Another week, another shakeup in the Overwatch League. After suffering their first defeat against the New York Excelsior last week, the Seoul Dynasty experienced a crushing 0-4 loss to the London Spitfire, cementing their third-place position in the League. That wasn’t the only big shakeup, though; mid-tier team Boston Uprising started tearing through its competition, and they’re officially a scary contender to look out for.
The Dynasty Falls…
Seoul Dynasty and New York Excelsior went the distance in Week 3, taking an incredibly close series to a game five before the Dynasty finally suffered their first loss in the League. We thought they’d make a comeback against the London Spitfire in Week 4, but instead, they suffered a defeat even worse than the one against New York. On Numbani, Anubis, and Ilios, Seoul was unable to take a single point. They managed to push the payload to point B on Dorado, but London had their number. The match went by quickly, and it became clear that subbing out Ryujehong for Gido was a big mistake.
Thankfully, Seoul managed to make a bit of a comeback against the Houston Outlaws, who the Dynasty players have been citing as their most ferocious competitors in the Overwatch League. But even without their star DPS player Linkzr, Houston still managed to take Seoul to a game five. Even though Seoul took the series in the end, they’ll need to buck up if they hope to reclaim their top spot in the League.
…While Boston Rises
Meanwhile, an underdog team has been rising through the rankings with no signs of stopping. The Boston Uprising was a scrappy team made up of players no one had heard of before the Overwatch League. While they did have a rough start, Boston ate up its competition in Week 4, quickly rising up to the top of the mid-tier pack without breaking a sweat. They’ve overthrown the Los Angeles Valiant as the best western team in the League, and they simply need to pull off a victory against the Houston Outlaws in Week 5 to cement their position, and for a possible playoffs spot.
Los Angeles Underperforms
Speaking of Los Angeles, both the Valiant and the Gladiators seem to be on a downward spiral. The Valiant managed to best the Philadelphia Fusion, an alarmingly inconsistent team, while the Gladiators managed to score a 4-0 victory against Florida Mayhem, arguably the absolute worst team in the League at the moment. But both fell to Boston Uprising in painfully one-sided matches.
The Valiant was once regarded as the best western team in the Overwatch League, but that title has been swiftly snatched away from them by Boston. On the other hand, the Gladiators has a lineup full of strong players, and they should be performing well on paper. And yet, they aren’t. They haven’t quite recovered from their 0-4 defeat against the Outlaws, and they certainly didn’t stand a chance against Boston.
Dallas Continues to Struggle
On the lower rungs of the Overwatch League standings, Dallas Fuel is still struggling to get it together. They finally scored their first victory against the San Francisco Shock two weeks ago but were faced with a tough schedule in Week 4 against Philadelphia and New York. Considering how Philadelphia has been rather inconsistent with their plays, we expected Dallas to put up a bit more of a fight, but it wasn’t meant to be. Dallas suffered yet another 0-4 defeat against the Fusion.
Somewhat surprisingly, they seemed to fare a bit better against the New York Excelsior later in the week. They still lost the series, of course, but they did manage to steal a win on the control map. Up until this point, New York had been undefeated on both Ilios and Oasis. Being a terrifying McCree player, Pine was a big contributing factor to New York’s success, but both Taimou and Effect were able to go toe-to-toe with him on Oasis. Dallas Fuel needs to figure out their lineups, when to sub in players, and above all, they need to work out their communication issues.
Play of the Week
We were a little torn about this one, so we’ve decided to just include both for good measure. One of the best and most exciting highlights of Stage 1 Week 4 was the battle between Boston and the Valiant on Horizon Lunar Colony. While duking it out on point A, Soon was about to land a fat Graviton Surge on the Uprising, but Dreamkazper wasn’t having any of that. He pulled off a Genji deflect on the Grav, giving the Valiant a taste of their own medicine instead. This isn’t something you’d expect to see in your regular Overwatch matches, much less in a pro game.
Did @DreamKazper just reflect that Graviton?!
Yes. Yes, he did.
📺: https://t.co/q7REyuJQTG pic.twitter.com/wg4lK5RAbt
— Boston Uprising (@BostonUprising) February 4, 2018
On the other hand, we have Zunba’s sick D.Va play against the Houston Outlaws on Horizon Lunar Colony. Because of how well Houston has adapted to the Junkrat meta, Jake is consistently able to land good Rip-Tire kills on the opposing team. In this particular instance, he seemed set to pull off another big play, but Zunba read him like a book. Using D.Va, Zunba cornered Jake just as he launched the Rip-Tire, killed the Rip-Tire, and then proceeded to kill Jake’s Junkrat before running away with his mech still intact. All while triggering one of Junkrat’s traps and getting immobilized in the process, by the way.
Zumba blocks the tire and lives to tell the tale as @SeoulDynasty take Map 2! #OWL2018 https://t.co/pBjIbxZTRn pic.twitter.com/m3ZFqnBCWj
— Twitch Esports (@TwitchEsports) February 3, 2018
Zunba continued to counter Jake’s Junkrat for the rest of the series, including on Lijiang Tower’s Control Center where he used Zarya to build up charge off of Jake’s grenades. And Control Center was supposed to be Houston’s best stage on Lijiang Tower. Well played, Zunba.
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