OWL Stage 2 Week 5 Results & Standings

This is the week of the Stage 2 finals. We had some upsets, reserve sweeps, and heart breaks.

First I want to talk about the unsung heroes of Overwatch. The support players. From JJoNak on NYXL, who put in an outstanding performance on Zenyatta, to ryujehong on the Dynasty team, who can literally play Ana at such a high level that its complete insanity. These guys make or break a team. A lot of people will say its the tank players who carry games. I completely disagree, its the support players who carry games.

Before I get into it, lets go to the Season standings.

Season 1 Standings as of March 27th.

Pos	Team	Div	MP	W	L	Map W–L–T	Diff
1	New York Excelsior	ATL	20	18	2	65–19-2	+46
2	London Spitfire	ATL	20	15	5	60–25-0	+35
3	Seoul Dynasty	PAC	20	14	6	50-32-2	+18
4	Philadelphia Fusion	ATL	20	13	7	47–39-1	+8
5	Houston Outlaws	ATL	20	12	8	52-35-0	+17
6	Boston Uprising	ATL	20	12	8	48–39-0	+9
7	Los Angeles Valiant	PAC	20	11	9	44–36-4	+8
8	Los Angeles Gladiators	PAC	20	10	10	41–42-1	-1
9	San Francisco Shock	PAC	20	6	14	33–48-3	−15
10	Dallas Fuel	PAC	20	5	15	27–53-4	−26
11	Florida Mayhem	ATL	20	4	16	24–58-2	−34
12	Shanghai Dragons	PAC	20	0	20	8–73-1	−65
Source:^[7]

NYXL is still on top with a clear lead. We are now at the half way point of Season 1. With a lot of teams rebuilding this season *cough*Shanghai*cough* this might not be the case going forward. They have a really strong team. A lot of these guys are Apex champions, so they know a thing or two about winning it all. But that might not matter in the long run. With 20 games left in the season, its still anybody's ball game.

Before I get to anything, lets run down what happen this week.

Match Summary

Day 1 – Los Angeles Gladiators vs. Philadelphia Fusion

Hanamura: Fusion – 2, Gladiators – 1
Nepal: Gladiators – 2, Fusion – 0
Hollywood: Fusion – 2, Gladiators – 1
Route 66: Fusion – 1, Gladiators – 0
Final score: Fusion 3-1

Day 1 – Florida Mayhem vs. San Francisco Shock

Volskaya: Mayhem – 1, Shock – 0
Nepal: Shock – 2, Mayhem – 0
King’s Row: Mayhem – 3, Shock – 2
Route 66: Shock – 2, Mayhem – 1
Ilios: Mayhem – 2, Shock – 0
Final score: Mayhem 3-2

Day 1 – Shanghai Dragons vs. Houston Outlaws

Volskaya: Outlaws – 1, Dragons – 0
Lijiang: Outlaws – 2, Dragons – 0
King’s Row: Outlaws – 2, Dragons – 1
Gibraltar: Outlaws – 1, Dragons – 0
Final score: Outlaws 4-0

Day 2 – Houston Outlaws vs. Seoul Dynasty

Hanamura: Outlaws – 2, Dynasty – 1
Nepal: Dynasty – 2, Outlaws – 0
King’s Row: Outlaws – 4, Dynasty – 3
Gibraltar: Outlaws – 3, Dynasty – 2
Final score: Outlaws 3-2

Day 2 – New York Excelsior vs. Dallas Fuel

Hanamura: Excelsior – 4, Fuel – 3
Lijiang: Fuel – 2, Excelsior – 0
Hollywood: Fuel – 3, Excelsior – 2
Gibraltar: Excelsior – 2, Fuel – 0
Final score: Excelsior 3-2

Day 2 – San Francisco Shock vs. Boston Uprising

Hanamura: Shock – 4, Uprising – 3
Nepal: Uprising – 2, Shock – 0
Hollywood: Uprising – 2, Shock – 1
Route 66: Shock – 3, Uprising – 2
Ilios: Uprising – 2, Shock – 1
Final score: Uprising 3-2

Day 3 – Seoul Dynasty vs. Florida Mayhem

Volskaya: Dynasty – 4, Mayhem – 3
Nepal: Dynasty – 2, Mayhem – 1
Hollywood: Mayhem – 1, Dynasty – 0
Route 66: Dynasty – 3, Mayhem – 1
Final score: Dynasty 3-1

Day 3 – Philadelphia Fusion vs. Los Angeles Valiant

Hanamura: Fusion – 3, Valiant – 2
Nepal: Valiant – 2, Fusion – 0
King’s Row: Fusion – 3, Valiant – 0
Gibraltar: Valiant – 3, Fusion – 2
Ilios: Fusion – 2, Valiant – 1

Day 3 – London Spitfire vs. Shanghai Dragons

Hanamura: Spitfire – 2, Dragons – 0
Lijiang: Spitfire – 2, Dragons – 0
Hollywood: Spitfire – 3, Dragons – 0
Gibraltar: Spitfire – 3, Dragons – 1
Final score: Spitfire 4-0

Day 4 – Dallas Fuel vs. London Spitfire

Volskaya: Spitfire – 1, Fuel – 0
Lijiang: Spitfire – 2, Fuel – 1
Hollywood: Fuel – 4, Spitfire – 3
Route 66: Spitfire – 3, Fuel – 2
Final score: Spitfire 3-1

Day 4 – Los Angeles Valiant vs. New York Excelsior

Volskaya: Excelsior – 4, Valiant – 3
Nepal: Excelsior – 2, Valiant – 0
Hollywood: Excelsior – 1, Valiant – 0
Route 66: Excelsior – 3, Valiant – 2
Final score: Excelsior 4-0

Day 4 – Boston Uprising vs. Los Angeles Gladiators

Volskaya: Uprising – 2, Gladiators – 1
Lijiang: Uprising – 2, Gladiators – 0
Hollywood: Gladiators – 4, Uprising – 3
Route 66: Gladiators – 5, Uprising – 4
Ilios: Uprising – 2, Gladiators – 1
Final score: Uprising 3-2

That was the week, the play offs have been finalized. NYXL gets the bi and its up to either Philadelphia Fusion or the London Spitfire to get their spot. Both of the Semi Finals and the Finals were best of 5 maps.

Stage 2 Semi Finals - Philadelphia Fusion vs. London Spitfire

Watchpoint: Gibraltar: Fusion - 0, Spitfire - 1
Nepal: Fusion - 2, Spitfire - 0
Hanamura: Fusion - 2, Spitfire - 0
King's Row: Fusion - 3, Spitfire - 4
Route 66: Fusion - 3, Spitfire - 2
Winner: Philadelphia Fusion 3 - 2

Thats it! Fusion moves on to the finals and their chance at a 100k prize pool.

Stage 2 Finals - Philadelphia Fusion vs. New York Excelsior

Route 66: Fusion - 2, Excelsior - 1
Lijiang Tower: Fusion - 2, Excelsior - 1
Volskaya Industries: Fusion - 0, Excelsior - 1
Hollywood: Fusion - 1, Excelsior - 2
Watchpoint: Gibraltar: Fusion - 2, Excelsior - 3
Winner: New York Excelsior 3 - 2

And there we have it. NYXL, the best team in the league right now, finally wins a Stage. They take home a prize pool of 100k.

The heartbreak. LA Gladiators just needed to win against the Boston Uprising. With the Gladiators looking strong, and Boston looking ok, they were a shoe in for a play off spot. But the Uprising had other plans, taking the game 3 - 2 and dashing the chance of an LAG play off birth. I think, if the Gladiators did beat Boston. The finals would have looked very different.

The upset. Despite beating the Spitfire once this stage already. The Fusion was very much the underdogs coming into stage 2 semi's. No body really expected them to be able to beat them again with the pressure on. But they did it.

And then.

The reserve sweep. NYXL admitted after the match that they weren't planning on having to go against the Fusion in the finals, so they didn't practice against them. Which shows in the first half, having lost 2 games with out much of a match to be said. But, coming back from the half, NYXL cranked it up to 9000, and managed to reserve sweep Fusion for the win. NYXL knows what its like to be reserved swept, as the Spitfire did it against them in the Stage 1 finals.

That is all for Stage 2. We are at the half way point to Season 1 and we got a lot of matches coming up. But the question that is on everybody's lips? Will Shanghai get their first victory? I think we are going to see it this stage.

That it all for now, this has been a rather long post, so I will come back later in the week for some news.

This has been James with Game Fix. Game on everybody!