Stage 3 of the first season of Overwatch League had its share of domination, disappointment and drama as the 12 teams continued their ongoing battle.
Excelsior win once more
New York Excelsior were crowned champions once again, only dropping a single series to Boston in the regular season on their way to becoming two-time winners. Even with their continued domination of the league, New York showed improvement, with a greater hero pool within the DPS complimented by an ever-impressive and evolving supporting cast. New York even appeared to be saving strategies for the playoffs, routinely executing a different look in order to keep their opponents guessing.
Moving forward the motivation during the regular season will be something to watch for New York, given their immense lead in the overall standings.
Uprising make a strong move
Boston Uprising were the surprise riser in Stage 3, coming together as a squad after the removal of their star DPS player due to a major out of game controversy. The entire team had a huge leap in production from Stage 2 to Stage 3, with the DPS duo of Striker and Mistakes continuing to impress from week to week.
Boston pulled off the perfect regular season before falling to the aforementioned Excelsior to close out the playoffs. Boston rarely blew teams out of the water, but their consistency and ability to grind out close matches continued to push them through to victory.
Whether Uprising can repeat this in Stage 4 is unknown but given the continued improvement from the likes of the Gladiators, Shock and Valiant, it could be a much more difficult affair than before.
Shock continue to improve
San Francisco Shock were another riser in Stage 3, primarily off the back of the play of sinatraa, Architect and super.
Shock doubled their win total from three to six. They narrowly missed the playoffs, but their overall improvement and continued growth were a pleasant surprise. It was expected to take longer for their newer players to integrate, but other players such as Danteh and moth stepped up and assisted in the Shock’s swift rise up the standings.
Shock have put other teams on notice with their quick ascension, but given the continued advancement of teams around them, they will likely need to outperform their Stage 3 play in order to maintain the same spot in the standings for Stage 4.
Fuel in the dumps
A team that continued their downward spiral was the Dallas Fuel, who have gone from three series wins in Stage 1 to a lone win in Stage 3. That victory came against the winless Shanghai Dragons all the way back in Week 1 and even then it was a fairly close 3-1 win.
Dallas have continued to try different strategies, with the likes of Seagull and Taimou playing various roles throughout the stage. With the removal of their Head Coach amongst other changes, Dallas are still looking for answers after continually disappointing week after week.
Towards the end of the stage, Fuel were at least able to give some rest to EFFECT, who has been the lone bright spot for Dallas thus far. It will be interesting to see if he returns to Stage 4 refreshed.
Shanghai still suffering
Unfortunately for the Shanghai Dragons, their winless streak has now reached 30, with only 17 map wins in total. On the bright side for Shanghai, the team did look much more competitive this stage, with nine of their map wins coming during Stage 3.
Geguri has been a solid improvement over previous D.Va players, with hopes that the team can continue to improve their chemistry and overall coordination moving forward. Given the struggles of the likes of the Florida Mayhem and the Dallas Fuel, Stage 4 looks to be the best chance for the Dragons to get a win under their belts.
Conclusion
Stage 4 will get under way on 16 May and run until 17 June. Until proven otherwise New York Excelsior will remain the front-runners as they battle for one of the six places in the Playoffs. The Atlantic and Pacific Division champions will receive a bye into the semifinals while the third, fourth, fifth and sixth teams will first clash in the quarterfinals for the right to move on.
