The Overwatch League Playoffs are finally here. After a grueling 40 match season over 4 stages, the Top 6 are battling for the Inaugural Overwatch League Championship and the $1,000,000 USD price check. The Top 6 Teams were:
1. [ATL] New York Excelsior 34-6 126-4-43 +83
2. [PAC] Los Angeles Valiant 27-13 100-7-64 +36
3. [ATL] Boston Uprising 26-14 99-3-71 +28
4. [PAC] Los Angeles Gladiators 25-15 96-3-72 +24
5. [ATL] London Spitfire 24-16 102-3-69 +33
6. [ATL] Philadelphia Fusion 24-16 93-2-80 +13
The Top 2 seeds have a bye and advance directly to the Semifinals, while the remaining teams will battle in the Wild Card Playoffs for the remaining spots. The format for the Wild Card Playoffs is a Best of 3 of (Best of 5). On Wednesday, both Wild Card match ups will play the first Best of 5. Then on Friday and Saturday, each match up will play the second Best of 5, if the teams split the first 2 Best of 5s, then a third and final Best of 5 will be played on the same day to decide the team to advance to the Semifinals.
The first match up in the Wild Card Playoffs is the #3 seed Boston Uprising vs #6 Philadelphia Fusion. For the majority of the season, both Boston and Philadelphia have been in the middle of the pack. In Stage 1, Boston swept Philadelphia 4-0. Stage 2 was a complete opposite as Philadelphia swept Boston 4-0. In Stage 3, it was a much closer match, but Boston were able to take the win in a tight 5 map match. Stage 4 saw Boston take a step back and it also showed in their match up as Philadelphia won the match 3-1. The overall season series ended 2-2 with a map score of 9 to 8 with Philadelphia edging Boston by 1. Philadelphia made the Stage 2 Playoffs with a 7-3 record, but fell short to New York in the Finals. Boston exploded into the Stage 3 Playoffs with a 10-0 record, but they also fell short to New York. The meta shifted drastically and Boston struggled in Stage 4 finishing with a 4-6 record, while Philadelphia were a bit better with a 6-4 record. Philadelphia looks like they have the advantage if you look at the more recent results, but there has been a long break between the end of the regular season and the start of playoffs. I think this series will be close as it should go to a full 3 matches, but Philadelphia will advance with a better grasp of the current meta.
The second match up in the Wild Card Playoffs in the #4 seed Los Angeles Gladiators vs #5 London Spitfire. Los Angeles were always considered a middle of the pack team, while London were considered to be one of the top teams with their full Korean line-up. These two teams did not face each other in Stage 1, but in Stage 2 Los Angeles showed their potential by playing up to their opponents by beating London 3-1. In Stage 3, the match was closer as it went to 5 maps, but Los Angeles edged out London to take it 3-2. In Stage 4, Los Angeles got on a hot streak while London struggled, but in their match it was still a closely contested, going to 5 maps. Los Angeles once again edged out London and swept the season series 3-0 with a map score of 9 to 5 for Los Angeles. London started off the season strong by winning the Stage 1 Finals against New York. They followed this up with another Stage 2 Playoff appearance but lost to Philadelphia in the semifinals. In Stage 3, Los Angeles snuck into the playoffs in 4th places, while London dropped to 6th. And in Stage 4, its like the script had flipped as Los Angeles finished 1st while London finished 9th. Recency bias and team chemistry all points towards Los Angeles and I believe they have London's number. I predict a clean 2-0 series from Los Angeles showing London that they need to re-think their team.
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