and took 26 KOs while the opposition mustered just 14.
In game two, Thunder drafted Espeon, Snorlax, Absol, Mamoswine, and Greninja for their team, while Shin Force opted for Pikachu, Trevenant, Aegislash, Decidueye, and Buzzwole. Shin Force battled hard knowing that if they won the game it would take the match to a third and final decider game, but Thunder stayed strong and looked for opportunities to close out the match.
The game ended in Thunder's favour by the finest of margins - 214-202 with the KO scores tied at 18 each. A positioning error by a Shin Force player in the final seconds of the game left a bottom lane goal wide open and Gioo took advantage to dunk the winning points.
Representing Thunder in the match was Apollyon, Tano, Tunak, Gioo, and Karys, with Tano being voted as the MVP by his teammates.
Speaking about the victory, and their experience in the ZGUL so far, Team Norse Thunder's top laner, Tunak, said: "We knew what we needed to do and we followed our plan through the first game, giving us a comfortable victory.
"In the second game, we made a miscalculation on the bans, leaving Decidueye free and our communication was not as sharp as in the previous game. Still, even when we were behind, we knew we just needed one goal to win and we kept trying until the very end, where they got distracted with me and Gioo scored the 100 points that gave us the victory."
Meanwhile, Team Norse Thunder's Dave Scotford said: "That's a really good win for the team, and one they really deserved - they worked hard for it. It's the perfect follow-up to last week's win and it gets us set up in a really good position to try and make the play offs next week or the week after!"