Week 2 of Stage 2 for the Overwatch League’s Inaugural Season was filled with both nail-biting affairs and blowout victories.
Outlaws impress even in defeat
The team with the closest matches this past week had to be the Houston Outlaws, who fell to both the Philadelphia Fusion (2-3 in Overtime) and New York Excelsior (0-4). The match against New York was perhaps the most complex of Stage 2, with a 4-0 reverse doing no justice to the actual games played. Each map was absurdly close, with inches separating a Houston victory from a brutal sweeping defeat. In particular, main Tank Muma stepped up for the Outlaws, putting in other-worldly performances on both Winston and Reinhardt.
The key map in this series was King’s Row, where each team had multiple minutes to spare after fully capturing the payload (cart). Houston continue to be the only team to utilise the Hanzo-Zarya combo on this map, two heroes rarely seen in the game today who have two ultimates that pair well together.
Even with an 0-2 overall week, Houston are still one of the top teams in the league with a chance to bounce back in Week 3.
Fuel starting to improve
For a team that struggled throughout Stage 1, the Dallas Fuel have continued to show improvement thus far in Stage 2. Dallas revamped their roster with multiple additions, with aKm being a clear star ever since joining the squad. The other player showing signs of life is xQc, who, after serving a suspension, has returned to be the consistent starter at main Tank.
This week saw Dallas drop both matches 1-3, against both Seoul Dynasty and Los Angeles Valiant, but hope still remains. Dynasty and Valiant are two of the top five teams in the standings right now, and a team that previously was filled to the brim with issues was able to claim a map against each of them.
While obviously not the result they wanted, especially after a solid Week 1, the ability to hang tough with the top dogs is a steady improvement for Dallas. They should continue to rise through the rankings in the coming weeks, with a subtle chance to upset some top teams moving forward in Stage 2.
Seoul need killer instinct
An odd issue that has formed for Seoul Dynasty has been their inability to defeat lower tiered opponents in clean 4-0s, with three straight 3-1 victories over lower half teams. Pitted against Dallas and the Los Angeles Gladiators last week, Seoul failed to acquire a clean sweep, giving those teams hope for later in the series.
This was supposed to be a great meta for Seoul, with Supports ryujehong and tobi unleashed following the removal of Mercy from prominence. However, the team have not been stomping over opponents like the Gladiators as they should, with concern over their overall play moving into more difficult match-ups. While still maintaining victories, Seoul will need to clean up their act should they want to be crowned the best overall team.
Dragons still poor
One team that continue to struggle is the Shanghai Dragons, who have just a single map victory over the first two weeks of the new stage. Shanghai are awaiting their Korean imports, players they picked up after struggling mightily in the first stage. Shanghai’s best chance without their new players was this week, with both the LA Gladiators and the San Francisco Shock on the schedule. The Shock are also waiting for new players, though due to age not visas, yet Shanghai were still unable to find any form of momentum.
Shanghai’s tie against Valiant in Week 1 and the single map victory, on Hollywood, against the Fuel have been the only bright spots thus far for the Dragons, who remain the most disappointing team in the OWL.
