Overwatch League Stage 1 Finals: London Spitfire clinches Stage 1 championship with incredible reverse sweep

Stage 1 of the Overwatch League came down to the London Spitfire and the New York Excelsior.

The first stage of the inaugural season of the Overwatch League went better than anyone could have expected. With every 4-0 sweep there was an intensely fought match that went down to the wire on map fives. All of this fantastic Overwatch ended here between two fire-forged titans in the league: the London Spitfire and the New York Excelsior.

These two teams already clashed earlier in the day. That match ended in a New York victory, the same win that gave New York the top seed in the first place. Now the Spitfire would have a chance to avenge their previous loss, just as they exacted revenge on the Houston Outlaws in the semi-finals.

The winner of the Stage 1 playoffs would receive $100,000 in prize money and bragging rights. The runner up would get $25,000. Who would walk away king of the Overwatch League in Stage 1?

Map One: Junkertown

New York started on defense, going big right away with Pine in the lineup on Widowmaker and only with a single support in Ark’s Mercy. London pushed with WooHyaL on Roadhog and birdring on Widowmaker. Right away, birdring took out Pine and easily pushed the rest of the way to the first checkpoint.

To open on the second section of the map, WooHyaL landed a huge hook and kill onto Pine, which allowed them London to move onto the high ground. But the Spitfire’s position would only last for so long as Pine came back into the game and got to work, pulling off a quick quadruple kill. This did stall London, but on their return WooHyaL dislodged Pine with a hook again. This time he didn’t land the killing blow, but it was enough to give London room unthreatened by Pine to push the payload forward. Soon enough, the Spitfire had conquered the second checkpoint.

As the payload moved into the last section of the map, London’s push was stopped. But their next attack was successful thanks to a big Profit Dragonblade. With the payload right near the end, New York surged back with as many ultimates as possible but it wasn’t enough to contend with the onslaught of London. With no one able to jump onto the payload to contest it for the Excelsior, the Spitfire pushed the payload home in overtime.

On attack, New York had open roads to push the payload due to an immense amount of headshots from Pine. London tried to contest the payload at the last second but the surge came way too late. With the Spitfire having to deal with a staggered kill onto Nus, the Excelsior went ahead and situated themselves on the high ground in the second section of the map. Other than a Profit Riptire that took out Pine, New York rolled to the next checkpoint relatively unstopped.

With over four minutes on the clock, the Excelsior had tons of time to make it to the end but they played as if they were in overtime. They never relinquished an inch on the payload. Jjonak came up big with his Roadhog play, hunting down both London supports and preventing them from healing up the rest of the team. Still with a ton of time on the board, the Excelsior completed the map.

So Junkertown moved into time ban rounds, which saw London attacking with less than a minute on the clock. Immediately, Pine caught Profit with Widowmaker and this rocky start would be a harbinger of how London’s attack push would end. As time ran out, so too did the remaining members of the Spitfire, leaving the payload not far from the spawn point at all.

With a momentous defensive task ahead of them, London chose to run four tanks. As soon as New York saw this, they swapped Libero onto Pharah. With nobody on London able to deal with this aerial attack, it was just a matter of time before the Spitfire collapsed and New York got the first map.

Map Score: Spitfire 3, Excelsior 4

Match Score: Spitfire 0, Excelsior 1

Map Two: Oasis

Saebyeolbe came into the New York roster in place of Pine as the series moved to Oasis. The map started on Gardens, with Saebyeolbe on McCree trying to establish things on the high ground while the rest of the Excelsior spread through the objective. But London was able to grind their way onto the point, breaking down New York’s Orisa shield helped by Gesture’s Roadhog.

With London up to 99 percent, New York got the picks in the engagement to flip the point in their favor. The Excelsior were able to hold strong against multiple Spitfire pushes, building up their own control percentage on the board. With New York also up 99 percent, they just had to repel London one more time before they capped the point.

On City Center, the point went unclaimed for quite a while. Libero on Solder 76 ran around the roof of the center dome, attempting to rain damage down on members of London as they made themselves apparent. While New York looked like they were in control of the space, they never actually captured the point to make it theirs. It was the Spitfire who ended up taking possession first as soon as they got the picks to get on the point. birdring on McCree did an incredible job of taking down anyone in his way.

But once again with London up 99 percent, New York took the point for themselves. The Spitfire took a very long time to set up a push, which ended when Nus was downed early. With New York also up to 99 percent, one final frenzied fight took place on the point. Picks were traded back and forth, with no one team looking any better than the other, until Saebyeolbe came alive on Tracer and started cutting through the ranks of London. As the Spitfire fell to his pistols one after the other, New York secured the second point as well to get one step closer to a finals victory.

Map Score: Spitfire 0, Excelsior 2

Match Score: Spitfire, 0, Excelsior 2

Map Three: Horizon Lunar Colony

This being a best-of-five contest, New York had the chance to take the victory with a win on this map. They started on defense on the point itself instead of taking the usual spot on the high ground. London attacked with Bdosin on Sombra and birdring on Widowmaker. The low-ground defense made it difficult for Bdosin to hack the health packs around the objective and he was downed. But he was able to generate just enough to accrue an EMP, which he used on the next attack. Even though Bdosin fell soon after triggering it, the push was ultimately a success for London even when it looked as if New York had gotten enough kills. Nus used his Valkyrie to keep London back in the fight and the Spitfire were eventually able to take the first point.

Right away, London barreled onto the second point. They badgered New York until they had built up their Valkyrie once again, then jumped onto the point. Immediately, the Excelsior backtracked toward their spawn point, making it easy for the Spitfire to contain them. London easily took control of the objective, so quickly in fact that New York was unable to get someone on the point fast enough to contest it.

After that solid attack run, London switched to defense. Unlike New York, London did set up on the usual high ground and was able to do pretty well at holding point A. It was finally Libero’s Dragonblade that opened the point up to the rest of New York. With a near team wipe, the Excelsior capped point A and right away moved onto point B.

Immediately, New York got off to a good start thanks to a Deadeye from Saebyeolbe on the high ground. From there, the Excelsior dropped down to try to take point B. While New York never eased the pressure they exerted on the objective, London also refused to release their iron grip on the objective. What resulted was a prolonged engagement in which both teams used every single ultimate they had. At multiple points in the fight, it looked like each team was about to get the upper hand before the other surged right back. But the refusal to give in paid off for New York in the end. Saebyeolbe picked up multiple kills while Libero on Soldier 76 did the same on the other side of the objective. New York clinched point B to tie up the map.

New York went back on attack in the time bank rounds with a little over two minutes to work with. With several pushes rebuffed, New York made their way onto the objective in overtime after taking out London’s supports. But just as it looked as if the Excelsior would come out on top, Nus was able to come back and resurrect the fallen London tanks on the point. That move was enough for the Spitfire to hold strong on point A.

With nearly four and a half minutes to work with, London commenced their attack with Bdosin again on Sombra. New York set up a defense on the objective once again. Despite some early picks within their ranks, the Excelsior managed to stay strong even through the EMP. With that failed attempted, Bdosin abandoned the Sombra to go back to his usual Zenyatta.

London’s subsequent pushes were stalled with picks onto Profit, but with just over a minute remaining the Spitfire was able to get two early picks onto Saebyeolbe and Janus. London moved onto the point to take advantage and despite New York’s best attempts to contest, that was enough to get London the map win. The Spitfire were still alive.

Map Score: Spitfire 3, Excelsior 2

Match Score: Spitfire 1, Excelsior 2

Map Four: Numbani

On defense, New York put Jjonak on Ana, Saebyeolbe on Tracer and Libero on Pharah. Rascal, newly subbed into the London roster, played an opposing Pharah. It took a while for first blood to be drawn but when it happened it was due to a flurry of ultimates that came out from both sides. New York was able to come out on top thanks to a Nano Boosted Saebyeolbe. Purposeful or not, Saebyeolbe made the most of it, sticking a Pulse Bomb onto Gesture and then zipping up to Bdosin to take him out as well.

The next two London pushes saw Nus being the first to get picked off. Without that healing or those resurrections, London desperately threw themselves at the payload in overtime. The Spitfire were able to contest for just long enough to get Nus back in the fight with his Valkyrie, and that was enough to help London take the first objective.

However, New York knew exactly how to whittle down London’s time as much as possible. Janus and Meko plunged right onto the payload, pushing the Spitfire back from the payload. By the time London regained their composure, a minute had been chipped from the clock. New York made their final stand just before the second checkpoint, and with no time left for London to regroup there was nothing they could do to extend overtime.

So the Spitfire would take up the defense with a Herculean task ahead of them, needing to hold the Excelsior to less than what they themselves were able to achieve if they wanted to keep their dream of winning Stage 1 alive. The Excelsior’s very first engagement went well, with a pick onto Rascal. London was able to recover, jumping back onto the point before New York could quite secure the second tick on the point.

With less than 30 seconds remaining, New York was down to their final attack. Right away, Jjonak went down on the side of New York. Even though the Excelsior was able to even the kill feed, Ark also went down. Even Saebyeolbe’s Tracer play was not enough to get New York the opening they needed to start making progress toward the point. Because they shut New York out on Numbani, London forced the series to the fifth map.

Map Score: Spitfire 1, Excelsior 0

Match Score: Spitfire 2, Excelsior 2

Map Five: El Dorado

New York resumed the defense once again on the last map, with Saebyeolbe on Widowmaker and Libero on Junkrat. London attacked with birdring on Tracer and Profit on Genji. Very quickly the payload cruised to the middle of the courtyard, but Saebyeolbe was able to force London back to regroup.

After a few stalled pushes, Bdosin helped London open a solid attack with a kill onto Saebyeolbe. Even as Saebyeolbe was resurrected, Fury launched his Self Destruct into the buildings on the side where many members of New York were holed up. Able to get two with that ultimate, the Spitfire pushed the payload to the first checkpoint.

The payload continued to roll, especially with birdring on Widowmaker getting some headshots to pave the way. Just before the next checkpoint, New York mounted their next coordinated attack, but it would not last long. With no one pressuring him, birdring had free reign to headshot anyone within his sights in the New York backline. This allowed London to get the payload almost all the way to the end of the map before New York got a defensive hold on the objective.

London’s first attempt to retake the payload failed quickly as Nus was picked off first. Their last attempt in overtime started similarly, but Nus was able to make it back to the payload the second time to trigger his Valkyrie. It almost seemed like London was going to regain control, but in the end it was New York lasting longer than London largely thanks to Saebyeolbe refusing to die and sticking to the objective.

With that hold, New York went on attack. Again, birdring on Widowmaker was able to sow discord within the ranks of the Excelsior by nabbing several quick headshots as New York started their push. This time, however, New York sent Libero on Genji to take care of birdring and that he did, unleashing a Dragonblade afterwards just to ensure that they would take the first checkpoint.

The Excelsior had trouble continuing to move the payload through the second section of the map, however. Profit consistently used his Junkrat to take out New York supports before the Excelsior were able to mount a coordinated engagement, stalling them more and more. With less than a minute remaining, New York’s push again fell apart, with Janus getting downed by Fury and Libero only getting one kill with his Dragonblade before falling.

Next: Overwatch League Stage 1 Semi-Finals: London vs. Houston

As New York started their last overtime push, Profit got Ark with a huge Riptire. As the Excelsior attempted to stay on the payload for as long as possible, the Spitfire were helped along with a Transcendence. New York just didn’t have the strength to withstand London’s damage, and just like that New York fell away.

London pulled off the incredible, improbably reverse sweep to claim the Stage 1 championship as their own.

Map Score: Spitfire 2, Excelsior 1

Final Match Score: Spitfire 3, Excelsior 2

Player of the Match: birdring, New York Excelsior