Overwatch League Playoffs: LA Gladiators destroy London in first match of playoff series

The London Spitfire and the Los Angeles Gladiators rounded out the first day of Overwatch League playoff action.

After a minor break, the Overwatch League returned for its first ever postseason playoffs. After a well fought clash between the Boston Uprising and the Philadelphia Fusion, the Spitfire and the Gladiators took the stage to start their journey toward the getting crowned the league’s first champion.

London started out and for the most part stayed at the top of the standings every single stage of the Overwatch League. They were a scary force to be reckoned with no matter who was in the lineup. The Gladiators struggled toward the beginning of the season, but steadily improved to the point where they could take down teams like the Spitfire. However, prior to the match on Wednesday night, the Gladiators released a statement announcing that Fissure — a crucial main tank that the team anchored around during their upward climb — would not be starting and that iRemiix would be in that role instead.

London and Los Angeles will be completing their playoff series on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. PST.

Map One: Junkertown

Rallying around Gesture’s Orisa shield, London escorted the payload first. For quite a while, the payload was stalled at the choke point with neither team giving ground or getting eliminations. It was Bdosin landing an ult-stopping hook onto Hydration as Roadhog that finally opened the path up for the Spitfire, and from there they took the first checkpoint. But with the payload just slightly over the threshold, London stalled once again. With overtime on the board, the Spitfire finally got themselves first blood in their engagement and that helped scatter the Gladiators just enough to force them to also give up the second checkpoint. London kept their attack together long enough to push the payload just shy of the map’s final point before Los Angeles’ respawn advantage truly kicked in and allowed the Gladiators to lockdown the payload until the end of overtime.

The Gladiators elected to run a now old-school composition for their attack on Junkertown. With Shaz hunkered on top of the payload as Bastion shredding through all the HP of London, Los Angeles made great time cruising through point A on their pirate ship. The Spitfire didn’t make a dent in the Gladiators set up until just before point B, but even then the eliminations they did secure were matched by Los Angeles. In the end, the Gladiators made the Spitfire defense look like a trifling annoyance to be flicked away in the process of winning the map in a commanding manner.

Map Score: Spitfire 2, Gladiators 3

Match Score: Spitfire 0, Gladiators 1

Map Two: Lijiang Tower

London took control of the point on Gardens first, an unsurprising result considering the Spitfire’s great record on this particular map. Between Profit on Pharah and birdring on Widowmaker, the Gladiators had their hands full just trying to approach the point. Los Angeles did manage not to let things get completely out of hand, flipping the point in overtime. The objective came down to a battle in overtime with both sides on the cusp of success at 99 percent. Because the Spitfire had more recently won an engagement, the Gladiators entered the overtime skirmish at a disadvantage and ended up conceding the point.

Los Angeles came back strong on Control Center, establishing a healthy amount of control right away behind Void’s fully-charged Zarya and an excellently placed Hydration Rocket Barrage. London got their foot in the door with Los Angeles up 94 percent, and were able to hold for a few fights before the Gladiators roared back definitively to retake and cap the point to even the map up.

So it came down to Night Market, where the Gladiators took first control once again thanks to their abundance of area healing from Brigitte, Lucio and Moira in the roster. Confidently, Los Angeles held their defensive line very far forward from the point, disrupting London before they could even muster a push. The Gladiators didn’t even seem to break a sweat as they crushed the Spitfire’s last attack with a Graviton Surge and a Deadeye.

Map Score: Spitfire 1, Gladiators 2

Match Score: Spitfire 0, Gladiators 2

Map Three: King’s Row

The Gladiators decided to sub Hydration out for Silkthread as they took their first turn on defense. Even after giving up high ground, Los Angeles held onto point A tenaciously, managing to rotate with London as the Spitfire attempted to find the right opening to move onto the objective. With just over a minute remaining, they got that opening and managed to push the payload just shy of the next checkpoint before encountering the next stanchion of resistance. And that ended up being where their attack run ended, with their tank shielding not being enough to keep the Spitfire in position even when bolstered by two support ultimates simultaneously.

Having held the Spitfire to a very manageable distance, victory was within the Gladiators’ sights. So they decided to do something unique. Instead of attacking straight up the center, Los Angeles rotated all the way around to attack London from the back of the objective. As the Spitfire turned around to deal with the Gladiators, Surefour — who had stayed behind in spawn as Brigritte — switched to Widowmaker. With an uncontested line of sight straight onto the backs of an unsuspecting London team, Surefour started nabbing easy headshots. Bewildered and pinched from two sides, London fell quickly and the unconventional attack seemed to shake them straight to their core as they were unable to muster up any sort of substantial defense again.

Next: OWL Playoffs: Philly takes early lead in series with Boston

The Gladiators cruised to the goal line and the first win in this playoff series.

Map Score: Spitfire 1, Gladiators 2

Final Match Score: Spitfire 0, Gladiators 3