Overwatch League Stage 3: London Spitfire gets narrow win over Florida Mayhem

Amazingly, a top Overwatch League team is still searching for their first win of Stage 3.

You can call it unlucky, shocking or concerning. All of these things accurately describe the position that the London Spitfire find themselves in as they start week 2 of Stage 3. After losing a close one to the Houston Outlaws and then getting crushed by the New York Excelsior, the Spitfire find themselves winless in Stage 3 and in dire need of a victory to keep their hopes of making the post-stage playoffs alive.

Speaking of unlucky, the Florida Mayhem have introduced all of their new players to the roster in the hopes that new dynamics would net them new wins. But so far in Stage 3, the Mayhem have had to face the Excelsior and the Philadelphia Fusion. Whatever improvements the team has made was completely overshadowed by the strength of their opponents, and now they have to go against the Spitfire. It seems the only way for the Mayhem to catch a break is if they create it themselves.

Map One: Volskaya Industries

The teams’ first clash was long and fraught with tension. For a while, neither team was able to find a true advantage over the other, with traded picks and smart playing around both teams’ Widowmakers. London would eventually take point A during the Spitfire’s second push, giving them just over 4 minutes to push point B.

Florida’s stout defense broke apart on the second objective as London made their assault. Even with London’s birdring falling early, Profit and the rest of the Spitfire were able to grind through the members of the Mayhem to finish the map with 3:27 still remaining on the clock.

Unlike London’s prolonged engagement on point A, it took just two quick dives for Florida to sweep the objective clean of London’s presence. AWesomeGuy on Winston and TviQ on Tracer cornered three members of the Spitfire in one of the rooms around the objective, getting the first kill in the fight and snowballing that into eliminations on the entire team.

The Mayhem’s first push onto point B was also very successful, aggressively pushing the Spitfire back and right away taking two ticks. A couple of pushes later, Florida found themselves capping point B as well with exactly 3:00 left on the clock.

With less time to work with, Florida attacked first in the time bank round. The Mayhem gained two ticks thanks to a first strike from TviQ, surprising birdring on Widowmaker and then getting a huge Pulse Bomb stick onto HaGoPeun. London managed to fight their way into control again, but Florida’s Sayaplayer on Widowmaker came alive during their next push, notching three quick headshots within seconds. Unfortunately for Florida, they were unable to make any progress on point B. They simply ran out of time.

To open their second attack run, birdring zapped Sayaplayer with a Widowmaker headshot. The valuable man advantage was enough for London to push forward onto the point. Very quickly, the Spitfire took control of point A and nearly won the first skirmish on point B as well. But Florida stabilized their defense on the point by the skin of their teeth.

Thanks to expert ultimate usage from TviQ on Genji and Sayaplayer on Tracer, Florida whittled down London’s time to the point where the Spitfire had just one more push in overtime to make it happen. London put everything they had into the last fight, but Florida’s tenacity was not to be trifled with. The first map of the series ended in a draw.

Map Score: Spitfire 3, Mayhem 3

Match Score: Spitfire 0, Mayhem 0

Map Two: Numbani

On attack first, London quickly pushed Florida off point A and nabbed two first kills. That helped carry the Spitfire through the first point and halfway to the second before the Mayhem engaged them in a meaningful and effective way. London had to pause and regroup, but eventually pushed through to the second point thanks to a successful dive supported by Bdosin’s Coalescence.

Florida mounted a solid defense as the payload rounded the final stretch of the map. The Mayhem pushed the Spitfire back enough times to force London to switch up their composition. With time getting dangerously low, the Spitfire finally managed to shirk off the Mayhem’s ultimates and move forward. As the payload neared the end, Florida’s Manneten hesitated for a fraction of a second outside his spawn room in the face of an Orisa Halt, and that slight delay was enough for the payload to slip home for London.

It took a bit longer for Florida to get point A, but the Mayhem smartly set themselves up for success with early pushes before committing their major DPS ultimates to an engagement. When they did, TviQ’s Dragonblade quickly hacked down both London tanks, resulting in a clean first point take.

Very quickly, Florida was through the second part of the map and into the home stretch. Unsurprisingly, this was where London tightened up. However right at the end, in overtime, Florida broke through London’s strict defenses. Despite getting dropped early, Sayaplayer on McCree went on a rampage after he was resurrected. With Sayaplayer taking out crucial members of the Spitfire like Nus’s Mercy, Florida found their footing on the payload and did not let go.

In time bank rounds, Florida had barely over 30 seconds to get as much progress as possible on attack. Even though London’s Nus fell first, the Spitfire were able to recover and stay strong on the point, giving up no more than two ticks. On their turn on attack, London quickly pummeled through Florida’s defense and easily got the two ticks they needed to finally get a map win in the series.

Map Score: Spitfire 4, Mayhem 3

Match Score: Spitfire 1, Mayhem 0

Next: Overwatch League Stage 3: Seoul Dynasty gets back on track with win over SF Shock

Map Three: Nepal

On Shrine, Florida took control first. Florida’s Zenyatta, Zuppeh, was instrumental to the Mayhem holding the point until 97 percent, with the most final blows on his entire team during a majority of the fight. But London was able to flip the point and hang onto it until they had 99 percent of their own. However, in overtime, Florida came right back with aWesomeGuy’s Winston giving Gesture’s Winston just enough of a nudge that he accidentally jumped off the edge of the map. The Mayhem retook the point and followed through by capping it as well.

With Mayhem in the lead, the teams went to Sanctum. This time, London took control first and Florida had massive difficulty dislodging Gesture’s Orisa from the payload. This resulted in eliminations that Florida was unable to capitalize on. London finished off the map with a flanking Junkrat Riptire.

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Now tied 1-1, the teams went to the Village where each team featured a Pharah to help deal damage from the skies. Even though London’s Pharah, Hooreg, fell off the map first, Florida lost two team members on the ground and that was enough to give London the point first. Profit then proceeded to single-handedly cut through Florida’s ranks. The Mayhem were hard put to piece together a cohesive attack on the point and unfortunately for them, the Spitfire easily maintained control to ensure a series win.

Map Score: Spitfire 2, Mayhem 1

Match Score: Spitfire 2, Mayhem 0

Map Four: Route 66

Easily, London found their way to the first set of gates and nearly just as quickly, they were clearing the second set. Florida finally slowed things down as the payload entered the last stretch of the map, cleanly taking out the Spitfire as they attempted to cross the threshold into the area. But London came right back on the back of Profit on Tracer, who cleared the way by essentially shredding every single member of the Mayhem. Florida scraped together one last final stall just before the payload hit home, but that was about it.

Florida found their way to the first checkpoint relatively quickly as well, with Sayaplayer first opening things up with a snipe onto Bdosin and TviQ closing it out with a Pulse Bomb that contributed to three eliminations. The payload stalled as it entered the second portion of the map. Sayaplayer found several big headshots, but Florida didn’t have enough people alive to truly take advantage of the eliminations. It took time for the Mayhem to recover from a staggered spawning and then both support ultimates to get the payload moving again, and they weren’t even able to get it to the second checkpoint before they were wiped again. It came down to a last frenzied push in overtime that Florida almost got the better of. Fortunately for London, enough team members came back to the payload in time to lock it down and the Spitfire earned the first win of the stage.

Map Score: Spitfire 3, Mayhem 1

Final Match Score: Spitfire 3, Mayhem 0