By Naomi Mallam, Entertainment Editor
With the Overwatch League’s second season starting on February 15th 00:00 am GMT, here is everything you need to know about it.
With the Overwatch League’s second season starting on February 15th 00:00 am GMT, here is everything you need to know about it.
What Happened in season 1?:​​​​​​​
OWL(Overwatch League) season 1 was a 40 game regular season split into 4 stages of 10 best of 5 map series. At the end of every stage there was a stage playoffs to decide who won the stage, for stages 1 and 2 the top 3 teams in that stage with the best record went through with the first seed getting a semifinals round by. Stages 3 and 4 made it so no one got a semi finals round by, by adding a fourth team to the Stage Playoffs. The winner of each stage regular seasons were Stage 1 & 2:New York Excelsior, Stage 3:Boston Uprising, Stage 4:LA Gladiators. The winner of the playoffs for each stage were as follows Stage 1:London Spitfire, Stage 2 & 3:New York Excelsior, Stage 4:LA Valiant. After stage 4 was finished there was a 1 month period for the top 6 teams to prepare for the Season playoffs which would decide who won. The top seed from each division (Pacific and Atlantic) got a first round by, and in the quarterfinals Philadelphia Fusion played Boston Uprising in a best of 3 series of best of 5 maps where the score was 3-1, 1-3, 3-1 with the Philadelphia Fusion moving to the semi finals to face the New York Excelsior. The second quarter final was between London Spitfire and the LA Gladiators where the scores were 0-3, 3-0, 3-0 with the London Spitfire moving onto the semi-finals. The first semi was between London Spitfire and the LA Valiant where the scores were 3-1, 3-0 to the London Spitfire. The second was between The Philadelphia Fusion and the New York Excelsior where the scores were 3-0, 3-2 with Philadelphia moving onto the finals alongside London Spitfire. The Grand finals of the Overwatch League were hyped as fans were excited to finally have a shot on the American sports channel ESPN. Furthermore the Grand Finals were held at the Barclays Centre in New York. However, the actual series weren’t as close as most expected with London coming out of the first set 3-1 after some heroics from their star player Profit. The second set was more of the same story but 3-0 this time.
What has changed since season 1?:
Since season 1 ended, 8 new teams have been announced, those being the Atlanta Reign, Chengdu Hunters, Guangzhou Charge, Hangzhou Spark, Paris Eternal, Toronto Defiant, Vancouver Titans and the Washington Justice. The current most popular out of these is the Vancouver Titans who signed the full Runaway squad from Korean Contenders who beat the South Korean Overwatch World Cup team. The Titans also signed support player Rapel from Element Mystic.
Another major change is the amount of games played throughout the season. It has went from 40 down to 28 now with 4 stages of 7 games. Although the format for the first 2 stages is the same, the time between stages 2 and 3 is now 2 weeks. Stage 3 no longer has a stage playoffs with stage 4 having its stage playoffs between regular season seeds 7-10 to decide the final 2 playoffs spots. Furthermore, there is now something called a home game where for 1 week per stage all games are held in another city to LA with the first being in Dallas. The popular streamer and Assistant Coach of Dallas Fuel Jayne stating that this has interfered with his common streams.
What are the lineups for each team?:
Atlanta Reign: Dafran, Erster, Nlaaer, Daco, Pokpo, Gator, Kodak, Masaa
Boston Uprising:Note, Gamsu, Kellex, Aimgod, Blasé, ColourHex, Axxiom, Fusions, Alemao
Chengdu Hunters: Kyo, Garry, Yveltal, Elsa, Lateyoung, Ameng, BaconJack, JinMu, YangXiaoLong
Dallas Fuel: Taimou, Effect, Mickie, HarryHook, Akm, OGE, RcK, ZachaREEE, Unkoe, Closer
Guangzhou Charge: Hotba, Eileen, Happy, Kyb, Shu, Nero, Rio, Chara, OnlyWish, Rise
Hangzhou Spark: Guxue, NoSmite, Adora, Ria, Bazzi, GodsB, IDK, Revenge, Krystal, BeBe
Houston Outlaws: Linkzr, Jake, Coolmatt, Spree, Muma, Boink, Bani, Rawkus, Arhan, Danteh
London Spitfire: Gesture, Fury, Profit, Birdring, Guard, Krillin, Bdosin, Nus
LA Valiant: Agilities, Space, FaTe, KariV, Bunny, Custa, KSF, Izayaki, Kuki
LA Gladiators: Surefour, Hydration, Bischu, Shaz, BigGoose, Void, Decay, R0ar, Ripa, Panker
Florida Mayhem: Tviq, Sayaplay, SNT(AwesomeGuy), Xepher, HaGoPeun, Apply, Kris, BQB, Swon
New York Excelsior: Saybeolbe, Pine, Libero, Nenne, Fl0W3R, Mano, Meko, Anamo, Ark, JJonak
Paris Eternal: Soon, ShadowBurn, NicoGDH, Danye, Finssi, LHCloudy, BenBest, Greyy, Kruise, Hyp
Philadelphia Fusion: Carpe, Eqo, Snillo, Sado, Fragi, Poko, Boombox, Elk, Neptuno
San Francisco Shock: Striker, Sinatraa, BabyBay, Architect, Rascal, Super, Smurf, Nevix, Choihyobin, Moth, Sleepy, Viol2t
Seoul Dynasty: RyuJeHong, Tobi, Fleta, Zunba, Munchkin, Fissure, Michelle, Marve1, Jecse, FITS
Shanghai Dragons: Diya, Fearless, Geguri, Diem, DDing, CoMa, Luffy, YOUNGJIN, GuardiaN
Toronto Defiant: Neko, Asher, EnVy, Yakpung, Aid, Ivy, Stellar, Roky
Vancouver Titans: Hooreg, Haksal, Stitch, Bumper, Janu, SeoMinSoo, Twilight, Slime, Rapel
Washington Justice: Ado, Janus, Corey, Stratus, SanSam, Fahzix, Gido, Hyeonu
My Power Rankings (with a quick explanation why)
1)London Spitfire: They won season 1 and have only became stronger.
2)Vancouver Titans: The core of this team was the only team to beat GC Busan (the core of London) in an important OGN APEX match.
3)Philadelphia Fusion: Although their core was kept intact, they lost key behind the scenes pieces like ShadowBurn.
4)NYXL: Missing Janus so therefore won’t have the core of LW Blue that came third in season 2 of OGN APEX.
5)Atlanta Reign: Dafran is widely known as the best mechanically skilled western dps player in Overwatch.
6)Paris Eternal: Amazing support and DPS players but the tank line isn’t as strong as some others.
7)LA Gladiators:R0ar and Decay are amazing at their role and Surefour is still on the team.
8)Hangzhou Spark: Big pickups this season and coaching staff is above average.
9)Dallas Fuel: Aero and Jayne are an amazing coaching duo and the experience of Cocco improves this team’s coaching staff.
10)Seoul Dynasty: fixed their main tank issue to improve.
11)LA Valiant: Soon was a massive part of this team in season 1 and they are apparently benching Agilities.
12)San Francisco Shock: They just have too many DPS players.
13)Guangzhou Charge: The language barrier between the western players, the Chinese players and the Koreans will hold them back at the start of the league which will stop them from making playoffs.
14)Houston Outlaws: They picked up a Tracer player 2 stages late.
15)Shanghai Dragons: The Kongdoo Panthera core they picked up will enable them to get their first win in week 2.
16)Boston Uprising: DPS and support line isn’t as good as the rest of the league.
17)Toronto Defiant: Lack of synergy will hold this team back for at least a stage.
18)Chengdu Hunters: The players all come from Chinese Contenders which means they don’t have the experience against other regions.
19)Florida Mayhem: Great Improvements, just not good enough (with the exception being flex support).
20)Washington Justice: Not a bad team just the players aren’t as good as some top tier players. They also have had scandals involving their GM which could be a distraction.
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