Okay so they had to win all Maps.  They had to sweep Boston Uprising.  A tall task for any Team.  Especially with Volskaya in the Map pool.  Of course I’m talking about Overwatch League.  More importantly I’m talking about the LA Gladiators and their quest of 3rd Place.  They are a good Team but I think Boston is better.  And they showed their skills last night. It was the most important match on [Saturday].  Which is why I’m covering the whole series.  I mean really, everyone was watching it.  The whole Philadelphia Fusion Team was watching it from the crowded bleachers.  They needed to know if they got into 3rd Place and into the Stage 2 Playoffs on Sunday.  Here’s the break down:

Boston Uprising vs Los Angeles Gladiators

It was Dreamkazper and Striker vs Agilities and Soon.  It was all or nothing.  The Head to Head match started with Assault, on Volskaya.  Boston has been undefeated on this Map.  Now that is saying something!  Especially half way through the Season.  That’s Two Oh, 20 games now for each Team.  So let me just say that in Stage 2 action the Boston Uprising were the under dogs playing in this match.  But really they are right in the mix for overall record.  I wouldn’t call them under dogs.

Boston came out first “guns a blazing”.  Dreamkazper was on Widowmaker and boy did he Snipe some Gladiators.  I’m talking about his first two “picks”.  It was just “Fleta-esq”.  Replay it in slow mo and you get to see perfect “head shots”.  Mind you he is on the building before the point zone.  It’s like a mile away from the enemy players!  During one of them the enemy player was inside a room on the building way on the other side of the point.  Yeah, even darkness won’t cover you up, “Snipe…Reload”.

Striker was all over the place on the “Dive”.  He is one of my favorite players to watch for Boston.  Yes, I’m a Boston fan.  I plan on getting a Dreamkazper or Striker Jersey.  Anyways where was I… Oh yeah so, Striker gave the Gladiators a lot of problems.  You could just see that the Gladiators ended up playing more passive on Defense.  They waited for the Uprising to come to them.  Which is obviously not the way you want to play Boston. After a few minutes Boston took the 2 Map points.

Now they had to play Defense while the Gladiators went on Assault.  And you know Boston has been working on their Defense all Stage 2.  They have gotten better at it with each Map that they play.  I think Gamsu, the Tank for Boston, has really taken to be “Mr. Reliable”.  He holds the line on Defense and works well with “Dive” and “anti Dive” compositions.

Boston held strong on Defense for something like 6 Minutes.  An eternity in “game play time.”  They played aggressive.  They took out Supports.  They disrupted the Gladiators’ players.  They held the line in the building just outside of the scoring point zone.  They really made some great plays, forcing out respawns and spamming DPS/DMG.  And as time ran out on the clock, you just knew that Boston was on fire.    The LA Gladiators would drop the Map, meaning that they were out of the Playoffs.  Philadelphia Fusion cheered knowing that they were now in 3rd in the Playoff Bracket.

The match would turn out to be a close one and one that was fun to watch.  Boston would take it in five Maps, winning the series [3-2].  Wow what a great finish!  I can’t wait to see more of the Uprising in April.  And you know that ill be rooting for them.

The Playoffs begin today at 4pm EST on Twitch.tv and MLG Network.  It’ll be Philadelphia Fusion vs London Spitfire.  Winner goes on to play New York Excelsior for $100,000 and Stage 2 bragging rights, at 6pm EST.  It’ll be some good Overwatch today, can’t wait!  Break out the hand warmers, it’s gunna be good!

It was a great night of gaming [Friday].  The Playoff hunt is very much alive for 3 Teams.  Philadelphia Fusion, Los Angeles Gladiators, and well Seoul Dynasty.  I thought that the Map Score differential would have knocked Seoul out of contention, but you know it gets tricky with everyone’s record being 6-3.  Philadelphia had to win last night for any chance at being in the top 3 Team Playoff.  But you can’t count the final tallies till the LA Gladiators play their last match against Boston Uprising.  The door is open but who will walk through it?

Seoul Dynasty vs Florida Mayhem

Florida gave Seoul quite a showing.  They even took a Map from them.  It was fun to see Cwoosh play, my second favorite Tank player in the OWL.  He just makes games exciting.  The Mayhem had nothing to lose so they worked hard on each Map.  One thing that they did try out was that “anti Dive” on Junkrat.  It worked out well for them and it gave Seoul problems.  Perhaps this is going to be a thing now, when facing the Dynasty.  Munchkin and Fleta played as usual, great.  Some Snipes were just perfect for Fleta on Widowmaker.  How does he do that?  The game speed is so fast that to really appreciate his accuracy, you have to watch it in slow mo.  Seoul needed a sweep but only got three Maps.  They won the match [3-1].  They need some “Math” to get into sole possession of 3rd Place.

Philadelphia Fusion vs Los Angeles Valiant

This was a close one.  The Fusion came out on stage hoping for the sweep to ensure sole possession of 3rd Place.  What they got was a handful of mad DPSing.  Soon and Envy for the Valiant really gave them trouble.  It was nice to see the Valiant play great against a top Team.  Fragi, Crape and EQ0 made sure to carry their Team on the final Tie breaker Map.  They would take the series [3-2].  Unfortunately by losing 2 Maps they aren’t ensured a Playoff spot.  Yes that’s just it!  It is mathematically possible for LA Gladiators or Seoul Dynasty to sneak in and take it.  Oh no not Math again!  Ah the Statisticians always get their way… The LA Gladiators need to sweep Boston Uprising to get in.  That’s 4 Map Wins.  Anything less and we will be counting on our hands what the Map Score needs to be for Seoul Dynasty.  If they lose to Boston then Philadelphia definitely has 3rd outright. Whoa, talk about a close ranking system!

London Spitfire vs Shanghai Dragons

London is one of the best Teams in OWL.  They weren’t going to lose to the Dragons.  They weren’t even going to give up a Map to them.  The Dragons are on the other side of the spectrum.  They are winless and frankly these games of theirs start to blur together.  Think Groundhog Day!  They just can’t seem to get out of this funk, losing streak.  Suffice to say London looked great and PWND them, with a score of [4-0].  Who knows maybe London can take over 1st with their Map Score?

The Overwatch League Stage 2 Week 5 games continue today on Twitch.tv and MLG Network.  At 4pm EST, cause they are playing in LA, its Dallas Fuel vs London Spitfire, at 6pm EST its the LA Valiant vs the NY Excelsior, and at 8pm EST its Boston Uprising vs the LA Gladiators.  High hopes and a $125,000 Prize Pool is up for grabs.  Who’s in?  We’ll just have to watch and see.  Good Luck everyone!  Have Fun!  Cheers!

Okay, so last weekend happened and London beat Seoul.  It was huge.  It was epic.  The Koreans lost.  And I couldn’t find a WiFi hot spot for the life of me!  Yep that’s right I missed it on the Live Stream.  You see I was up in Maine for the weekend… And well I was busy on vacation.  I hit a bit of a dead zone with my phone.  I did have WiFi at my hotel but I ended up staying out all night.  But man was it an awesome match!  This week is the end of Stage 2.  Which means?  You guessed it, Playoffs!  There are three spots for this weekends Playoffs.  But the first two spots look pretty much locked in, with NY Excelsior and London Spitfire.  They have the best records, at 7-1 [NY] and 6-2 [LON] and Map Wins.  So now who is going to be in that 3rd spot?  Well it all depends on Week 5 Wins.  Week 5 began yesterday [Wednesday] and we got to see some challengers.

Los Angeles Gladiators vs Philadelphia Fusion

This was really the match of the night.  Both Teams have high hopes for making it to the Playoffs.  One thing that I want to point out is that this is only Stage 2 Playoffs, not the Season End Playoffs.  For 1st Place Teams they Win $100,000, for 2nd Place Teams they get $25,000.  So yeah it’s pretty big, there’s a lot of pressure.  Stage 3 begins after this Week, followed by Stage 4, and Season End.

Both these Teams are loaded with Talent.  The Gladiators have Asher, Bischu, Fissure, and Surefour.  All of whom can carry their Team to victory.  They played great last night but after winning the 1st Map they lost 3 straight Maps.  The Fusion have Carpe, EQ0, Boombox, and my favorite Tank player Fragi.  Carpe and EQ0 pretty much dominated the match.  They were on point and had some great “Kill Streaks”.  I think that they are one of the best DPS/DMG duos.  I mean really, they are scary good at this game.  They play aggressively.  And you know they can play multiple Heroes, so you don’t know what kind of “Dive” their going for.  In a game of “probabilities” they can change strategies pretty quick.  Last night they showed that they are favorites in the League.  The Fusion took the Win [3-1].  They need one more Win and a Seoul Dynasty Lost, to make it to 3rd Place.

Florida Mayhem vs San Fransisco Shock

This right here was the upset of the night!  Florida has had a rough Season but they have been working hard in Stage 2 to score Map Wins.  Of course they have good players like my second favorite Tank player Cwoosh.  But the Shock came out with their star new player Sinatraa.  Oh their hopes were so high but it was not to be.  Florida extended the series to 5 Maps and took the Win in a spectacular Map 5.  It was the Mayhem [3-2] who were the stars last night.  The Shock looks all but out of the Stage 2 Playoffs now.

Shanghai Dragons vs Houston Outlaws

This was once again a forgettable Shanghai match up.  They haven’t won all year, and people were hoping that yesterday would be the day.  Well, nope!  Last night wasn’t the night.  And go figure they went up against players like Jake and Coolmatt; Muma and Boink.  I mean really Houston is not a Team to be underestimated.  They finished 2nd in Stage 1.  And although they have had a bit of a disappointing Stage 2, they are still hungry for the Win.  They may be out of this weekends Playoffs but last night they showed a glimpse of what they might be doing in Stage 3.  Yep it was another sweep!  I like the players for the Dragons, I mean I think that they can win…but if they play off the point, then they’re not going to win.  Outlaws took it [4-0].  Back to the drawing boards for the Dragons.

So that was Wednesday, Thursday is going to be a wild one.  At 7pm EST it’s Houston vs Seoul, at 9pm it’s New York vs Dallas, and at 11pm it’s San Fransisco vs Boston.  All the action is on Twitch.tv and MLG Network.  If Seoul Dynasty wins then they are most likely in the Playoffs.  That would mean that they would play London, again…oh what a twist of fate…I’ll be able to watch it Live this time.  Woot!  GL HF!