OverWatch League Week 2
Notable Matches
Shanghai Dragons vs Florida Mayhem
In the battle of winless teams, (my) Florida Mayhem pick up the first win of the season 4-0. The Mayhem have appeared to be playing better leading up to this game with the match before this being against Seoul and they looked impressive though outmatched. Logix and Manneten led the way in dispatching the Dragons and Logix making probably the play of the week sticking a pulse bomb to a mid-air Pharah.
Houston Outlaws vs Dallas Fuel
The Showdown for Texas saw Houston claim the first matchup with a convincing 4-0 victory. Jake led the way with crazy Junkrat plays and frustrating the Fuel who remain winless. The Fuel looked out of sorts on every map and giving their worst performance of the season.
Philadelphia Fusion vs Los Angeles Gladiators
"Oh, you almost had it! Gotta be quicker than that!"-Gladiators (probably)
In one of the most exciting matches of Week 2, Gladiators came from down 0-2 and went the distance to claim a 3-2 win behind an inspired and merciless effort from the damage dealers. The Fusion looked less imposing than they did in the first half and left the window open for the Gladiators to gain momentum. Even after some great push backs from the Fusion, the Gladiators were able to respond and decisively win in overtime on Lijang Tower.
London Spitfire vs Los Angeles Valiant
After going up early, the London Spitfire had to put everything into maintaining their perfect record against an inspired Valiant squad, winning 3-2 in overtime. Early season recaps will pull moments from this match as it ebbed and flowed in favor of both sides. The Valiant were so close to making the Spitfire become the first all-Korean teams to fall in Overwatch League but behind Birdring and Fury, the Spitfire remain perfect.
League Notes
Week 2 Twitch numbers for every match this week settled at well over 100K which is still great in term of Twitch viewers. With news that Overwatch League's Opening week doing better ratings wise than the NFL's attempts at streaming Thursday Night Football games on streaming platforms like Amazon Prime and Twitter fans of OWL are showing that even though its a niche market, it shows strength and consistency.
OWL had to deal with its first player disciplinary issue where after the Outlaws vs Fuel match, Outlaws player Muma used a catchphrase that Dallas Fuel player xQc (who did not play) uses on his Twitch streams. xQc responded on a stream later that night with a gay euphemism directed at Muma (who is gay). xQc has since apologized directly to Muma but Overwatch League suspended xQc 4 games and fined him $2000 and the Dallas Fuel suspended him an additional 2 games so xQc will not play for the remainder of Stage 1.
Teams with all Korean rosters (Spitfire, Excelsior, Dynasty) still remain undefeated despite the best efforts of the LA Valiant. Interviews from other coaches say there isn't a lot that separates the Korean teams from the rest of the field in terms of mechanic . The separator is said to be the familiarity and time played between amongst the teammates. I would like to believe that so time will tell if that is the case and we see one of the Western teams beat them eventually.
The Dallas Fuel are in a rough position. Now sitting 0-4 on the season, with their hardest competition behind them, they need to rack up some wins now. Though early in the season still, Stage 1 glory is gone. They play the 0-4 Shanghai Dragons who they need to bead definitively then they play the LA Gladiatiors later in the week and that would represent exactly where they stand.
Best Week 2 Performers (2 By Role)
Profit (DPS, London Spitfire)
Jake (DPS, Houston Outlaws)
CWoosh (Flex, Florida Mayhem)
Fury (Flex, London Spitfire)
tobi (Support, Seoul Dynasty)
Jjonak (Support, LA Gladiators)
iRemiix (Tank, LA Gladiators)
Muma (Tank, Houston Outlaws )