Overwatch League Stage 2: Seoul Dynasty smash Los Angeles Valiant for sweet revenge

The second stage of the Overwatch League commenced with two heavy hitters taking the stage.

Neither the Los Angeles Valiant nor the Seoul Dynasty made the Stage 1 playoffs, even though both had a relatively strong first five weeks.

Seoul was an early favorite for top of the league, but a few losses saw them shockingly out of playoff contention. Los Angeles had a chance all the way up to the last day of the stage, needing some help from Boston to knock off Houston in order to vault their way into the playoffs. That did not happen, leaving the Valiant so close yet so far.

The last time these two teams met, the Valiant defeated the Dynasty handily with a map score of 3-0. Would they be able to stage a similarly dominant performance in this rematch?

Map One: Volskaya Industries

Los Angeles started out on defense with Unkoe on Sombra and SoOn on his signature Tracer. Seoul commenced attacked with FLETA on Widowmaker and Bunny on Tracer. There was nary a Mercy in sight, as was expected with the new patch rules now in play.

After one stunted attack, Bunny helped Seoul cut through the ranks of Los Angeles to take point A. Now moving onto point B, FLETA switched onto Reaper. After two failed attempts, Seoul mounted a ferocious attack that looked nearly successful on the back of ryujehong’s Transcendence. But while they were able to withstand a Dragonblade from Agilities, they were unable to keep enough people on the point to capitalize on a man advantage. Seoul had to retreat without a single tick on the board.

After yet another failed push, the Dynasty bullied their way onto the point with one final attack. Right away, ryujehong, now on Ana, applied his Nano Boost onto FLETA, who was able to take down one Valiant player before triggering his Death Blossom. Even with this heightened attack power, the Valiant tenaciously held onto the point. It was only after a few more ultimates that Seoul was able to take point B.

The Valiant attacked with Agilities on Soldier 76 and SoOn on Tracer. Immediately, Seoul flexed their strength, stuffing LA with a team kill. That staunch defense continued until LA had only one push left with less than 30 seconds on the clock. It started fairly well, with most of the Valiant able to make it to the objective without suffering too much damage from Bunny, who was harrying them as much as possible right out of their spawn. But the man advantage LA had on the point quickly started to dwindle, with neither a Primal Rage or a Self Destruct able to help them achieve the objective. Seoul walked away from Volskaya with a strong full hold.

Map Score: Dynasty 2, Valiant 0

Match Score: Dynasty 1, Valiant 0

Map Two: Nepal

Starting on Shrine, LA went with a classic dive composition. Seoul substituted the Genji with FLETA on Soldier 76. ryujehong immediately made a big pick onto Agilities. With both him and Fate going down for the Valiant, Seoul was easily able to take control. But LA’s next contest started with a pick onto Bunny, followed by a big Agilities Dragonblade. FLETA’s Attack Visor wasn’t enough to help Seoul keep things in hand, and he ended up having to turn tail and retreat.

But Seoul would flip the point as well, with Tobi on Lucio even getting some eliminations on the kill feed. LA’s own Lucio was unable to envelop more than three players of his team in his Sound Barrier, which felt too many members of the Valiant vulnerable. The Dynasty were able to keep control of the point all the way to completion.

Seoul also capped the point first on Sanctum, and this time it wasn’t until they were already up to 92 percent control that Los Angeles were able to forcefully drive them away from the objective. Agilities stopped Seoul’s next push early by using his Dragonblade to take out two before they even entered the Sanctum. But FLETA’s next Attack Visor was extremely deadly, nearly taking out everyone from LA.

With Seoul’s percentage ticking ever upward, LA scrambled to make a play during overtime. Unfortunately, Unkoe’s crucial Transcendence was completely negating when he was booped off the map mid-ultimate by Tobi’s Lucio. Things devolved very quickly for the Valiant after that, and Seoul jumped to a 2-0 lead in the series.

Map Score: Dynasty 2, Valiant 0

Match Score: Dynasty 2, Valiant 0

Map Three: King’s Row

Los Angeles set up with an anti-dive composition on defense by the archway behind the objective, with SoOn on McCree and Unkoe on Moira. Seoul attacked with FLETA on Widowmaker, and immediately got huge picks onto both SoOn and Unkoe. That was pretty much all the Dynasty needed to take the first objective, slapping the Valiant’s poor attempt at a stall to the wayside.

Seoul continued to storm through the map with little resistance, with FLETA continuing to wreak havoc on LA. With no one attempting to counter him, he had free reign to make headshot after headshot. Agilities finally used his Dragonblade to get a big play for LA just as the payload threatened at the door, buying them a little breathing room.

But Seoul came right back, filling up the kill feed with eliminations in their favor. There was one more tussle with the LA respawns as well as one more Agilities Dragonblade. But all of that ended up not mattering when LA’s attention focused too much on Seoul players and not on the objective. With no Valiant presence around the payload, it moved forward to the end.

The Valiant’s offensive push onto the first objective was even more successful than the Dynasty’s. Nearly right away, LA had it in their grasp and proceeded to chase Seoul down the map for good measure, with Agilities nabbing a stalling kill onto Tobi just before he would achieve his Sound Barrier. But just as the payload was able to turn the corner, Seoul found their footing and pushed LA back.

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The Valiant’s next attempt to keep the payload moved looked almost doomed after a negated Agilities Dragonblade. But both Seoul supports were downed in the fight, and that was just enough for LA to wrench the payload back in their control and take the second point. The Valiant had been making great time, keeping pace with the speed with which the Dynasty completed the map, but during this last section of the map Seoul was able to stall them time and time again.

With 30 seconds remaining and multiple ultimates on the board, the Valiant made their final push at the payload. They very quickly took ryujehong out, then Bunny. As the payload neared the end, Seoul drew even in ultimates but FLETA didn’t need them as he cut into LA’s back line as Genji and took out both supports. That was the big play the Dynasty needed to remain in control of the situation and win another map.

Map Score: Dynasty 3, Valiant 2

Match Score: Dynasty 3, Valiant 0

Map Four: Route 66

For their final defense, LA once again had Unkoe on Sombra and SoOn on Tracer. Seoul attacked once again with FLETA on Widowmaker, which necessitated LA to play carefully and away from sight lines. But it ended up being Bunny on Tracer that got first blood, zipping into the Valiant from the side and snowballing the elimination into a team wipe. With the payload rolling to the first checkpoint, LA came back to contest and stall. The fight was quick and ended in Seoul’s favor.

The Valiant slowed it down for the Dynasty in the section portion of the map, able to push them back as well as capitalize on a Sound Barrier error from Seoul, where it was used after FLETA had already fallen. The next fight featured many ultimates, resulting in the payload creeping a little further but not too much. However it did allow FLETA, now on Sombra, to build up enough percentage to get his EMP. It was used to its full ability on the next engagement, catching nearly every Valiant player in its aura and allowing the rest of the Dynasty to easily chew through that HP.

Moving into the last portion of the map, ryujehong switched to Mei. Right away, Fate pounced onto members of the Dynasty and with help from Agilities was able to push them back. But Seoul recovered, pushing the payload nearly to the end before they were stopped again. Unfortunately, time was not on the Dynasty’s side. Seoul ended up not able to get back to the payload in time to contest it, with time running out just as ryujehong neared it.

With the payload stopped just short, LA had their chance at a map victory. SoOn played Widowmaker to try to do what FLETA did to the Valiant on defense, but was unable to get the eliminations. This resulted in a switch back onto Tracer. However, the LA DPS players struggled to make an impact as the tanks were continually badgered and taken down by Seoul.

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LA finally started to move after a successful Agilities Dragonblade. And even though it created enough space for the payload to get just before the first checkpoint, the damage had been done in terms of time left on the clock for the Valiant. Seoul jumped in for one more stall before the payload reached the checkpoint, and what a stall it was. Despite ryujehong getting downed early, the fight lasted so long that Seoul was able to get respawns back onto the point to reinforce their position. As picks were traded, LA’s grasp over the payload started to slip away much like the time they had on the clock. It came down to one more Agilities Dragonblade in overtime. If he came up big again here, LA would have more life to live. Unfortunately, it would not be so. Agilities was downed even as the blade came out, which marked the end of both LA’s run and the match.

Map Score: Dynasty 2, Valiant 0

Final Match Score: Dynasty 4, Valiant 0

Player of the Match: Bunny, Seoul Dynasty