Overwatch League Grand Finals Day 1: London storms to 1-0 series lead over Philadelphia

Overwatch League’s inaugural season kicked off its first ever Grand Finals Friday night.

In front of a sold out crowd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Philadelphia Fusion and the London Spitfire clashed for the first match of the Overwatch League Grand Finals.

For these two teams to be the ones vying for the championship was a bit of a surprise. The Spitfire started the season off strong, and captured a stage championship. However, they slipped mid-season and suddenly found themselves working hard to even gain a spot in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the Fusion had to pull off the upset of the playoffs in order to get to the Grand Finals. Throughout the regular season, Philadelphia was inconsistent, winning and losing as the meta changed through the four stages. Barely making it into the postseason playoffs as the sixth and last seed, the Fusion knocked off the Boston Uprising for a chance to take on the top-seeded New York Excelsior, who was the heavy favorite to win it all. To everyone’s surprise, Philadelphia won the series 2-1, stealing that ticket to New York right under New York’s fingers.

Map One: El Dorado

Despite London’s initial, aggressively placed defense, Philadelphia’s attack was able to push to the first checkpoint with relative ease behind Sado’s Reinhardt. However, that aggressive defense paid off for the Spitfire in the next section of the map, with birdring on Widowmaker able to land disrupting headshots again and again on the Fusion. It wasn’t until Carpe, also on Widowmaker, managed to flank birdring to take him out at close range that Philadelphia was able to start moving once again to claim the second checkpoint.

With time running down to less than a minute, the fighting intensified around the payload as it attempted to round the last corner of the map. In overtime, Philadelphia’s Hotba found a kill with his D.Va’s Self Destruct, and that was the sliver of an advantage that the Fusion needed to strengthen their hold over the payload and push it to the end.

The Spitfire’s offense got off to a smooth start thanks to one expertly placed Dragonstrike courtesy of Profit. The payload continued to move well through the next portion of the map. With the Fusion so concerned with chasing down birdring’s Widowmaker, Profit’s Hanzo was free to deal heavy damage to the rest of Philadelphia.

Unsurprisingly, the Fusion stabilized as the payload neared the end of the map. Having entered with around five minutes to complete the map, London ended up fighting all the way into overtime. A Self Destruct from Fury that caught Eqo in its path opened the way for the Spitfire, but Philadelphia managed to close that opening just short of the goal line to take the first map.

Map Score: Fusion 3, Spitfire 2

Match Score: Fusion 1, Spitfire 0

Map Two: Oasis

University was the first point of the map, which saw competing Pharahs hovering around the point, attempting to help their team nab the first kill. With the Fusion unable to break through Gesture’s Orisa shield, the Spitfire managed to take control first. London was able to rack up 99 percent on the objective before Philadelphia closed the deal on an success attack run. Impressively, the Fusion won the objective without needing to use any of their ultimates other than Mercy’s Valkyrie. While it seemed like they were in a good place to hold the objective, London was able to come back to the point and completely overwhelm them, regaining the point to secure that one last percentage point needed to take point one.

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On Gardens, the Spitfire were unable to take the point first despite the extra support provided by three healers in their composition. They got the job done on their next push, however, starting right off with extra shielding from Profit’s Brigitte. With one Philadelphia attempt repulsed, London found themselves in the lead in the control percentage race. The tide seemed to turn when Hotba landed a two-kill Self Destruct, but even with two members of their team down London managed to keep enough people on the point to stall Philadelphia’s flip of the point. What started as a stall ended up becoming much more, as London started nabbing eliminations and retaking man advantage. A couple seconds later, London was capping the point to win the map.

Map Score: Fusion 0, Spitfire 2

Match Score: Fusion 1, Spitfire 1

Map Three: Eichenwalde

Philadelphia subbed in Boombox for Poko as they entered the third map of the match. While Philadelphia’s first attack was roundly dispatched, their next attempt was successfully as they eliminated Gesture’s Orisa first. Hotba on Tracer helped clean up the rest of the point and just like that, Philly was on their way with the payload.

The Fusion struggled to move the payload past the chokepoint archway leading into the second portion of the map. As things started to look desperate, Poko landed a two-kill Self Destruct that opened the way for Philly movement. However, despite their best efforts including another Poko Self Destruct that took out the opposing Mercy, the Fusion ended up falling short with the payload not even at the halfway point to the second checkpoint.

With their backs against a bit of a wall, Philly managed to put together a stalwart defense that chewed through London’s available time quite a bit. The Spitfire managed to capture point A with under a minute on the clock, and with the added time received from capping a point London had just over three minutes in total to reach the point that Philadelphia had on their attack run. Right away, London cleared their way through the archway chokepoint, leaving Philadelphia with just one fight left to hold them back. But as the Fusion approached the payload to contest, Bdosin on Tracer snuck behind to eliminate Carpe’s Widowmaker. With Philly fighting with one man down, the Spitfire easily won the skirmish to take the map.

Map Score: Fusion 1, Spitfire 2

Match Score: Fusion 1, Spitfire 2

Map Four: Volskaya Industries

Philadelphia attacked point A with three tanks and three supports. Even though Philly was able to disrupt London’s position on the high ground, Profit was able to get the first two kills with his Hanzo. He killed the next push as well, catching nearly everyone from the Fusion in one room with his Dragonstrike. It looked like Philly luck was running out when Eqo combined his Graviton Surge with Poko’s Self Destruct. Unable to protect themselves or move out of the way, half of London’s team fell and allowed Philly to take point A.

The Fusion snowballed this victory into strong pressure right onto the next point. London looked very shaky at first, having not had time to properly set up a defense. This time, it was a Fury Self Destruct who took out two from Philly and helped London stabilize having only given up one full tick on the point. From there, London’s aggressive defense was flawless, pushing Philly all the way back to point A time and again, nabbing eliminations here and here to keep the Fusion from being able to push with a full team. The Spitfire prevented the Fusion from taking point B while looking like they themselves were the attacking team.

Philadelphia also put on an impressive show on defense when the teams reversed roles. The Spitfire found it difficult to break through Sado’s Orisa, and was badgered by Hotba’s Roadhog, Carpe’s Widowmaker and even Neptuno’s battle Mercy. But in the eleventh hour as London’s time ticked away, Neptuno was eliminated by Fury’s Self Destruct. With that support gone, the Spitfire managed to strong arm their way onto the point and take it.

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The battle moved to point B, where chaos immediately ensued after Eqo and Profit both shot out Dragonstrikes that took out three players a piece. With both teams only with half a team on the point, the remaining players grappled desperately for control. At one point, it was just Profit by himself on the point, nearly capturing the point and winning it for London all on his own. But Poko was able to get back to the point in time to keep the point alive and the battle waging on.

Philadelphia was able to stave off several London attacks, but it ended up not being enough. The Spitfire was finally able to knock Neptuno’s Mercy as the first kill of a clash, and again that key elimination helped get London’s foot in the door. From there, Profit, now on Tracer, zipped around the point, collecting three eliminations to help London seal the deal on this match win.

Map Score: Fusion 1, Spitfire 2

Match Score: Fusion 1, Spitfire 3

With the match win, London has the series advantage going into the rest of the Grand Finals. The Grand Finals will conclude on Saturday, July 28 at 4 pm EST.