With Boston’s 3-1 victory over Shanghai and their recent 4-0 against Dallas, they’ve taken the #1 spot in the Overwatch League standings and tied with NYXL’s current 11-game win streak.  Their next games against both LA teams will be challenging, but they're in position to set a new win streak record.

From the start, no one predicted this team would be in this position, especially considering the loss of their star player, DreamKazper.

On Oversight, Boston Uprising President “HuK” goes over various topics that provides a window of explanation for their slow rise.  

Not needing transparency, embracing their underdog status

The call for transparency is common among Overwatch fans as Dallas Fuel was previously pressured to explain their losses.  And in the case of LA Valiant, it was granted and backfired as team members were treated like reality show contestants.  (Team owner Noah Whinston has since admitted they are still working on finding the right balance on transparency.)

HuK explains at the beginning of the season, various teams were competing with each other in professional pick-up games and Boston opted to skip out of them due to toxicity and trash talk.  In these games, egos ran high among teams and HuK did not want his players affected by it. By not engaging, their locker room environment was to keep the banter light and to embrace an underdog status.  Because of this, the players naturally felt closer to each other and felt no need to make their issues public.

Previous inner conflicts: HuK vs. Slasher’s take

In early March, Slasher revealed inner turmoil within the team:

It didn’t help that Gamsu was missing from matches around that time.

HuK addressed this as a rumor and said Gamsu was sick and they’ve never come close to making any trades.

Although in early April, an interview with Neko, Gamsu and Striker reveals “the environment is much better than Korea”.

HuK recently reiterated that Gamsu needed a break being the only main tank, and admits they could have done better by giving players longer breaks between seasons.  He has not made further comments on Crusty, Striker and Neko.

Slasher has also made a recent comment on it:

“I stand by my reporting for that situation, with the caveat that I don't dismiss Huk's statements either. Boston was going through some pretty significant internal problems - and the team, especially Huk, did a fantastic job to address them to put them in the situation they're in now.”

Moving forward without DreamKazper

When DreamKazper’s sexual misconduct was revealed, Boston acted swiftly to remove him from the team.  With their shotcaller and star DPS player missing, many were skeptical that Boston would be able to recover

However, their match against NYXL seems to suggest they didn’t miss a beat.  HuK explains that “humans can adapt when they’re forced to.”  With DreamKazper gone, Gamsu has become the defacto shotcaller, but still leaves room for comms between all the players.  Since they already had a system for shotcalling, they were able to identify and fill in whatever is missing.

Since Boston is run from the top-down with emphasis on their staff and coaching, they are able to adjust quickly due to their existing structures.  This is the difference when compared to Dallas Fuel which was more player-run.

Luck

In HuK’s own words, their current win-streak is due to “a lot of luck”

However, this may be a way of saying that the team wants to keep their underdog mentality.  The players themselves did not come from all-star teams. HuK intentionally formed the roster with members who already have a humble mindset and with coachability.  And since there’s no egos in the way, issues can be addressed even on wins, while other teams might be complacent and ride the highs.

HuK said it himself when the team was pegged at last place:

“Everybody loves a good underdog story. I believe we are going to be that underdog story and I believe we'll show that in time.”