Overwatch League: Stage 2 Week 5 Day 1 Recap

~ Chris Cuevo

Originally posted at http://www.omnicpost.com/2018/03/22/overwatch-league-stage-2-week-5-day-1-recap/

This week is the last week for Stage 2 in the inaugural season of the Overwatch League. The Philadelphia Fusion and Los Angeles Gladiators are the Western hope heading into Stage 2 playoffs, while the New York Excelsior has been unstoppable at this point. How will the standings shape up for the Stage 2 playoffs?

Los Angeles Gladiators (1) vs Philadelphia Fusion (3)

Two of the best Western teams contend for playoff spots. While the Gladiators racked up wins last week against the Outlaws and Mayhem, they could not hold off the Fusion’s aggression throughout the series. The Fusion held off the Gladiators in Hanamura on the backs of Josue”Eqo” Corona and Alberto “neptuNo” González. João Pedro “Hydration” Goes Telles would not let the Gladiators go down 0-2 as they head into halftime. In Nepal, he stepped up as Pharah unleashing rocket after rocket into the Fusion. The Gladiators found an opening to win Game 2 and tie up the series.

Following halftime, the Fusion stepped up their game in Hollywood. The Gladiators decided to switch up their roster subbing in Lane “Surefour” Roberts for Joon-seong “Asher” Choi. Likewise, the Fusion subbed in their up and coming star Simon “snillo” Ekström for Eqo. The Gladiators could not advance the payload as Jae-hyeok “Carpe” Lee switched to Widowmaker in Hollywood and eliminated Gladiators when they appeared in his target. When Carpe was not picking off Gladiators, Snillo snuck in from the back to contribute for the Fusion.

Carpe’s Widowmaker continued to be a hindrance to the Gladiators. Every time the Gladiators made any progress with the payload, Carpe decided to stray them away. In this set, Carpe displayed a great performance as Widowmaker with 40 eliminations and 27 final blows.

With this win, the Fusion sat tied with the Gladiators for 4th place. They will face the Los Angeles Valiant as they need a win to solidify a spot for Stage 2 playoffs. As for the Gladiators, they can tie with the Fusion if the Fusion loses at least one map against the Valiant. They will also need to win their match against the Boston Uprising on Saturday and go 3-0 for a healthy chance at playoffs.

Florida Mayhem (3) vs San Francisco Shock (2)

Today marks the debut of a rising star in the Overwatch League that may help turn the tides for the San Francisco Shock going into Stage 3, Jay “sinatraa” Won. Many viewers are looking forward to his debut. Did the big stage and spotlight get to sinatraa’s nerves?

At the first map, Volskaya Industries, the Mayhem were first to be on the attack. The Shock looked like they were able to hold the Mayhem out of Point A for the entire time duration, but with one push, the Mayhem captured Point A. Moving to Point B, the Shock’s defense held the Mayhem to 1 point on attack. Nevix and Nomy showed no monkey business as they slapped the Mayhem out of Point B. Switching sides, the Shock attempted numerous pushes to obtain Point A but were unable to do so. The Shock had a lack of coordination on offense and sinatraa’s nerves could have played a factor, leading the Florida Mayhem to win Game 1.

In Nepal, the Shock subbed in Andrej “babybay” Francisty for Dante “Danteh” Cruz for his Soldier: 76. In Round 1, San Francisco displayed more cohesion and starting to get things straightened out. Jabs were thrown back and forth with both teams fighting for the point until Babybay used Tactical Visor to drive the Mayhem from the point. From then, the Shock had better communication leading to a winning first round. In the second round, sinatraa made a switch to Zarya from Tracer. The switch gave the Shock the momentum they needed and immediately drove the Mayhem away from the point. Within the first minute of Round 2, sinatraa’s Zarya already had 65% charge on his ultimate. Andreas “Logix” Berghmans’ Tracer tried to help Florida come back into the game with a tactical Pulse Bomb, but San Francisco did not leave a gap for Florida to get to the point. The combo of sinatraa and Babybay in Round 2 was too much for the Mayhem and the Shock won Game 2.

The Mayhem were looking to shake things up and seek redemption in Game 3 at King’s Row. After the countdown hit zero, the Florida team caused mayhem of their own when they cornered the Shock into a narrow hallway, eliminated the team, and captured payload. Heading towards the first point, the Shock’s defense was tight around the point. The Mayhem had issues pushing until Sebastian “Zebbosai” Olsson used Lucio’s Sound Barrier to help the team dive into the point and get the first point. Kevyn “TviQ” Lindström switched to Widowmaker after getting to the first point and turned things up. He got 3 pickoffs on the Shock. This cleared the payload for the Mayhem and pushed at the final point. The Shock had their turn to see if they could capture identical success. Out of the gates, David “nomy” Ramirez rallied the Shock into capturing the payload. When the Shock captured payload, they switched their team composition to triple tanks. Florida had no answer for the triple push and omitted the first point to the Shock. The last point was a close one for the Shock. They were a few meters away from getting it. Sinatraa had a plan to flank the Mayhem from behind with a Graviton Surge but missed completely. The Mayhem countered with an attack of their own;  Johan “CWoosH” Klingestedt used an Earthshatter to nullify the Shock and TviQ cleaned things up. The Mayhem held on defense and won Game 3.

The Shock is now on the heels of being the losing end of this set. They are looking to tie things up as the teams head into Route 66. Logix has a swiss army knife of heroes he can choose at any time and chose McCree on offense. Logix was on a hot streak, dealing tons of damage, and eliminating Shock players.  After capturing the first point, the Mayhem was stopped near the second point. The last moments saw Danteh’s Sombra getting a pick off TviQ and holding the Mayhem to 1 point. After the teams switched sides, the Shock turned things on. As the Shock pushed the payload, Cwoosh collapsed in on Nikola “sleepy” Andrews at the backline. In doing so, it opened up a gap for the Shock to push to the first point. After the first point, the Mayhem saw what sinatraa is able to do on the battlefield. Sinatraa was relentless earning over 30 eliminations as he carried the Shock to win Game 4.

Ilios was the final map of the set as they subbed in Babybay once again for his Soldier: 76. The Shock played around Babybay as he constantly poked the Mayhem and prevented them from taking the point. The Mayhem had to switch things up if they wanted to win the set. They had TviQ switch to Pharah and it was very effective: he zoned out the Shock, not allowing them to get anywhere near the point. As the Shock had one last push towards the point, TviQ unleashed a Barrage onto the Shock and the Mayhem won the first round. In the second round, it was all Mayhem. TviQ switched to Tracer and took over the round. The Mayhem came away with an upset and won the set.

Shanghai Dragons (0) vs Houston Outlaws (3)

Upon news of Weida “Diya” Lu and Chao “Undead” Fang taking time away from the team, the Dragons brought Eui-Seok “Fearless” Lee and Gi-hyeon “Ado” Chon aboard. The Dragons struggled with synergy throughout the Overwatch League thus far and looking for a brighter future with these new additions. In Volskaya Industries, it was a one-sided affair as the Outlaws prevented the Dragons from pushing to the payload in any fashion. When the Outlaws was on the attack, they had a dive composition and easily won Game 1.

At Lijiang Tower, it was similar to Game 1. In the first round, Jake took over the round with his signature Junkrat play. Every time Jacob “Jake” Lyon had RIP-tire charged, he eliminated multiple Dragons, preventing any push for the point. In the second round, the Dragons started to show potential as they switched to a dive composition. They zoned out the Outlaws from pushing to the point. However, at one point, the Dragons overextended and allowing Jiri “LiNkzr” Masalin and Austin “Muma” Wilmot to take the point. The Dragons were not able to recover and the Outlaws sealed Game 2.

The Dragons had one last chance to win a game in the set at King’s Row. They continued using a dive composition which Houston still had no answer for when they collapsed into capturing the payload. The Outlaws quickly recovered and remained composed. Communication which plagued Shanghai for the entire year remained a detriment when they only earned a point. After teams switched sides, Alexandre “SPREE” Vanhomwegen’s Roadhog overwhelmed the Dragons and the Houston obtained the payload. Spree continued to be the kryptonite to Shanghai. He earned a charged ultimate which zoned out the Dragons. Houston easily pushed the payload and won the set.

Published by Chris Cuevo

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.