Wednesday saw both semifinals start off with a bang. The 6th seed Philadelphia Fusion were up against the 1st seed New York Excelsior. New York has been hands down the best team all season, but they took their foot off the gas pedal in Stage 4 and have not played a competitive game in over a month. Philadelphia did not care one bit as they came out hungry to prove that New York was beatable and oh did they do that with a 3-0 sweep in Match 1.
Next up was the 5th seed London Spitfire against the 2nd seed Los Angeles Valiant. London have been riding their hot streak of reverse sweeping the other Los Angeles team in the wild card round and they continued the momentum into this match. They took the first 2 maps, but Los Angeles fought back with a win on map 3 and a draw on map 4. London held off the feisty Valiant and took Match 1 with a score of 3-1.
London came back from a Match 1 loss in the Wild Card round, so they know what its like to play back to back Best of 5s. They did not want to give Los Angeles any hope and they crushed all hopes of a comeback with a clean 3-0 sweep in Match 2. They won the series 2-0 and advanced to the Overwatch League Grand Finals. London is currently on a map streak of 12-1-1 in their last 4 matches, they are on fire!
Saturday's match was tricky to call because New York looked lost on Wednesday, but no one believed that they would go down without a fight. At the very least, you had New York taking it to a 3rd and deciding match, but first they had to beat Philadelphia in Match 2. The map rotation looked like it was in their favour as some of New York's best maps were present in Match 2, but these proved to be their downfall as Philadelphia took Maps 1 and 3, which were heavily New York favoured. This pushed New York to the brink of elimination, but they seemed to have a game plan and were sticking to it. Every map saw subs coming in with every role (DPS, Tank, and Support) seemingly getting a sub. This seemed to be their downfall as Philly's DPS duo of Carpe and EQO were constantly popping off, even in their losses, and were able to carry them into the finals. Philadelphia did it! They took down the all mighty New York once again and advanced to the Overwatch League Grand Finals.
Coming into the Overwatch League Playoffs, you would not have predicted these two teams to be in the Finals as they were seeded 5th and 6th, but they slowly gathered momentum and have been riding it, taking down the higher seeds above them. London and Philadelphia now meet in the Grand Finals at the Barclays Center in New York. A detailed match preview will come later this week!
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