Philadelphia Fusion defeat London in fateful rematch; New York still on top
Stage 3 Week 2 Day 4 Recap
The Philadelphia Fusion and the London Spitfire met for their first match against each other since the Stage 2 semi-finals and Philadelphia came out on top again, winning 3–2, Saturday.
The star on Philadelphia’s side was Carpe. Between checkpoint 2 and 3 on Blizzard World, Carpe ran back to spawn to switch from Sombra to McCree. He quickly charged a Dead Eye, which he used with 40 seconds left on the clock to zone London off of the payload, allowing his team to push forward. When London returned, he got final blows on Poko as D.Va and Gesture as Winston, leaving London without a tank line and Philadelphia able to close out the map. Going into halftime, the score was a healthy 2–0 in Philadelphia’s favor.
London came back in the second half, however. They took both Ilios and Junkertown 2–0, thanks in part to Bdosin’s play as Roadhog. On Junkertown, he repelled a vicious offense from Philadelphia: Hanzo, Widowmaker, and Bastion. Boombox used Bastion’s ultimate to try to clear the payload but is repelled. As Philadelphia desperately try to retake the payload to reach the first checkpoint in overtime, Bdosin used Whole Hog to repel the incoming Fusion players, resulting in a full hold.
With the score tied up 2–2, it all came down to Oasis. Philadelphia came out swinging on map 5. They took Gardens at 99% to London’s 0% when Carpe on Soldier: 76 used Tactical Visor to kill Hooreg and Woohyal. Switching to University, London had to take this control point to stay alive but Philadelphia left them no quarter. Fragi as Reinhardt played so aggressively he and his team chased London back to their spawn room on their first attack.
London’s play to retake the point: Profit as Zarya used his Graviton Surge to grab up the majority of Philadelphia, and Woohyal capitalized with a D.Va Self-Destruct, flipping the point over to London. Poko comes back with the Fusion and lands a triple kill on his Tracer Pulse Bomb, snowballing the point. Closer as Lucio desperately tried to hold the point while his team respawned, even using his Sound Barrier on himself. But when London returned, Philadelphia managed to bounce Gesture as Reinhardt into the hole in the floor, separating his valuable shield from his team, and Philadelphia snowballed the point from there. Even when Gesture managed to walk back up the stairs to rejoin the fight, his team was largely split up and dying and he soon fell himself, handing Philadelphia the 2–0 win on Oasis and the 3–2 series.
NYXL dominates Houston even in a map 5 series
Later in the evening, the New York Excelsior faced off against the Houston Outlaws in a tight 3–2 win for New York, in the Blizzard Arena, in Burbank, California.
Star DPS players Saebyeolbe and Pine on Tracer and Widowmaker, respectively largely carried the Excelsior to victory. While Houston tried to play the duo one-on-one with Jake on Tracer and Linkzr on Widowmaker, it was clear the Houston DPS do not match up to New York one for one.
On Nepal, the Houston Outlaws seemed to be taking Shrine uncontested until New York got a key kill. Showing discipline, Houston retreated off of the control point with 99% capture, allowing New York to take control. Houston regrouped and came back with a Junkrat ultimate from Jake, which failed. Houston backed up again and regrouped. This time, Rawkus gets a key kill on Libero as he used his Barrage as Pharah, leaving New York without its DPS advantage, and allowing Houston to close out Nepal.
On Route 66 again Houston was outmatched at every turn. Between Pine’s Widowmaker and Seabyeolbe’s Tracer, Houston couldn’t find an inch of ground. New York easily completed the map, scoring three, and were able to hold Houston on defense to one point, pushing the series to a map 5 finish on Oasis.
Houston started strong on Oasis University, with a Rip-Tire from Jake that opened up the point for a first take. Pine, respecting Jake on the Junkrat, switches to Pharah. The next time Jake used the Rip-Tire, NY focused on destroying it before it could go off and then contesting the point, but it was all for nothing. Linkzr as Tracer gets a key Pulse Bomb on Ark, New York’s Mercy, leaving Pine without a pocket healer. Pine attempts a Barrage anyway, but is dove on by Cootmatt and Muma, falling. Houston closes out University from there.
On Gardens, NY clearly had had enough. They open by taking the high ground first and forcing Houston to come to them, but with a key Coalescence from Rawkus on Moira, Houston overwhelms the Excelsior and capture the control point first.
As New York re-engaged, Jake attempted to use his EMP as Sombra on both New York healers, but he’s hunted down by Meko and Ark pocket heals Jjonak through the attack. With Jake down, New York collapses on the control point again and with Jjonak’s Transcendence to heal them, easily take the point.
New York successfully repelled both attempts by Houston to retake the control point from there. In the end, Jake is the only Houston player left alive, but he’s isolated up on the high ground and is unable to drop down and contest the point while his team respawns, allowing New York to tie up Oasis 1–1.
Houston gets aggressive on City Center, but to no avail. In the first engagement, they commit both Dragon Blade and Pulse Bomb to kill Pine, but are quickly repelled by Jjonak and Meko. Pine runs back to the point and uses Dead Eye to clear it, allowing NY to maintain control.
In desperation, Houston is able to gain control of this fateful control point 99% to zero, but good Discord Orb use by Jjonak and focus fire from the rest of NYXL, especially Meko as D.Va closes it out and hands New York the win.
Florida attempts a reverse sweep against Boston
The struggling Florida Mayhem went to the stage against the Boston Uprising once more in a tight series against one of the best teams in the Stage. After losing two maps, Florida attempted a reverse sweep but dropped the series on Oasis, losing 2–3 to Boston, Saturday.
Florida goes into this match as 11th in the stage as well as overall, against Boston, second in Stage 3 and fourth in the League. After yesterday’s series, Boston remains undefeated but at a lower map differential than the LA Valiant.
Boston’s rising star, Mistakes, shined in this match as well. On Temple of Anubis defense, his Widowmaker play swung the fight in Boston’s favor, ending a Flordia attack before it even began. He peeks out and headshots Zebbosai’s Mercy first, wraps around a building, and picks off his counterpart Sayaplayer on Widowmaker, and then Tviq on Genji. With a support and both DPS missing, Florida crumbled from there.
Boston full-holds on Anubis point A, meaning they only need to capture 33% on their attack phase in order to win the map. Florida didn’t lay down and die, however. Between Manneten’s aggresive D.Va play and Sayaplayer on Widowmaker, Florida repelled push after push. With less than a minute left on the clock, Mistakes goes in as Genji, pulls out the Dragon Blade and kills Kellex’s Mercy and Sayaplayer’s Widowmaker, opening up the fight for Boston. Gamsu uses Primal Rage to clear off the point, and Boston quickly takes the 33% capture to close out Anubis 1–0.
On Blizzard World, Boston is able to hold Florida to 2 points on defense. Boston stalled out the payload with .17 meters to go before point 2, attempting a desperate hold with their respawn advantage in mind, but Tviq cleaned up kills on the payload and secured Florida the second point. However, with only 90 seconds left to complete the map, Florida struggled. Boston simply overwhelmed Florida with ultimates, starting with an EMP and a Primal Rage to throw Florida off of the payload in overtime. When Florida started to hit back, the Uprising used Mercy’s Valkyrie ultimate to overwhelm the remaining damage with raw healing.
However, Florida did push the payload almost half way between point 2 and 3, making it no easy feat for Boston to push as far. Part of Boston’s success was aggresive play from Note on D.Va, including a triple kill Self Destruct that snowballed into a team kill, securing Boston point 2.
Mistakes makes a camouflaged flank behind Florida to hack and shoot the defense to pieces to guarantee point 2, proving himself again as a versatile and essential player on the Boston roster.
Even as Florida began to put up a fight, Boston returned needing to push the payload the same distance Florida did with the same 90 seconds on the clock. After another EMP/Self Destruct combo, Boston easily pushes the payload to the finish line. Florida seemed uncoordinated in contesting the payload. Boston snuck it in meter by meter just by bouncing the Mayhem around, closing out Blizzard World 3–2, and bringing the series to a 2–0 advantage going into halftime.
Florida returned swinging. They managed to take the next two maps: Nepal 2–0 and Junkertown 3–2, pushing the series to a map 5 finish, the third such series of the night, and looking like a reverse sweep for Florida.
That all came to a screeching halt on Oasis where Boston won 2–0, closing out the series three map wins to Florida’s two.
The Overwatch League returns next week at the Blizzard Arena, in Burbank, California. Here is the schedule for Wednesday:
LA Gladiators vs. LA Valiant, 4 p.m. PDT/7 p.m. EDT
Dallas Fuel vs. San Francisco Shock, 6 p.m. PDT/9 p.m. EDT
Shanghai Dragons vs. Seoul Dynasty, 8 p.m. PDT/11 p.m. EDT
