The Overwatch League has just completed Stage 1 of their inaugural season. The London Spitfire took on the New York Excelsior and won a 3-2 victory in a stunning reverse sweep.
The first season of the Overwatch League is split into four stages, each of which is five weeks in length. The best performing teams face off against one another in the Stage Title Matches. The Stage 1 Title match had a $125,000 prize pool, $100,000 of which went to the team that proved to be the best at playing Blizzard Entertainment's first-person shooter Overwatch.
The day began a bit rough for the London Spitfire, losing 3-2 to the New York Excelsior in the first regular match of the day. To claim the top spot, they would have to beat the Houston Outlaws in the first Title Match later that day. If they succeeded, they would enter into a rematch with the New York Excelsior. Against all odds, the London Spitfire pulled it off and managed to win in Stage 1 after playing 14 total maps across the entire day.
London had a tough start in the last series, dropping two maps to New York's equally-tough opposition. They turned things around on Map 3 (Horizon Lunar Colony) in a close 3-2 victory, shut out the New York Excelsior 1-0 on Numbani, and finally won the title with a 2-1 victory on Dorado. One of the key plays in the last game was Joon-yeong "Profit" Park's Junkrat RIP-Tire sailing into the NYXL's backline, taking out the enemy Mercy and turning the tide of a tense battle on the payload just outside of the LumériCo power plant.
Despite their victory, the London Spitfire are in third place of the Overwatch League standings. and the NYXL retains the number 1 spot. The top team from the Atlantic and Pacific Divisions will be entered into a first-round bye of the Semi-Finals, and the next four highest-ranked teams in the standings (regardless of division) will make up the remainder of the contenders for the first season's championships.
Saturday saw an exhaustive schedule for fans and players alike with five back-to-back series taking place, four of which stretched to a fifth tiebreaker map. Overwatch League Commissioner Nate Nanzer addressed this issue quickly on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/natenanzer/status/962554510697668609
https://twitter.com/natenanzer/status/962563581400117249
If you've missed the live matches, worry not - you can still catch them on the league's official website or its Twitch channel. Stage 2 of the Overwatch League will begin on Wednesday, February 14, 2018. The next Stage will see a shift in the map pool, bringing in a change of pace after five weeks of the same map rotation. We'll also see a shakeup in the lineup of some teams with new blood entering the fray - Stage 2 marks the period when new players can be brought aboard and added to the active roster.
Did you watch the Overwatch League Stage 1 Finals? Who did you think was going to claim the title? What's been your favorite part of the league so far? Let us know in the comments below!
