Per playoff rules, the losing team of each map gets to pick the next. The Shock then faced an uphill battle, however. Nerves settling, and finding a few new heros of their own, the Shock came back with a newfound strength and clear demonstration of why they held the Stage 2 crown. San Francisco Shock seemed unable to counter the Dragons’ now characteristic wide hero pool, a stark contrast to the team compositions the Shock have been used to competing against.īut, after the Shock snatched a victory on the fourth map, Havana, the tables started to turn. The Dragons started off strong, taking the first three maps confidently. At the end of Stage 3, fans were treated to all seven. Overwatch League’s playoff finals are played in a “first to four” system, meaning final series can run to anything between three and seven maps. The Shock meanwhile put in a strong showing after a difficult stage, but the loss denotes a fall-in-grace for the reigning champions. The playoff win concludes a marked comeback for the Dragons, who last year did not count a single win among their 40 matches in the 2018 season. 'Impressive' isn't even the word.Last Sunday, the Shanghai Dragons won the Stage 3 playoffs of the 2019 Overwatch League-and $500,000 prize money-in a nail-biting series against the San Francisco Shock. To execute this kind of creativity in the heat of a grand final with everything on the line? While Architect's playtime was limited, the former Genji maestro saw newfound life in the rigidity of the GOATS metagame with Bastion.Īfter Overwatch's role lock was implemented, the prevailing strategy was to abuse the sustain that Orisa and Sigma would give your team.Īs for offence pressure, teams would rotate between set plays with Orisa's Halt and picks like Doomfist and Reaper as well as using Mei's Ice Wall to lock enemies into Bastion's sightlines as fight enders.Īnd as the Shock neared the end of Eichendwalde, Architect would rocket jump to reach a peculiar high ground to provide overwatch for his team as they finished escorting the payload at a breakneck pace. Park "Architect" Min-ho will likely go down as the most unsung stars in Overwatch history, but his creative and heads-up play in the grand finals of the 2019 Overwatch League cements him in the history books. Whatever it was, Overwatch's original juggernauts would sweep Afreeca Freecs Blue in the finale of OGN's Overwatch APEX Season 1. Was it due to the role swaps or the meta favouring them? Was this success granted by the unlikely rise of Pongphop "Mickie" Rattanasangchod? Team EnVyUs were a staple team in the Overwatch esports space by 2016, the year the game launched to the public.īut with the legacy and entire South Korean region of Overwatch watching, their European rivals and tournament favourite in Rogue choosing them first in the group draw, and internal discourse that left them without a starting player in the middle of the event, it is safe to say there were some very real hurdles to EnVyUs making even a deep playoffs run. To see them hoist a trophy, not only with an emergency substitute but to also be the first to do it on South Korean soil is nothing short of legendary. Yes, they held a 57-0 win record and were featured in a number of large-scale events, but the majority of those victories were online. No one thought Team EnVyUs would make history. Sadly, this wouldn't matter in the long run as Not Enigma would quickly rally and advance through the bracket without losing a map, setting them as the de facto Overwatch team to beat. However, it would be Sabian "clampOK" Hayblum with five kills coming from Cassidy's Deadeye to give Quake guys redux a bit more room to work with. In a hail-mary style last stand, Andrew "id_" Trulli catches five of the Team Fortress 2 professionals in Zarya's Graviton Surge, metaphorically passing the ball to one of his two DPS, who just so happen to have their ultimates available. Not Enigma barreled down the last checkpoint of Watchpoint: Gibraltar with around 7:45 left in their time bank. No prize money, a hand-tracked format, and one of the biggest betas in modern gaming, the first FishStix Invitational was some of the earliest competitive Overwatch to be played - before the game even launched.Īnd it would be Quake Guys Redux putting the brakes on eventual winners, Not Enigma, that would cement them as having one of the first highlight plays in competitive Overwatch history.
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