Stage 2 Week 2 of the Overwatch League is over and done with, and if we’re being honest, it wasn’t terribly exciting. The teams that were expected to do well did well, the teams that were expected to disappoint did indeed disappoint us. Perhaps most disappointingly, though, was the fact that the Dallas Fuel might not be on the upswing we thought they were. Let’s take a look at the highlights of this week’s Overwatch League matches.
The Korean Rosters are Back at the Top
With the shift in the meta, Seoul Dynasty has made a bit of a comeback in Week 2. The Dynasty has been performing really well with Tobi back in his Lucio role, and Munchkin stepping up as the team’s main Tracer player. They pulled off pretty convincing wins against the Gladiators and the Fuel without even breaking a sweat.
The London Spitfire continued to dominate against the Mayhem and the Fusion. Most surprisingly, the New York Excelsior was able to trump over the Houston Outlaws in a pretty crushing 4-0 victory. The Outlaws rose to the top of our power rankings last week after showing their versatility in team compositions. They were able to push the Excelsior to the limit on King’s Row, but ended up getting completely dominated on the rest of the maps.
Dallas Downswing
The Dallas Fuel came out swinging in the first week of Stage 2, with aKm and xQc stepping up in the DPS and tank roles. We also got a glimpse of Taimou taking on the main tank role, and Mickie’s D.Va play was looking better than ever.
Enter Week 2, and they were trounced in both their match-ups against the Seoul Dynasty and the Los Angeles Valiant. Granted, Seoul’s on a bit of a tear right now, but aside from their performance on Hanamura, the other three maps were a little lackluster for Dallas.
Their match-up against the Los Angeles Valiant was even more painful to watch, as both teams just didn’t seem to be performing up to the standards we’ve come to expect from them. Both teams barely completed the map on Hollywood, and the Valiant couldn’t stop making silly positional mistakes on Gibraltar. Regardless, Dallas still suffered a 1-3 loss against Los Angeles, and while they are definitely showing signs of improvement from Stage 1, they’re still not the top tier team we know they can be.
Houston and Philadelphia Underperform
As mentioned previously, the Houston Outlaws made it to the top of our power rankings last week, and their match-up against the New York Excelsior was definitely one of the most anticipated fights to look out for. However, they didn’t seem to have an answer to Saebyeolbe’s Tracer play and Libero’s deep hero pool. Linkzr himself plays a decent Tracer, but when Houston needs him on other roles, that role is left to Jake, who simply can’t keep up with New York’s DPS. Not to mention New York’s stellar tank line and supports (hello, JJonak) who can more than stand up against Coolmatt and Muma.
The Philadelphia Fusion was another fun team to watch in Week 1, as they just tore through their competition with their new DPS player Eqo. The team also reverse swept Houston this past week, but then stumbled against the London Spitfire in a pretty devastating 0-4 defeat. The Fusion’s performance is still frighteningly inconsistent, especially when most of their losses in the Overwatch League so far have been as crushing as this one.
Play of the Week
☺️ @JJoNakLove fragging out on the high ground! #OWL2018
Live: https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/M2UmlpZmQd
— Overwatch Esports (@OW_Esports) March 3, 2018
We already know JJonak is an insane Zenyatta player, but he continued to wow us last week with his terrifying orbs. His performance against the Outlaws on Volskaya Industries was impressive, as he took the high ground to eliminate both Coolmatt and Boink. Later on in the game, he and Ark manged to hold off Houston’s attack on the first point, and even prevented them from winning the fight before the rest of the Excelsior returned.
Stage 2 Week 3 of the Overwatch League will be starting this Wednesday evening, and we’ll be sure to provide more updates on the matches as they go live.
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