Overwatch League Recap: Stage 3, Week 3
Photo by Christine Solis / Checkpoint XP
If you missed last week’s professional play, you owe it to yourself to go back and catch up, because it was an incredible four days of Overwatch. While there were quite a few matches that ended exactly how you’d expect them to, a few teams turned the league on its head.
The San Francisco Shock and the Boston Uprising started off the week on Thursday with the Shock reminding the Uprising who made it to the last two stage finals with a full 4 – 0 sweep. The Houston Outlaws added another win to their record with a 3 – 1 match against the Paris Eternal, showing just as good of form as they have since the start of this stage. The Dallas Fuel continue to struggle with a loss against the Hangzhou Spark 0 – 3. Ending the first day, the Shanghai Dragons played the Los Angeles Valiant, and like the Outlaws, seem to be having a resurgence as they claimed victory of the Dragons in a 3 – 1 match.
On Friday, the London Spitfire and the New York Excelsior started off our day with a match that took us to a game 5, but in the end the New York Excelsior managed to clutch the victory. The San Francisco Shock faced off against t he Florida Mayhem and in the usual (un)shocking fashion walked away with another 4 – 0 sweep. The Los Angeles Gladiators squared off against the Shanghai Dragons, but the Gamsu led team wasn’t going to fall to two LA teams in one week and secured a 3 – 1 victory. The final match leading into the weekend saw the Chengdu Hunters exchange blows with the Vancouver Titans and unsurprisingly, the Titans walked away with a victory but the Hunters did manage to take one map off the Stage 1 Champions.
Going into the weekend the Washington Justice gave the Spitfire the game of their life as the Justice almost walked away with a Victory. The Washington Justice was able to take the first map on Nepal off the Spitfire, tie the second on Pairs and London was able to just barely pull the win back in their direction on map 3 and 4. They did walk away with a 2 – 1 map record. The Philadelphia Fusion and the Atlanta Reign took their battle to a game five with the Fusion walking away the victors. The Guangzhou Charge had an incredible performance against the Toronto Defiant taking the full 4 – 0 sweep. In one of the most competitive matches of the week, the Hangzhou Spark and the Seoul Dynasty fought tooth and nail to game five where the Spark were able to clinch the victory.
For the final day of the week, we had maybe the most topsy-turvy matches of the stage. The Dallas Fuel, who desperately need every win and every map for a chance at the season play-offs, let slip another full sweep, falling 0 – 4 to the Chengdu Hunters. The Boston Uprising were nearly laid to rest by the Pairs Eternal, but fought back to a reverse sweep 3 – 2. The Houston Outlaws, who have had a great stage thus far after their win over the Shock, the Uprising and the Eternal end up falling to the Florida Mayhem in a 3 – 1 match. The Mayhem delivered the final winning match on Gibraltor with a last second Bastion switch on defense mere inches from the end. Finally, the biggest upset of the season the Los Angeles Valiant, who went 0 – 7 in stage one are able to beat down the Vancouver Titans and hand them their first regular season loss. The final score was 3 – 1.
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