The final showdown of the Overwatch League's second season has come to a close. The San Francisco Shock and the Vancouver Titans faced off in a glorious head-to-head fight in Blizzard Entertainment's first-person shooter Overwatch, but only one team could emerge the winner: the San Francisco Shock are your 2019 Overwatch League Champions!
As has happened with the previous year, eight teams made it to the Overwatch League Season 2 playoffs. Last year's winners the London Spitfire were joined by the San Francisco Shock, Vancouver Titans, Seoul Dynasty, Hangzhou Spark, Los Angeles Gladiators, Atlanta Reign, and New York Excelsior for the closing battles of the league's second season. These top-tier teams battled it out until only two remained: the San Francisco Shock and the Vancouver Titans.
The 2019 Overwatch League Champions Clean Up
The Titans and Shock faced off in a Best of Seven format with Lijiang Tower opening up the battle. Unfortunately for the Titans, the San Francisco Shock performed exceedingly well, sweeping their Canadian opponents 4–0 in the series.
Here is the final box score for the game:
| Lijiang Tower | Eichenwalde | Temple of Anubis | Watchpoint: Gibraltar | Total Map Wins | |
| San Francisco Shock | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Vancouver Titans | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
The closing moments of the game where the 2019 Overwatch League Champions were decided took place on Watchpoint: Gibraltar with the Vancouver Titans attacking and the San Francisco Shock on defense. The map score was 3–2 in the Shock's favor and they needed to prevent the cart from reaching the final point to secure their victory for the year.
As the Titans approached, a fortuitous Mei wall allowed San Francisco Shock DPS Architect to get to an elevated position by the point as Bastion. He was joined up there by Moth on Baptiste. Moth deployed his Amplification Matrix, allowing Architect to really unleash the power of Sentry mode. Ultimately, he shredded three opponents in a few short seconds.
The stragglers staggered in one at a time until a final Mei wall blocked the Titans from getting back onto the cart in time, closing out the series with a 4–0 victory. The San Francisco Shock had won.
The Million-Dollar Victory
As a result of their victory, the San Francisco Shock are taking home $1.1 million. While the Vancouver Titans lost, they're still coming home with $600,000 in their pockets. The remainder of the $3.5 million prize pool was split between the other six teams; the New York Excelsior got $450,000 for third place, the Hangzhou Spark got $350,000 for fourth place, the Atlanta Reign and Los Angeles Gladiators received $300,000 for fifth and sixth place, respectively, and the Seoul Dynasty and London Spitfire got $200,000 apiece for their respective seventh and eight place positions.
This year's championships were certainly a treat to watch, especially with the complete and total lack of the GOATS comp. If you missed out on watching the 2019 Overwatch League Finals, you can see the match in its entirety below.
What do you think about the San Francisco Shock being named the 2019 Overwatch League champions? Were you surprised that the London Spitfire ended up in eighth place after winning last year? Let us know in the comments below!
