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OWL Stage 4: Day 1 Recap

by - 7 years ago

Ahhhhh, it’s good to be back.

The idea that time flies when you’re is having fun is actually proven by the Overwatch League, because we’re already at the fourth and final stage of league-play.

To start Stage 4 off — The Gladiators held their shields strong against the Shock. Valla soared over Seoul in a 5-map banger and Shanghai fell to 0-31 on the season after losing to Dallas.

Los Angeles Gladiators 3 — 1 San Francisco Shock

The Gladiators started off Stage 4 with a 3-1 win over the San Francisco Shock. (Credit: Gladiators on Twitter)

Our night began with the Shock taking on the Gladiators in an attempt to repeat their success against the purple shield wall in Stage 3, when they won the match 3-1. Blizzard World (2-0 LAG) started out with the Shock holding the Gladiators to 2 points before the third point. But, a full hold by L.A. would crush any hopes of winning SF had.

Horizon (3-2 LAG) looked like it could have gone either way to start with too, but the Gladiators managed to come out on top and went into halftime with a 2-0 lead. They would seal the match win on LiJiang Tower (2-0) before the Shock were able to come back and take Gibraltar (2-1 SF) to finish the match off.

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Los Angeles Valiant 3 — 2 Seoul Dynasty

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Credit: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment.

Oh yeah, now we’re talking. Matches like this one between Seoul and The Valiant on Wednesday night are the kinds of things Overwatch League was made for. Seoul started things out with a dominant win on Blizzard World (3-1 SEO) but the Valiant were able to full hold on Horizon Lunar Colony (1-0 LAV) to tie things up before half.

The Valiant came out swinging in the second half to take LiJiang Tower (2-0 LAV). It looked like they might be able to wrap things up on Gibraltar (5-4 SEO) but Seoul, and Fleta specifically, had other plans.

This one would all come down to match 5 — our first bonus round of Stage 4. Nepal (2-0 LAV) would be all Valla. Seoul were able to briefly take Village after Valla’s first take, and get around 50% progress, but L.A. swept back and finished off the first round in style.

Agilities would put the exclamation point on this one with a beautiful barrage to finish off Shrine.

Dallas Fuel 3 — 1 Shanghai Dragons

Credit: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment.

This match started out great for Shanghai. They won a close King’s Row (3-2 SHD) and it really seemed like Wednesday might’ve been the day for the Dragons to earn their first OWL match win. Hanamura (2-3 DAL) went to the Fuel, but it was a close one, closer then I thought it would be after Dallas’s first attack run. Come halftime, this one wasn’t pretty, but it looked pretty even.

After halftime, the cracks in the Dragons armor started to show. Oasis (2-0 DAL) went the way of the Fuel easily, and even though Dorado (3-2 DAL) was a little more competitive, there was never really the feeling that Shanghai would pull it off and send this to a map 5.

Shanghai wants to win. Their fans want Shanghai to win. I want Shanghai to win so I can stop writing about how they haven’t. But — Shanghai’s chances of getting a win to finish out the OWL Inaugural season dropped by 50% on Wednesday.

They dropped by half because Dallas was one of the two teams on Shanghai’s schedule they have any realistic chance of beating. The other is Florida, who the Dragons face on Wednesday, June 6.

Even then, their chances aren’t good. I think this team will go 0-40 to end the season. What really killed my optimism was watching Shanghai run dive into Mickie’s Brigitte — an ineffective strategy, to say the least.

This is an Overwatch League team I seriously think could be taken out by most Contender’s teams. Maybe they’ll make some inroads in Stage 4’s new meta and surprise us all by avoiding a 0-40 season — but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Header Image Credit: OWL on Twitter.


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


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