Overwatch League 2019 Opening Week Recap
By: Bryce L. Jackson
After 7 long months, the Overwatch League commenced its 2nd season. With 8 new teams and an extra day of matches, fans are treated with more Overwatch, more meme-able moments, and more players and teams to stan fervently.
Player of the Week
For the 1st “Player of the Week” Award for OWL 2019, Boston Uprising Main Tank player “Fusions” jumps out as a clear favorite. Promoted from NA Contenders Academy team Uprising Academy after the abrupt trade of their main tank from last season Gamsu, Fusions held his own against NYXL and led the Uprising to its first win of the season later in the week against the Houston Outlaws. It has been a meteoric rise for the British main tank after his performance during the 2018 Overwatch World Cup, and raises the expectations of the team as the season progresses.
Match of the Week
My match of the week has to go to LA Valiant vs Hangzhou Spark. The league’s most popular expansion team faced off against the Valiant in a clash of play styles. The Spark’s aggressive style clashed with the LA Valiant’s measured and methodical play. It took phenomenal plays from Spark, most notably Off-Tank player Ria and Support player iDK making huge plays and keeping the Spark at the top pf the standings early in the season.
Surprise of the Week
There were many matches that went the distance and had its fair share of drama and storylines that added to the anime that is Overwatch League. Because of the huge swing in performance over the weekend, my surprise of the week came from the Dallas Fuel’s 3-1 win over the Seoul Dynasty. The Fuel were absolutely dismantled by the high-octane San Francisco Shock in their first match while the Seoul Dynasty went to great lengths to beat the LA Gladiators, who were top 5 in many preseason power rankings. So on paper, it seemed like Seoul would do the same. Dallas, had other plans and played surprisingly well, Particularly Tank player RCK, who had a 3K Dva bomb out of nowhere on Volskya Industries to swing the fight, and DPS player, and measurement of time, AKM who’s Sombra play proved key in their victory.
Community Insights
As much as Twitch chat complains about the 3-3 Goats Comp, there was a surprising amount of games played where 3-2-1 variants (Either 3 tanks or 3 DPS) as a means to countering the meta, all to varying degrees of success. In terms of the Goats comp, in my opinion, its not this horrible scourge of pro Overwatch. Its a nuanced play style that will quickly define teams and their ability to run it or counter it while this meta is still at the apex of pro-Overwatch Strats. There was a marked difference between how fans have seen Goats played in various Contenders regions and Overwatch League and with time and the minds of the brilliant coaches of the Overwatch League, there will form a consistent counter meta for Twitch Chat to complain about.
The dedicated fans and paid actors (lul) of the Overwatch League love this game participating in its festivities. However, it became apparent very early that 4 matches a day tests the will of those attending in Blizzard Arena and watching at home on Twitch or any of the Disney networks. As someone on the United States East Coast, the opening day began at 7PM and ended at 2 AM after Watchpoint. Through observation of Twitter interactions of Arena attendees, though they enjoy every second of being in the Blizzard Arena, they did have a hard time when it come to keeping energy up for long hours and frigid climate control settings. During the last match of the day and of week one between the Dallas Fuel and Seoul Dynasty, there were chants for “No Map 5”. Some percentage of it were Fuel fans hoping the team didn’t leave the door open for a reverse sweep by the Dynasty, but it was mostly because at that point of the day, the match was already 2 hours behind its scheduled start. Fatigue and delirium from watching the days other 3 games go to five maps had already set it. We have seen Blizzard tweak the season schedule before, but there may not be much flexibility, this time around and fans will just have to soldier through.