Photo: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment
The Overwatch League returned last weekend with it’s next tournament, the Summer Showdown. It’s no surprise that the League decided to stick with the tournament format. The success of the May Melee brought more viewers and more interesting meta compositions. In addition, the story-lines that developed were both heart-breaking and triumphant for the winners and losers.
Going into this month’s Overwatch League Summer Showdown the only major change being made to the format comes in the hero pools. Instead of having three weeks of varying hero pools, the Summer Showdown will feature one two-week period of hero pools. Following that, the final week of qualifiers and the tournament itself will allow the use of all heroes.
Saturday June 13th
London Spitfire 0 v 3 Shanghai Dragons
New York Excelsior 3 v 0 Seoul Dynasty
Paris Eternal 3 v 2 Boston Uprising
Florida Mayhem 3 v 1 Dallas Fuel
Atlanta Reign 1 v 3 Los Angeles Gladiators
Sunday June 14th
Philadelphia Fusion 3 v 0 Houston Outlaws
Vancouver Titans 0 v 3 Toronto Defiant
Los Angeles Valiant 3 v 0 Washington Justice
Summer Showdown Week 1 Highlight Matches
Paris Eternal 3 v 2 Boston Uprising
The match-up between the Paris Eternal and Boston Uprising was a lot closer than anyone expected. Paris was finally able to debut Yeong-han “SP9RK1E” Kim. Sp9rkle has been sitting on the bench waiting for his 18th birthday to be eligible to play. Sp9rkle played a wicked Pharah on King’s Row despite Tae-hee “Jerry Min being on the Ashe. Paris took the first map on Illios, but King’s Row was as close as it could’ve been. With Boston really taking charge this looked like a new team. Unfortunately, Sp9rkle’s incredible flexibility in his hero picks gave Paris the edge over the Uprising. The series went the distance in a game five, but Paris walks away with the win.
Florida Mayhem 3 v 1 Dallas Fuel
The Mayhem have been enjoying a surge in the rankings since their success in the May Melee. They’re a team that was on the edge of greatness and being recognized for it and their win over the Fusion last month finally earned them the respect they deserve. The Dallas Fuel meanwhile, having also shown signs of potential greatness are still struggling to drag themselves from the bottom half of the standings. This matched played out in much the same way as players like Jun-ki “Yaki” Kim and Sang-bum “BQB” Lee both stood out on the Mayhem supported by their team. The Dallas Fuel had some great moments and put up a fight, but ultimately were missing some key factor that the Mayhem seem to have on lock. The Fuel are able to take one map, but the Mayhem shut it down on map 4 with a full hold on Gibraltar.
For more Overwatch League recaps and analysis by Robbie Landis and Jake Lyon, make sure you check out the OWLs Nest!
