What a great week to close down Stage 2! With only 3 out of the 14 matches – two of whom included the Shanghai Dragons, who are definitely looking forward to the second half of the season and the debut of their players – finishing in a 4-0, we were rewarded with some high quality Overwatch, starting right away on Wednesday, with the Fusion beginning its journey towards the playoffs with an important win over the Gladiators.

And after an intense weekend, we had an exceptional final day, with both series going to five maps in order to determine our Stage 2 Champions.

As usual, I prepared a small list of the good, and perhaps not so good moments of last week, so sight tight and enjoy them for a final time before we see ourselves in two weeks’ time for the start of Stage 3!


Excelsior!!!

Once again, what a playoffs we had! After two high-quality series, the New York Excelsior, undoubtedly the best team of the season so far, was deservedly crowned Stage 2 Champions with a reverse-sweep – perhaps to best way to win following their loss in Stage 1 to London - victory against underdogs Philadelphia Fusion, who despite the disappointing upset, especially after being so close to the win, should be proud for pushing the favorite to its limits, showing that it will return as true contenders for Stage 3.

And that was shown throughout all 10 maps the Fusion played yesterday, starting with the London Spitfire – a team Philadelphia never even had taken a map against before. With London 1-0 up in the series, the Fusion surprisingly won on Nepal, arguably London’s strongest map, and kept the momentum going in map 3, setting a respectable time in King’s Row, but London showed mental fortitude when pressed against its backs to reply and establish an even better time, sending the series to the decisive map 5, where once more, the Fusion was fantastic on defense, holding all of the Spitfire’s against to penetrate into their backline to take a really surprising win.

But Philadelphia had no time to rest: with the final starting half an hour later, the Fusion confirmed its good form to open up the series with a convincing win on Route 66 with Carpe and snillo on fire, and became one map away from the title after a series of clutch plays on Lijiang secured the team a very close win.

However, on the other side was an Excelsior full of talent, and after the break, New York proved why it is the most consistent team of the season with a full hold on Volskaya, before making quick business in the attack, sending us to a map 4, where it kept the ball rolling, tying up the series, sending us to Gibraltar to decide Stage 2.

Quite “shy” during the rest of series, Saebyeolbe turned in for the final map of the Stage, being responsible for key eliminations with New York denying the Fusion a full push. Changing side, despite a valiant defense by Philadelphia, and with a brilliant performance by Eqo on Genji, New York found again the openings, and with a convincing time, pushed the payload far enough to become Stage 2 Champions.

Harder to get better than this!


Hats off to Philly

Talking about the Fusion, it is needed to mention how the team completed its unlikely quest to the playoffs. In a close series against the Los Angeles Valiant, decided my mere details, Philadelphia managed to come out ahead, at that point knocking out Seoul from playoffs contention.

And well, to mention how the Fusion was actually on the brink of elimination, just look at the final map: after falling behind 1-0 on Ilios, Eqo went huge on McCree, obliterating everyone to equalize the round. And then, it came Carpe’s big moment: with the Valiant sitting with 99%, he literally single-handily carried his team, finding pick after pick to keep his team alive, who after a nerve-wacking final fight, came out with an amazing win.

But despite all of that, it couldn’t be enough to have the chance to play on Sunday, with Philadelphia still depending on the “help” from its East Coast “brother” to secure third place...


From Boston, with love

…and that help actually came 24 hours later in the final match of Saturday, with the Uprising indeed managing to upset the (perhaps) favorite team coming to the match. But depending only of themselves, the Gladiators clearly felt the pressure, and ended the Stage with a somewhat sour taste in their mouths, despite the many improvements shown since the acquisition of Fissure last month.

With Boston completely controlling the two maps – including a surprising sweep on Lijiang Tower – the Gladiators managed to pull it back with two nail-biting wins on Hollywood and Route 66, and despite starting ahead on Ilios, was ultimately unable to handle DreamKazper and Gamsu, with the two players leading the charge to give the Uprising its fifth win in six games. Imagine if it didn’t have mess up in the first weeks!


Houston is Alive

The past couple of weeks definitely weren’t what the Houston Outlaws expected after entering the second quarter of the season as runner-ups of Stage 1. With disappointing losses, and shaky wins against the likes of Florida, the team seemed uncoordinated, and somewhat stressed following the sequence of bad results.

But with a positive week 5, things are looking to be back on track: following an easy way over the Dragons, the Outlaws confirmed their recovery with an amazing win over the Seoul Dinasty, knocking off one of the best teams in the league from playoffs contention.


And so is Dallas!

Yes, they went 0-2 once more this week, but it definitely was a positive week for the struggling Dallas Fuel against two of the strongest teams in the League right now, pushing the New York Excelsior to 5 maps and taking a map away from London.

With all members showing improvements, and with a more cohesive collective play, those are very positive signs of a team to managed to find itself after a very chaotic Stage, marked mostly by polemics and controversies than anything else showed on stage.

Therefore, week 5 should and need to be taken positively, and going to the break, the Fuel has perhaps finally found the motivation needed to keep improving and testing its limits. However, with news breaking that Custa could be sent to the LA Valiant in exchange for Unkoe, I am very skeptical whether this is actually the best trade for Dallas, as Custa is a pillar of consistency and strong teamplay in a side plagued by so many problems and issues.


Sinatraa debut

After celebrating his 18^th birthday on March 18, sinatraa finally debuted in the Overwatch League against the Florida Mayhem. Despite looking nervous in the beginning (and the loss), he improved as the match went, showing an overall solid first performance in his very first series.

But it was clear that the months playing outside of a competitive environment took its toll, with sinatraa showing that he is not fully in complete synergy with the rest of the San Francisco Shock – which was absolutely expected, to be fair.

With now more time to practice before the start of Stage 3, we should see a sinatraa much more comfortable on stage, where he will try to be a decisive factor in a team that has played a very mediocre season so far.


LiNkzr destroying as Widow

Maybe you expected to see this while I was writing about the Houston Outlaws, but LiNkzr’s performance against the Dynasty was so out-of-curve that he more than deserved a chapter for himself.

With a total of 33 final blows against Seoul, he shined the most on Gibraltar, where he rendered Fleta’s Genji and munchkin’s Tracer completely useless, keeping his backline safe, as the Outlaws marched towards a rather unlikely victory.

“Non-factor” Fleta

Despite having a hard time against LiNkzr, Fleta had some good moments last week as well, showing the Mayhem who the sheriff in town is… after being called non-factor exactly 5 seconds earlier. Caster “curse” is truly real.

Fragi’s Charge

In the semi-finals against the London Spifire, Fragi was responsible for one of the most elegant Reinhardt charges I have ever seen in pro play. Like, how many of you can drift like that?!

(Photos courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment)