Originally posted at http://www.omnicpost.com/2018/03/08/overwatch-league-stage-2-week-3-day-1-recap/
It is a new week and a new day for the Overwatch League. Previously on the Overwatch League, the Seoul Dynasty, New York Excelsior, and London Spitfire continue to show why they are a tier above the rest of the league. Today’s games feature the dominant Seoul Dynasty against the winless Shanghai Dragons, the Dallas Fuel and San Francisco fight to topple over the other in the standings, and the main event is the 2nd Battle of Los Angeles with the Gladiators and Valiant.
Seoul Dynasty (3) vs Shanghai Dragons (1)
In this series, the Dynasty decided to rest up their starting lineup and tested out their backup players. The series started out in Volskaya Industries as the Dynasty did not hesitate to assert dominance. A well-coordinated attack from Joon-hyuk “Bunny” Chae’s Tracer and Gi-do “Gido” Mun’s Zenyatta allowed the Dynasty to easily capture Point A. Bunny continued to harass the Dragons as he quickly charged his ultimate and used it to push to Point B. However, the Dragons’ tanks were indestructible and the Dynasty had to back out of the point. The Dynasty did not slow down and dove into Point B with a charged ultimate from Gido. The Dynasty was then up 2 points as they switch sides. At the start of their attack, the Dragons dove to Point A and easily took it, though Point B was another story for the Dragons. Bunny’s Tracer could not be stopped and looked invincible. He held off the Dragons from advancing to Point B and the Dynasty won the first map of the series.
In Lijiang Tower, the Dynasty zoned the Dragons out of the point and controlled it. The Dynasty had the point controlled at 99% but the Dragons found an opening to control the point. Shortly thereafter, the Dynasty activated their ultimates to slice the Dragons and win the first round. The Dragons fought back in the second round. Initially, the Dynasty pushed the Dragons to their spawn point. The Dragons waited patiently for their ultimates to charge and unleashed them to capture the point from the Dynasty. However, the Dynasty countered back with a dive to the point and Bunny cleaned up the back line of the Dragons. The Dynasty won the map as a result.
At King’s Row, the Dynasty had the same plan to dive into the point. The Dragons adapted to the Dynasty’s plan and prevented them from getting the payload. At one point, Seok-woo “Wekeed” Choi came from behind the Dragons to use Dragonblade. With effective communication, the Dragons were able to hold off Wekeed from eliminating any players and stopped the dive from the Dynasty. This shook up the Dynasty’s plan as they did not recover, enabling the Dragon’s to hold the payload. On the attack, the Dragons displayed aggression and mimicked the Dynasty’s plan by using the dive comp. It worked to the Dragons’ favour as they held off the Dynasty and won map point.
Route 66 was the last map of the series and the Dragons are one game away from sending the series to the tiebreaker map. The Dynasty was first on attack and did not divert from their plan to dive. Their plan proved to be successful when they moved the payload at a constant rate. Wekeed and Bunny prevented the Dragons from engaging a counter-attack and got all 3 points. On defence, the Dragons did a great job from getting the first two points of the map. When the push of the last point came, Wekeed was awakened as Genji. With the Dragonblade ready, Wekeed unleashed it and cleaned up the payload from the Dragons. The Dragons had no answer for Wekeed’s Genji and the Dynasty won the series.
San Francisco Shock (3) vs Dallas Fuel (0)
Dante “Danteh” Cruz popped off huge for the Shock in this series with Tracer and Sombra. His DPS partner, Andrej “babybay” Francisty also came out huge with Widowmaker and his signature hero, Soldier: 76. In Volskaya Industries, Danteh quickly cleared Point A with 3 kills and the Shock swiftly took Point A. Babybay moved forward to Point B and picked off the Fuel. However, the Fuel did not surrender without a fight. They played a stubborn defence, though Babybay had a plan to break through. He got 8 final blows as Widowmaker and the Shock was able to move forward to get Point B. Once Fuel had a chance to attack, Pongphop “Mickie” Rattanasangchod countered with his signature D.Va. Mickie managed a well-timed Self Destruct to capture Point A after 2 EMPs from Danteh’s Sombra. Dylan “aKm” Bignet then cleaned up Point B for the Fuel to tie up the map with 2 points each. With a draw, The Fuel is on the attack again and used the momentum from the previous game to dive into Point A. The Shock tried their best to defend Point B but AKM with help from Sebastian “chipshajen” Widlund were able to clean Point B and take it. Babybay would not give up the map point to the Shock as he cleared Point A. As a reward for capturing Point A, he obtained his ultimate and used Tactical Visor to get Point B to tie up the map points with 4 points each. The Shock is on the offence one more time; however, the Fuel adapted from the previous games and successfully defended Point A. Both teams ended up with a draw in Volkskaya Industries as a result.
In Lijiang Tower, Hyeon “EFFECT” Hwang was a key player for the Fuel but was it enough to get the map point? Effect started out with 3 kills to get the point. The Shock tried to get the point from the Fuel but Effect played so well with 17 final blows as the Fuel got first blood. The Shock came back in the next round as Babybay started the round with 4 kills. Effect’s Tracer was a hindrance to the Shock as Dallas captured the point. However, David “nomy” Ramirez as Winston used his ultimate and got 3 Primal Rage kills as a result. This allowed the Shock to take map point.
At King’s Row, the Shock dived to the point to capture the payload. Afterwards, the Shock was unstoppable. They would not allow the Fuel to defend the payload and got all 3 points. The Fuel attempted to mimic the Shock’s success, but Babybay’s Widowmaker prevented them from doing so. At the start, Babybay denied the Shock from taking payload with 2 kills. To obtain the payload, Jonathan “HarryHook” Tejedor Rua turned into Battle Mercy and took out Babybay. It cleared the way for the Fuel to get the payload. While the Fuel pushed the payload, aKm’s McCree managed 3 kills. The Fuel was close to getting the 2nd point of the map, but Danteh defended the payload with Tracer and won the map.
Even though the Shock won the previous series, they did not hold back in the final map. In Route 66, Danteh dealt huge damage to the Fuel as Tracer. He continued to poke members of the Fuel and distracted them. This allowed the Shock to push the payload onto the first point. As the payload moved forward, Danteh continued to be a nuisance for the Fuel. The Fuel was unable to get any of the Shock off the payload. As the payload headed towards the last point, Danteh threw a Pulse Bomb and dealt critical damage to all members of the Fuel. The rest of the Shock cleaned up after Danteh as they were successful in getting all point on the attack. On the other side, Dong-jun “Rascal” Kim and Effect helped push the payload to the first point with effective ultimates. The momentum did not carry over when the Shock set up for a strong defence and held off the Fuel from getting to the next point. The Shock completed the sweep and won the series against the Dallas Fuel.
Los Angeles Valiant (0) vs Los Angeles Gladiators (4)
The 2nd Battle of Los Angeles carried on with the Valiant and Gladiators. Their previous series was a classic in the Overwatch League. The Gladiators were ahead 2-0 and the Valiant came back for a reverse sweep. Will it happen again?
Hanamura was a back and forth match as the crowd stayed hyped throughout the arena. On attack, the Valiant had a plan to dive into both points and get them quickly. This plan would not allow the Gladiators to set up a defence properly and had them adapt on the fly. The plan worked as the captured both points. The Gladiators also worked the dive comp on the attack. Hyung-seok “Bischu” Kim rushed towards Point A with the rest of the Gladiators following from behind. They easily captured Point A and Bischu had an ultimate with D.Va. The Gladiators carried the momentum to Point B and the Valiant were not prepared to defend correctly. The Valiant was on the attack again. They struggled to get Point A until Young-seo “KariV” Park changed to Reaper. When he made that change, the Valiant had an easier time pushing Point A. His Reaper allowed the Valiant to take out the tanks effectively and opened up the squishy heroes for the Valiant to give fire. The Valiant dove to Point B and got the point going up 4-2 on the map. João Pedro “Hydration” Goes Telles had a look of determination to win this game. He used his signature Genji and carried the Gladiators to Point A. At Point B, the Valiant held with a strong defence. The Valiant quickly charged their ultimates allowing them to hold as long as possible. However, Hydration also charged his Dragonblade at a quick rate. Once Dragonblade was charged, Hydration did not hesitate to use it and cleaned up the point. The Valiant and Gladiators were tied up with 4 points each as the Gladiators are on the attack for the last time. Joon-seong “Asher” Choi went off as Tracer as he quickly obtained Pulse Bomb and used it to clear the point. The Gladiators were 1 up on the Valiant.
Asher continued to show how effective he is on Tracer in Lijiang Tower. At the first round, the Gladiators steamrolled the Valiant. The highlight of this round was when Bischu was Zarya and used Graviton Surge. Following the Graviton Surge, Asher as McCree used Deadeye and killed 3 Valiant members and stopped their push towards the point. The second round told the same story as the first. The Gladiators were in full control but Soon tried to find a way to get the point. Asher stopped Soon and the Gladiators won the second map of the game.
This series acted similarly to the previous series. At this point, people were predicting another reverse sweep from the Valiant. However, the Gladiators had a look of determination to get their win back from the previous series. In Hollywood, the Valiant easily captured the payload with help from KariV’s Pharah. As the Valiant pushed the payload towards the first point, Hydration halted that push with an effective Dragonblade. On the attack, Hydration was a significant player in aiding the Gladiators to push the payload. The Gladiators won the map and the series against the Valiant in a clean sweep.
That wraps up the recap for now, remember to tune in next time.
