Overwatch League Recap Stage 3 Week 3

Written by: Bryce L. Jackson

Notable Matches

Los Angeles Gladiators vs Los Angeles Valiant

Another Battle For Los Angeles, another great matchup. Every time these teams have played each other, they added new players into the fold. This time it was Silkthread now in purple, and Space now spearheading the tanks for the Valiant and Custa in the Valiant backline. With new players and pride of the city on the line an intense match ended with the city of Los Angeles cloaked in green and yellow as the Valiant won 3-2. 

New York Excelsior vs Philadelphia Fusion

In a rematch of the Stage 2 final, the Excelsior took on the Fusion in what could arguably be the best match of the week. The biggest draw in this match were the history of these franchises facing off, Fusion being the first to give NYXL a loss in the season, NYXL beating the Fusion for the Stage 2 Championship. Just like the Stage 2 Final, Philadelphia was able to jump out to an early lead and had a commanding stranglehold on the NYXL. Enter Pine. His performance on his home map on Ilios bolstered the start of the NYXL comeback. The NYXL started Ilios with a deathless 100%-0 Ruins run followed by a definite lighthouse run. Junkertown saw a furious push from both sides and needed an inspired defensive hold for NYXL in the overtime round to force the 5th set on Oasis. Fragi did Fragi things to open the scoring for the Fusion on City Center, then NYXL dominated on University to set up the high intensity 3rd round map and match decider. A concerted team effort by NYXL finally ends the match 3-2 and the reverse sweep in their favor.

Boston Uprising vs London Spitfire

The Uprising are without question the biggest surprise of Stage 3. In this matchup they took on the biggest disappointment in Stage 3. The match however was far from a disappointment. Profit came back into form to battle Boston’s Striker in the Tracer duel and excellent play from Hooreg and Gesture made this game close as the Spitfire gained a 2-0 advantage going into halftime. Boston can out of the half swinging and quickly tied the match with a quick victory on Ilios and a full hold on Junkertown to force overtime. On Oasis, the match went the distance and Boston came out on top to complete the 3-2 reverse sweep.

League Notes

Blizzard have announced a plethora of changes to heroes that could have an effect on the league in various ways. The league is still running on the patch that took away Sombra’s EMP charge from hacking health packs. Hero changes include:

Addition of Brigitte to the character roster after her addition to the competitive ladder in Season 10.

D.va's micro-missles damage changed from 6 to 4, booster impact changed from 25 to 10.

Hanzo’s Scatter will be removed and replaced with Storm Arrows; Sonic Arrow radius reduced and cooldown timer reduced.

Mei’s thermobaric blaster can now slow and freeze multiple enemies (not behind a shield) at the same time.

Reaper Wraith form movement increased by 25%, can now choose to end Wraith form at will.

Lucio can wall ride around corners, 

Zenyatta orb volley speed reduced 15%

Blizzard World’s 2nd checkpoint moved back 10 meters. (Though it is questionable if we will see Blizzard World as the hybrid map as Eichenwalde and Hollywood remain possible Hybrid maps for Stage 4.)

As it stands now for the Stage 4 playoffs:

Most surprising omission are the London Spitfire who sit in 9th at 2-4. The Fusion and Dynasty will face each other next week and can ruin the other’s chances of making the stage playoffs. Dynasty will have the hardest schedule next week with the Fusion and the NYXL so their odds of making the playoffs are slim. The Shock will look to maintain their 4th seed taking on the NYXL and the Spitfire who at this point are angling to play spoiler to everyone above them. 

Best Performers

Pine (Flex, New York Excelsior)

Space (Flex, Los Angeles Valiant)

Striker (DPS, Boston Uprising)

Architect (San Francisco Shock)

Mano (Tank, New York Excelsior)

Geguri (Tank, Shanghai Dragons)

Custa (Support, Los Angeles Valiant)

Boombox (Support, Philadelphia Fusion)m