Esports
Relive the grand finals of the Overwatch League with us, as we’ve gathered together the best plays from the exciting clash between the London Spitfire and the Philadelphia Fusion.
The inaugural season of the Overwatch League had all been leading up to this moment. A grand final between London Spitfire and Philadelphia Fusion at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, was perhaps not the pairing everyone expected when heading into the playoffs – but with the higher seeds faltering, the two underdogs led the way, leading to a spectacular final for the Spitfire.
That’s not to discredit either team’s achievements. Fusion impressively saw off New York Excelsior to book their spot in the final – even if the league favourites seemingly lost all momentum post-season. Meanwhile, Spitfire had come into the Overwatch League as the pundits' pick for best team and quickly got to proving that point with a win in Phase One. A dip through the midpoint of the season saw them tumble down the rankings, yet they found their form once again when it mattered most.
And they certainly achieved that potential in the grand final, seeing off Philadelphia Fusion in convincing fashion. With a final score of 2-0 – and only dropping a single map in the entire match – Spitfire can now claim the title of Overwatch League inaugural season champions. Even though they dominated for most of the match, it still made for an exciting grand final, and we’ve picked out some of the best plays from the weekend for you to relive below.
Philly hold on Dorado
The grand final actually started off well for Philadelphia Fusion. They’d just finished a successful attack round on Dorado and were doing a good job of stuffing London Spitfire while on defence. Yet, in one attack, London decimated Philadelphia’s defence. All but one of their members were pushing the payload as it crept ever closer the final point. A capture would send the game to a tie-breaker round, but the Fusion had one last opportunity to pull off an impressive hold.
The turn started with none other than Jae-hyeok ‘Carpe’ Lee on Widowmaker taking out Ji-hyeok ‘birdring’ Kim – and all of a sudden the Spitfire bodies started to fall one by one as the Fusion’s respawning team members piled in. Down went Jae-hui ‘Gesture’ Hong, down went Seung-tae ‘Bdosin’ Choi, and down went Jong-seok ‘NUS’ Kim. In valkyrie form, Alberto ‘neptuNo’ Gonzále was able to keep his team alive as they wiped away the entirety of the Spitfire and claim the first map win.
Rocket Barrage right back at ya
As Pharah, Josh ‘Eqo’ Coron had been holding onto a Rocket Barrage for ages, just waiting for a chance to use it as Fusion attacked on Eichenwalde. Meanwhile, Gesture was on Winston and living up to his reputation as one of the best tank players in the game having already taken out two members of the Fusion. Just then, in a moment of panic, Eqo finally decided to unleash the Pharah ultimate to try and bring his team back into the fight.
However, as soon as his finger hit that ult key, Gesture matched it with a press of the E key, dropping a perfectly-timed Barrier Projector right in front of Eqo’s face, sending the explosives right back at him to kill all value from the ult and waste all that time he’d been holding it. That wasn’t enough, though, as he followed that up by chasing down neptuNo and keeping most of the team off the payload to complete the hold in a lengthy overtime brawl.
Poko-bombs
If we had to pick our map of the match, it would easily be Volskaya Industries. There were so many highlight reel moments during the assault map in the heart of Russia that they could probably form their own list entirely. It also seemed to be a significant turning point of the entire match that dented the confidence of the Philadelphia Fusion and inspired the London Spitfire to take command of the finals.
It didn’t look that way from the start, however. The Fusion were attacking first and after a few unsuccessful pushes, they’d finally taken up a strong position on the point that had their opponents scrambling. With this foothold, Gael ‘Poko’ Gouzerch attempted to zone out three Spitfire players on the high ground with a D.Va Self-Destruct, but Eqo also saw an opportunity to gather up those three members with a Graviton Surge from Zarya. The result? One of the many glorious Poko-bombs we saw throughout the weekend.
An insane back and forth on Volskaya
There’s just so much to break down in this 30 second clip. It begins with a pick on neptuNo by birdring as London Spitfire are pushing into the second point on Volskaya Industries. As the casters point out, that would seem to spell their downfall. Two more kills follow, but before Poko dies he’s able to send out a D.Va Self-Destruct that catches two London players off guard.
More frags are traded back and forth – with even neptuNo getting one in his famous battle Mercy role that appears to stop the push. Then, the Spitfire’s Joon-yeong ‘Profit’ Park has other ideas, vaulting in as Hanzo to take out the Fusion’s last two defenders with some stylish shots before looking all clear to complete the capture.
But then there’s another twist: the Philadelphia tanks respawn just in the nick of time to prevent the second tick, holding the capture progress at 56.4 percent to their own 57 percent. Talk about small margins. The question is: would that be the end of it?
Step one: Tracer. Step two: Five opponents. Step Three: Profit?
The answer: absolutely not. In what will undoubtedly be considered the play of the match and likely played a major part in Profit receiving the MVP award, he cleared the second point on Volskaya Industries more or less on his own as Tracer.
It started with a textbook pick on neptuNo, then a somewhat fortuitous Recall left him with Carpe right in his sights. He then leapt down onto the point, landing a precise Pulse Bomb on Hong-joon ‘HOTBA’ Choi, before turning his attention to finishing off Su-min ‘SADO’ Kim and then finally taking out Poko as he attempted to re-mech as D.Va. Five kills. Twenty seconds. Play of the game, indeed.
Dragonstrike + Halt = delete everyone
Profit pulled off some incredible Dragonstrike plays throughout the weekend. We’d already seen him delete most of the Philadelphia Fusion on Volskaya as the twin spirits surged through the team as they were trapped in the side building on the push to point A. However, none of them matched up to the exquisite combination of him and Gesture on Junkertown.
It began with a Sonic Arrow that allowed him to catch a glimpse of the Fusion starting a push through the upper entrance to point C. Anticipating that the rest of the team would soon follow, he let the arrow loose through the wall in front of him and it collided with five opponents at the perfect angle. It would have been devastating on its own, but Gesture’s use of Halt on Orisa lined up perfectly too, locking the Fusion team in place as they were wiped from existence.
Carpe tries to carry Philly
While it was disappointing to see Philadelphia Fusion flounder on the second day of the finals, there were still signs that showed why they deserved a spot. In desperate times you look to your star players to come up with the big plays, and Carpe was certainly doing his best to deliver on Lijiang Tower.
With London Spitfire approaching 100 percent capture progress, Carpe finally got some players in his sights as Widowmaker. He was able to pick off Profit and NUS from the opposite side of the map in a tiny doorway – a ridiculous feat for anyone else, but something like an expectation for the Fusion’s killer DPS player.
It was the momentum swing Philadelphia so desperately needed and got them back into the map – at least for a brief moment. Sadly, it only seemed to supercharge the efforts of the London Spitfire as they stormed out after the respawn and quickly turned the control point to their colours once again.
The tournament winning play
It’s not the most glamorous, nor is it the most thrilling, but the play that won the inaugural season of the Overwatch League for London Spitfire is still a worthy inclusion. That said, it still has a couple of moments of brilliance from Spitfire that made it happen.
If anything, it’s a showcase of some excellent tank play that often goes underlooked. As Reinhardt, Gesture leads the initial charge onto the point, swinging away at SADO on Orisa to take him down. Next, when, Poko tries to boost in to contest the capture, Gesture is there with a perfect Charge to keep D.Va away. As the remaining four members of Fusion try to get even a pinky toe on the point, Jun-ho ‘Fury’ Kim boosts into all of them as D.Va to knock them back, buying the remaining few seconds to finish the capture, and the game – letting London Spitfire tie it all up in an awfully fitting way on King’s Row. GGWP!
