I don't want to overdo highlighting Goyo setups, but now that we've had the first EU playday of S11, I think its worth see what kind of impact his "real" debut has on the game as teams have had time to develop strats now. The point being just to keep an eye on things to look for in future matches. Both NA and Latam used Goyo during their playday 1 as well, but I've restricted this analysis to a single EU match just to keep it from being impossibly long.
Before I get into it, a shoutout to Reaper who provided a great video showing a potential great way to combine Goyo shields and Mute jammers to create better intel choke points. He also mentions the previous post which is much appreciated.
Warning: this will be pretty long but feel free to just dip into the setups that interest you.
Forze vs Navi - Clubhouse
Navi Church setup, Round 1
Navi seemed to be going for a top floor roam heavy strat, dedicating two of the Vulcan shields to the top floor along with 2 black eyes to construction. Unfortunately they failed to really anticipate such effective Sledge play from Rask as he quickly took out the Jager and Goyo roaming upstairs and cleared both Vulcan shields and he eventually found a 3rd kill later. The shield placement upstairs is interesting to note how it was setup primarily around doorways, especially intersections.
The two upstairs helped cover access at the top of the main stairs along with the doorways to logistics and bedroom, along with a second to cover entry into bedroom from construction connector. It appeared as if the one at the top of the stairs was triggered purposely to deny access as Goyo was playing in logistics with Jager in bedroom and they identified Sledge's entry through the jacuzzi wall. Once Jager was eliminated, Sledge took out the other shield in bedroom door to clear it for teammates.
The shield downstairs was setup to cutoff access to the Church doorway from hallway and the door into Arsenal from hallway. They had a line of sight hole into Arsenal that may also have been vaultable, but Mute destroys it as defuser is going down to allow him to whip around and fight the Sledge who opened up the oddly soft church wall panel and entered. Unfortunately there's some gadget and reinforcement placements we don't get to see like where the other 2 castle barricades go (they didn't seem to be the usual bar roam support).
Navi Cash setup, Round 2
Unfortunately this was another lost round for Navi, but they only lost one of the vulcan shields in the process (the one on the garage rafters). The garage rafters shield provided a little bit of coverage to play up there and rotate in and out of the hole in the soft wall. It also allowed destruction of the shield to deny access to both that hole and the window if garage was taken. Unfortunately it was destroyed early. The other two shields however were potentially useful. The one near the top of cash stairs allowed Goyo to play against servers once the hard wall was breached, and he also could use the one in cash to provide some rotate coverage and fight the connector door. Sledge did try and nade the cash shield but the Jager ADS next to the door did its job and ate the nade, allowing it to stay up, but Sledge was still able to push Goyo because he wasn't prepared to destroy that shield to prevent it.
Overall the shields had a decent setup to both work as shields and as area denial with angles they could hit it from. There was also a deployable shield for Smoke to play off of to contest server wall which also didn't get destroyed. Navi won the utility game but lost most of the firefights. Also didn't help Valkyrie didn't expect a second claymore on the garage door. Unfortunately with Maestro banned they couldn't setup ways to hit the shields with Evil Eyes from safer spots.
Navi Church setup v2, Round 3
Another round unfortunately lost, mostly due to poor gunfights and Arsenal coverage in a 4v3 plant. This setup was much better than the first round in that the didn't go for the roam. The vulcan shield in blue near oil pit even netted Jager an early kill on Zofia in garage which helped keep most of the shields alive. This time they were prepared for entries from dirt, blue and church wall. Goyo tried to use his shield in the Arsenal/Church doorway once again to be able to fight down the long hallway to main stairs, but unfortunately for him, Sledge was able to drop a nade on it from above. This was crucial in that Sledge was able to then push into the hallway, sledge open the softwall and get the planter into arsenal with coverage from kitchen drop.
The final vulcan shield in dirt tunnel was helpful in that Thermite had considered a dirt push but upon seeing the shield instead was forced to just cover kitchen hatch and try and seal the dirt player inside with gun fire onto the doorway (successfully). In the future the hallway shield could potentially be protected by opening a small hole in the soft wall to arsenal with a Jager ADS on the other side to catch nades, assuming they try before opening kitchen hatch and checking it. An ADS near church door also could work.
Navi Church setup v3, Round 4
The 3rd time was the charm for Navi. They shored up the wall Sledge got through previously, but 2 of the vulcan shield placements (memorial door and arsenal/church hallway door) were easily taken out by Rask's nades and the deployable in blue was taken out by a better prepared Zofia. Unfortunately that means you can't get a ton of credit to the vulcan shields except for burning resources. A lot of the reason for the win came more down to winning gunfights at tight angles. Still interesting to see the two new placements (memorial and arsenal next to shelves to fight blue).
Navi Cash setup v2, Round 6
Unfortunately not much changed with this setup with the exception of moving the vulcan shield in cash out into the hallway near the rotate hole instead. This time the ADS in cash got cleared and Sledge was able to nade that new placement. The placement in garage, while it worked to give Echo an angle, essentially made it much riskier for him to rotate over in the 1v5 at the end, forcing him to use cash stairs to his demise.
Forze Gym setup, round 9
This was the first gym Goyo setup and an interesting one in that 4 shields were dedicated entirely to bedroom. Oddly enough they all managed to stay up despite Forze losing the round. The shield's definitely seem designed to allow a variety of positions to fight windows, connector and gym with the typical Castle barricades. In the end the Goyo player ended up trapped alone in bathroom with no real escape route due to a variety of pinches.
Unfortunately as Forze didn't use Goyo the next round and won, we didn't get to see further usage.
I hope a deeper look into more Goyo setups and adjustments gives you a better idea of how teams intend to utilize the strong utility and kit he brings. I don't expect Goyo to be a must ban yet, but he will definitely be a strong pick as teams develop more strats and stick to ones that work (sorry Navi!).
