The Overwatch League has completed its third week of the first phase. After the initial matches of this season, there were clear favorites, all unbeaten. But that has changed.
The most important eSports spectacle this year is the Overwatch League. Blizzard even built a dedicated arena for the event, providing a stage for the 12 competing teams.
In this competition that spans multiple phases and weeks, teams battle for recognition and prize pools worth millions. Many well-known names such as EnVyUs (now Dallas Fuel) and Lunatic-Hai (now Seoul Dynasty) are represented with their players.
After the first match days, there were some teams leading the standings without a single failure:
- Seoul Dynasty,
- London Spitfire
- and New York Excelsior.
All of them had won 4 or 5 games in a row – only to all suffer their first loss this week.
London Spitfire and New York Excelsior lose on the same night
On Friday, January 26, two of the favorites of the Overwatch League had to endure harsh defeats. Both London Spitfire and New York Excelsior were outmatched by their challengers that evening. And that even in immediately consecutive matches.
London Spitfire lost to Boston Uprising. Boston is not a weak team, but has yet to shine with significant successes. The team is actually situated more towards the lower end of the mid-table. A particularly big day for the boys from Uprising.
New York Excelsior fell to Philadelphia Fusion, who have shown themselves to be one of the stronger teams so far. Nevertheless, they are not at the top, which is why analysts predicted defeat for them, much like for Boston. Still, Fusion won – but how actually?
The teams did not anticipate resistance
Watching the games, one notices a steadfast confidence among the teams from London and New York. Both are already aware of their victory and seem to see their opponents as no threat. They apparently underestimate them.
The fact that both Boston and Philadelphia put up resistance surprises both teams – London a little more than New York. Especially the boys in light blue seem disoriented and helpless towards the end. Almost as if they can’t really grasp that they are losing.
Whether it was due to arrogance or lack of concentration is hard to say without a statement. However, the “underdogs” clearly appeared to be better prepared and took the matches much more seriously, as shown by their focused playstyle. They simply had more to gain than their opponents had to lose.
At least for New York, that seemed to be a reason to become aware once again that in the Overwatch League, everyone always gives their best.
Consequently, on the following day, they faced the current contender for first place, Seoul Dynasty – and won. Thus, every favorite has already been defeated at least once, even though it was close.
The matches send messages
All three games were extremely close: After a 2:2 tie, a tiebreaker round on Lijang Tower brought victory for the challengers. Such head-to-head races should define the Overwatch League. And they all sent important messages.
On one hand, Seoul Dynasty is no longer, as initially thought, the number one contender for first place. Lunatic-Hai, from which it originated, was the best team in the world. Now it has been defeated and New York Excelsior is the new favorite.
On the other hand, all three teams consist of purely South Korean players. For many Western players, this is disheartening. After all, there is little incentive for them to even try. However, the victories of Boston and Philadelphia show: Westerners have chances!
The matches indicate that Western teams can also win. Europe and America have now become serious competitors for South Korea.
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