Overwatch League recap: First day of inaugural season ends with blockbuster matchup

The inaugural day of the inaugural Overwatch League is in the books.

Over 300,000 people tuned in on Twitch to watch Blizzard’s Overwatch League kick off regular season play on Wednesday. With an impressive arena festooned in spotlights, plastered with big screens and hosting an enthusiastic live audience, the League presented itself as polished and professional.

The first day of gameplay featured three matches, with the blockbuster matchup of Dallas Fuel vs. Seoul Dynasty to cap the evening. Here is how each series in the first day of the Overwatch League went down:

San Francisco Shock vs. Los Angeles Valiant

This particular NorCal/SoCal pairing had the chance to face off during the preseason, with LA walking away with the victory then. Unfortunately for non-LA fans, the result did not change for their first showdown in the regular season. Widowmaker play ruled during the entirety of this series, with Valiant’s SoOn making absolutely devastating pick-offs to keep the Shock constantly at a disadvantage.

After dropping two maps, San Francisco showed some signs of life on Ilios, a map they did well on during the preseason, but didn’t have enough life to actually win the map. Overall, San Francisco was simply outmatched in all areas: out-Widow’d, out-DPS’d and out-tanked.

Result: Shock 0, Valiant 4

Player of the Match: SoOn, Los Angeles Valiant

Shanghai Dragons vs. Los Angeles Gladiators

Not to be shown up by their city counterparts, LA’s other team also had their season opener on the first night of the Overwatch League against China’s only representative: the Shanghai Dragons. Announcers made much of the Dragons’ rather poor showing during their preseason matches, which Dragon players attributed to a lack of time to practice as a team. Going into their first official matchup, they made sure that would change, starting practice as early as 9 a.m. and sometimes going until midnight.

For Shanghai, that practice did not perfect make. From the very first map, it was clear that they were under-prepared for the Gladiators’ level of gameplay and unable to make adjustments to counter what their opponents dished out. LA mounted a tremendous defense on the first map, with lethal weapons at both long and short range featuring effective Doomfist play by Hydration.

By stopping the payload just barely past the first archway on El Dorado, the Gladiators set themselves up for an easy first map win. That win streak carried through the remaining three maps as well, with Surefour having free reign over the skies as an uncontested Pharah and support legend Shaz making picks as Zenyatta. Shanghai’s star DPS player Diya was shut down before he could help his team gain any sort of momentum and Shanghai was repeatedly forced to use support ultimates prematurely. The series closed out with another “Four-Overwatch” sweep.

https://twitter.com/overwatchleague/status/951282243154030592

Result: Dragons 0, Gladiators 4

Player of the Match: Shaz, Los Angeles Gladiators

Dallas Fuel vs. Seoul Dynasty

Most of the players on these two teams have significant competitive Overwatch history, adding drama and a dash of rivalry to the night’s banner matchup. Seoul’s Overwatch League team is a spinoff of Lunatic-Hai’s renown Overwatch APEX team, while Dallas features many players from Team EnVyUs. These two teams clashed often during Overwatch APEX, and Team EnVyUs made a name for themselves by stunning a field dominated by eastern teams to win it all for the west during season 1.

The rivalry has reinvented itself today in the form of these two Overwatch League teams: Dallas Fuel, commonly thought of as “the best in the west,” and Seoul Dynasty, the reminder for everyone of just how crazy good South Koreans are at the game.

Right away, the energy in the arena swelled when these two teams settled in at their PCs. The audience struck up a rousing chant of USA in support of Dallas, even though most of Dallas’ roster is not from America, as caster MonteCristo kindly pointed out. Almost as if they were feeding off of the energy, the first two maps of the series were the most explosive of the entire night of Overwatch, with both teams making plays and trading epic pick-offs.

The most intense round of the night was on Temple of Anubis, where Dallas started on attack and capped both points with over six minutes remaining in their time bank. Seoul was also able to cap both points on their first attack with over four minutes remaining. From there, fans were treated to an extreme showcase of skill and speed as both teams raced to see who could cap more points with the remaining time they had left.

Seoul was barely able to squeak past with the victory, after FLETA stalled Dallas pushes with key Widowmaker headshots, erasing valuable seconds off of Dallas’ clock. Even so, Dallas was nearly able to take the second point, but by sheer force of will Seoul kept them at bay.

The third map of the series looked most concerning for Dallas fans, as Seoul strolled quickly to a 2-0 victory on Ilios. But the Fuel regained their spirit for Numbani, able to push the payload through all three checkpoints right as the clock slipped into overtime. Unfortunately, they were unable to keep the Dynasty from doing the same and the map ended in a draw, which gave Seoul the definitive win.

Result: Fuel 1, Dynasty 2

Player of the Match: Fleta, Seoul Dynasty

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By stacking some heavyweights on the first night of the Overwatch League, Blizzard is sending a clear message that this will be an entertaining experience at the very least. As favorites already start to emerge in this inaugural season, we look forward to seeing the rest of the teams show their capabilities.