Overwatch League recap: London and Seoul show their strength

The first week of the Overwatch League closes out with three more exciting matches.

Five teams entered Saturday hoping to remain undefeated. Only three of those teams were able to do so. Find out who stayed perfect in the Overwatch League.

London Spitfire vs. Philadelphia Fusion

The first match of the day saw two teams looking to keep their record perfect. Heavily-favored London clashed with Philadelphia, who got the upset win against Houston on Thursday.

Philadelphia took awhile to find their feet on Junkertown defense. Similar to most teams, they didn’t mount a successful defense until the payload entered the home stretch toward the last checkpoint. Smart ultimate usage allowed the Fusion to push the Spitfire back multiple times, burning down London’s available time.

However, London was able to finish the map in overtime. The Spitfire’s initial defense started off shaky, with Nus on Lucio getting picked off right off the bat. But London is able to catch a couple Fusion players out of position to stop them. The Spitfire continued to contest, mounting a sustained defense in front of the second checkpoint to stall the Fusion as much as possible and both teams burned through ultimates during the engagement. The fighting predictably intensified going into the final stretch, where the Fusion was only able to break through the defense once. It was not enough for them to finish the map, handing London the early lead in the series.

Horizon Lunar Colony saw both teams struggle to find an attack that worked. London’s attempt to execute a long flank around Philadelphia’s set up on the high ground stalled early due to birdring on Roadhog getting pulled out of position and killed. The Spitfire ended up falling back nearly to point B as they tried to wait for reinforcements, and were picked off in ones and twos.

With only seconds remaining on the clock, London was finally able to take point A and continue smoothly to point B. Fusion’s Poko was able to help Philadelphia stay alive on defense by executing one of his signature devastating Self Destructs, but London did end up taking point B by smartly taking out Philadelphia’s ShaDowBurn before he had a chance to use Dragonblade.

That knack for eliminating key team members continued into the Spitfire’s defense. Twice, Fusion’s Carpe was taken out before they could even move towards the point, causing them to waste a full minute just waiting for a full team. The Fusion’s final push finally took them to the objective, but again the Spitfire’s smart targeting locked the point down.

Now with just one map between London and a second Overwatch League victory, the series went to Ilios. Control was traded back and forth on point one, but London was able to contain ShaDowBurn’s Pharah enough to take it. The Spitfire even more decisively took point two, with birdring taking skulls as Widowmaker. Quickly, London cruised to their third win of the series and secured the match win.

The teams ended on Numbani. London was able to complete the map fairly easily and then frustrated Philadelphia by positioning themselves in unconventional areas, staying hidden from Fusion’s sights until the last possible seconds. With the Fusion unable to take the first objective, the Spitfire successfully executed their first Four-Overwatch sweep.

Result: Spitfire 4, Fusion 0

Player of the Match: Gesture, London Spitfire

New York Excelsior vs. Houston Outlaws

New York came into this match hunting for their second win of the week, whereas Houston was looking for redemption after Philadelphia caused an upset during their season opener.

The Outlaws started out strong on Junkertown, able to stall Excelsior out enough for them to go into desperation mode during the final difficult stretch. New York almost found a hero in Saebyeolbe on McCree, who was able to take out three Houston players right out of their spawn room. However, Coolmatt was able to zone him out and away from the payload on D.Va, ending the New York push short of completion. On defense, New York made some mistakes by stacking too many ultimates at once. A couple of key picks from Jake on Junkrat opened it up for the Outlaws to glide through to the end.

On Temple of Anubis, New York went on the attack first. They were cleanly able to take point A but struggled mightily on point B as Jake picked off key members of the team over and over again before the team is even able to regroup. The Excelsior did end up being able to zone and push the Outlaws off the objective for just long enough to take it. Houston took a more slow and methodical approach on attack but New York ended up holding strong on the second point with smart tricky plays by Saebyeolbe on Tracer. A highlight of the map involved Saebyeolbe sneaking into Houston’s backline to pick off Rawkus and then Pulse Bombing Bani as he flew to Rawkus to resurrect him.

With one win apiece, the series moved to Ilios. Just as they did during their season opener, New York decided to sub Pine in for Libero. The player swap was greeted with a round of cheers, as the audience was now aware of his crazy abilities. And just as advertised, Pine started off his reign of terror right away on Ilios. Houston, however, had done their homework.

During the next engagement, the Outlaws made sure to jump on Pine first. With Pine out of the way, Houston was able to get control of the point. While Pine was able to help New York regain control with another multi-kill rampage, he was much more challenged than before in the form of LiNkzr. On both McCree and Widowmaker, LiNkzr and Pine traded picks on each other across both Ilios maps, treating the audience to an epic high-flying Widowmaker duel. Houston made it a contest for New York, but Excelsior was able to clinch the win.

It all came down to Numbani, where New York was able to complete the map relatively unchallenged by Houston. Houston also started their attack off strong, with Jake as Pharah knocking Saebyeolbe off the map with a concussive blast. However, Saebyeolbe was able to get the last laugh by badgering Houston throughout the map, picking off members of their team during key regrouping moments, stalling them again and again. With no time left, Houston was unable to reach the payload to contest. As time ticked away, so too did their chances to tie up the series.

Result: Excelsior 3, Outlaws 1

Player of the Match: Jjonak, New York Excelsior

Seoul Dynasty vs. Los Angeles Gladiators

Both Seoul and Los Angeles put up strong performances during their season openers on Wednesday. But with Seoul being the overall favorite of the League, LA would have to overcome a huge Korean obstacle if they wanted to stay undefeated.

Seoul and LA both started out the series flexing their virtual muscles. On attack first, Seoul was able to move through fairly easily, able to throw off well-constructed LA defensive engagements. The Gladiators rose to the challenge when it was there turn on the attack, with Hydration getting kills while Shaz showed why he was considered one of the most deadly Zenyatta’s in the League.

Time after time, LA fended off Seoul’s defenses, getting key picks like Tobi on Mercy to leave Seoul support-less and shorthanded. With both teams completing the map, they moved into time bank rounds. Seoul pushed the payload just past the first checkpoint before they were stopped. LA finally faltered when it was their turn on the attack with Seoul’s FLETA making a fatal pick on Shaz to sweep the legs out from under LA.

Next, on Horizon Lunar Colony, Seoul again rolled right on through on attack thanks to catching a few LA players out of position. By taking both LA tanks out right away, point A was an easy capture. Miscommunication seemed to cause the Gladiators to be out of position again while trying to set up their defense for point B, allowing the Dynasty to barrel right through with plenty of time left in the bank.

When it was the Gladiators turn to attack, FLETA again caused them grief by taking out Shaz’s Moira right away with a Widowmaker snipe. LA was able to push through point A with their quad-tank composition, but FLETA unhesitatingly switched over to the Reaper in order to absorb all that HP through his shotgun shots.

The Gladiators started off their last push poorly, losing Shaz to a Pulse Bomb. However, Remix’s Primal Rage allowed the Gladiators to stall on the point and give their respawns time to get back. What resulted was a furious attempt to fend off the onslaught of Seoul’s respawns and miraculously, LA was able to do so but with no time left on the clock. This meant that Seoul had over six minutes to take just the first tick on point A. Credit needs to be given to LA, who was able to defend it for four minutes, but finally, Seoul was able to push through.

With Seoul up two maps, LA had just one more chance to keep themselves in this series. Unfortunately, thanks to FLETA, it was not meant to be. As Widowmaker on point one and Pharah on point two, FLETA terrorized LA’s supports over and over, allowing the Dynasty to build up all the control percentage they needed.

Seoul would take the series, but there was still Numbani to play. On attack, the Dynasty tried something new, going with a triple-DPS composition featuring ryujehong on Doomfist instead of his usual support character. Surprisingly, it worked due to LA immediately falling back in the face of that very fist. The only resistance Seoul faced was toward the end of the map, but it was relatively easily dispatched. LA’s attack, meanwhile, felt rather dead on arrival as Seoul picked off their supports again and again.

Result: Dynasty 4, Gladiators 0

Player of the Match: FLETA, Seoul Dynasty

As we close out the first week of Overwatch League, we need a moment to take a breath. Just as fans of the game hoped, Blizzard’s creation has given the world insane talent as well as insanely entertaining video games to watch. Putting aside all the questions around whether the Overwatch League will be financially viable, this will certainly be a fun thing to watch play out.

Next: Overwatch League recap: Reputations are challenged

Now that each team has played two matches, four teams remain undefeated: Seoul Dynasty, Los Angeles Valiant, New York Excelsior and London Spitfire. Four teams have also yet to get their first win: Dallas Fuel, Houston Outlaws, Florida Mayhem and Shanghai Dragons. With four more days of matches next week, we look forward to watching how the standings change.