Tournament information | |
---|---|
Game | Overwatch |
Dates | July 11–July 28 |
Administrator | Activision-Blizzard |
Venue | Blizzard Arena, Burbank, California |
Teams | 6 |
Purse | $1,700,000 |
Tournament statistics | |
Matches played | 12 |
Grand Finals | |
Location | Brooklyn, New York |
Venue | Barclays Center |
Champion | London Spitfire |
Runner-up | Philadelphia Fusion |
Finals MVP | Park "Profit" Jun-young |
The 2018 Overwatch League playoffs began on July 11, after the 2018 Overwatch League regular season ended, and concluded on July 28 with the 2018 Grand Finals, the first championship match of the Overwatch League (OWL). Six teams competed in the OWL Playoffs.
The winner of each round of the Playoffs was determined by a best-of-three match series, with match determined by best-of-five maps. The Quarterfinals had the third-seeded team playing the sixth-seeded team, while the fourth-seeded team played the fifth-seeded team. In the Semifinals, the top-seed team played the lowest remaining seed, while the second-seeded team played the next-lowest. The winners advanced to the Grand Finals, which took place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on July 27–28. [1] [2] [3]
London Spitfire defeated Philadelphia Fusion in the Grand Finals to become the first Overwatch League Champions.
The postseason map pool consisted of eight maps, with a ninth map as the tie-breaking map (if necessary), and was decided by a lottery system on June 19. [4]
Map 1 | Map 2 | Map 3 | Map 4 | Map 5 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type | Escort | Control | Assault | Hybrid | Control |
Pool | Eichenwalde | Hanamura | Lijiang Tower | Dorado | Nepal |
King's Row | Volskaya Industries | Oasis | Junkertown |
Six teams qualified for the Season Playoffs based on their season overall records. The two division leaders were awarded the top two seeds, and the following top four teams, regardless of division, were awarded seeds three through six. [1]
Seed | Team | Division | Record | MR | MD |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | New York Excelsior | ATL | 34–6 | 126–43–4 | +83 |
2 | Los Angeles Valiant | PAC | 27–13 | 100–64–7 | +36 |
3 | Boston Uprising | ATL | 26–14 | 99–71–3 | +28 |
4 | Los Angeles Gladiators | PAC | 25–15 | 96–72–3 | +24 |
5 | London Spitfire | ATL | 24–16 | 102–69–3 | +33 |
6 | Philadelphia Fusion | ATL | 24–16 | 93–80–2 | +13 |
Quarterfinals July 11–14, 2018 | Semifinals July 18–21, 2018 | Grand Finals July 27–28, 2018 | ||||||||||||||||||||
1 | New York Excelsior | 0 | 2 | – | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
3 | Boston Uprising | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | Philadelphia Fusion | 3 | 3 | – | 2 | |||||||||||
6 | Philadelphia Fusion | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | Philadelphia Fusion | 1 | 0 | – | 0 | |||||||||||
5 | London Spitfire | 3 | 3 | – | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
2 | Los Angeles Valiant | 1 | 0 | – | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
4 | Los Angeles Gladiators | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | London Spitfire | 3 | 3 | – | 2 | |||||||||||
5 | London Spitfire | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||
The Fusion pulled off a 2–1 victory in their first match against the Uprising, who had been high in the standings early in the regular season but had lost momentum in the latter half. Fusion used a tank-heavy roster, including Reinhardt played by Sado, which forced the Uprising to move away from their sniper-based strategy. Fusion's Eqo and Carpe also showed skill across several heroes to help with the victory. [5]
Quarterfinals Match 1 | July 11 | Philadelphia Fusion | 3 | – | 1 | Boston Uprising | Burbank, CA | |
5:00 pm PST | Details | Blizzard Arena | ||||||
3 | Dorado | 1 | ||||||
1 | Oasis | 2 | ||||||
5 | Eichenwalde | 4 | ||||||
2 | Volskaya Industries | 0 |
Quarterfinals Match 2 | July 13 | Philadelphia Fusion | 1 | – | 3 | Boston Uprising | Burbank, CA | |
5:00 pm PST | Details | Blizzard Arena | ||||||
4 | Junkertown | 5 | ||||||
0 | Lijang Tower | 2 | ||||||
3 | King's Row | 2 | ||||||
2 | Hanamura | 3 |
Quarterfinals Match 3 | July 13 | Philadelphia Fusion | 3 | – | 1 | Boston Uprising | Burbank, CA | |
7:00 pm PST | Details | Blizzard Arena | ||||||
2 | Junkertown | 3 | ||||||
2 | Lijang Tower | 0 | ||||||
3 | Eichenwalde | 1 | ||||||
2 | Hanamura | 1 |
Philadelphia won series 2–1 |
The Spitfire had been underdogs in their match against the Gladiators, having never won a regular season match against them. The Gladiators took the first match, 3–0, including a trick play that involved Surefour staying in the spawn room as a different hero until well into the match before changing to his regular Widowmaker hero and readily picking off the open Spitfire players. This was later known as "THE GREAT BAMBOOZLE". The Spitfire responded in the following matches with adaptive changes in their team composition that prevented the Gladiators from maintaining their defense lines. [5] Notably, the Gladiators chose to bench their primary main tank player Fissure, who came second place for Season MVP, for the playoffs, opting instead to replace him with the team's other main tank player, iRemiix. [6] The official reason given for this decision was that "the Gladiators believe that the most effective practice and preparation is necessary in order to perform well in playoffs." [6]
Quarterfinals Match 1 | July 11 | London Spitfire | 0 | – | 3 | Los Angeles Gladiators | Burbank, CA | |
7:00 pm PST | Details | Blizzard Arena | ||||||
2 | Junkertown | 3 | ||||||
1 | Lijang Tower | 2 | ||||||
1 | King's Row | 2 |
Quarterfinals Match 2 | July 14 | London Spitfire | 3 | – | 0 | Los Angeles Gladiators | Burbank, CA | |
1:00 pm PST | Details | Blizzard Arena | ||||||
2 | Dorado | 1 | ||||||
2 | Oasis | 0 | ||||||
3 | Eichenwalde | 0 |
Quarterfinals Match 3 | July 14 | London Spitfire | 3 | – | 0 | Los Angeles Gladiators | Burbank, CA | |
2:50 pm PST | Details | Blizzard Arena | ||||||
3 | Junkertown | 2 | ||||||
2 | Lijang Tower | 0 | ||||||
5 | King's Row | 4 |
London won series 2–1 |
After each quarterfinal series, the sixth-seeded Fusion, being the lowest seed of the two quarterfinals winners, faced the top-seeded Excelsior, whereas the fifth-seeded Spitfire played against the second-seeded Los Angeles Valiant. The semi-final saw upsets in both brackets with the lower-seed Fusion and Spitfire winning over the top seeds Excelsior and Valiant.
Fusion had taken the first series 3–0 over Excelsior. While the second set ran for all five maps, Fusion won the series and the spot in the Grand Finals. [5]
Semifinals Match 1 | July 18 | Philadelphia Fusion | 3 | – | 0 | New York Excelsior | Burbank, CA | |
5:00 pm PST | Details | Blizzard Arena | ||||||
3 | Dorado | 2 | ||||||
2 | Oasis | 1 | ||||||
3 | Eichenwalde | 1 |
Semifinals Match 2 | July 21 | Philadelphia Fusion | 3 | – | 2 | New York Excelsior | Burbank, CA | |
4:00 pm PST | Details | Blizzard Arena | ||||||
3 | Junkertown | 2 | ||||||
1 | Lijang Tower | 2 | ||||||
3 | King's Row | 0 | ||||||
1 | Hanamura | 2 | ||||||
3 | Dorado | 2 |
Philadelphia won series 2–0 |
The Spitfire had kept their traction from the victory over the Gladiators in the previous round, and took their spot in the finals after two matches, winning each 3–1 and 3–0. [5]
Semifinals Match 1 | July 18 | London Spitfire | 3 | – | 1 | Los Angeles Valiant | Burbank, CA | |
6:45 pm PST | Details | Blizzard Arena | ||||||
3 | Junkertown | 1 | ||||||
2 | Lijang Tower | 1 | ||||||
0 | King's Row | 1 | ||||||
1 | Hanamura | 1 | ||||||
3 | Dorado | 2 |
Semifinals Match 2 | July 20 | London Spitfire | 3 | – | 0 | Los Angeles Valiant | Burbank, CA | |
4:00 pm PST | Details | Blizzard Arena | ||||||
3 | Dorado | 2 | ||||||
2 | Oasis | 0 | ||||||
5 | Eichenwalde | 4 |
London won series 2–0 |
The London Spitfire defeated the Philadelphia Fusion in the Grand Finals series in 2 sets. The Spitfire's Jun-Young "Profit" Park was named the Grand Finals Most Valuable Player; Profit was observed to be a key offensive player in the series, in one match using Hanzo's ultimate ability to eliminate five of the six Fusion players. [7] [8]
Grand Finals Match 1 | July 27 | Philadelphia Fusion | 1 | – | 3 | London Spitfire | Brooklyn, NY | |
7:00 pm EST | Details | Barclays Center | ||||||
3 | Dorado | 2 | ||||||
0 | Oasis | 2 | ||||||
1 | Eichenwalde | 2 | ||||||
1 | Volskaya Industries | 2 |
Grand Finals Match 2 | July 28 | Philadelphia Fusion | 0 | – | 3 | London Spitfire | Brooklyn, NY | |
4:00 pm EST | Details | Barclays Center | ||||||
2 | Junkertown | 3 | ||||||
0 | Lijang Tower | 2 | ||||||
3 | King's Row | 4 |
London won series 2–0 |
Teams in the Season Playoffs competed for a total prize pool of US$1.7 million, with the payout division detailed below. [9]
Pos | Teams | Bonus |
---|---|---|
1 | London Spitfire | $1,000,000 |
2 | Philadelphia Fusion | $400,000 |
3 | New York Excelsior | $100,000 |
4 | Los Angeles Valiant | $100,000 |
5 | Boston Uprising | $50,000 |
6 | Los Angeles Gladiators | $50,000 |
On the first day of the season playoffs, Disney and Blizzard announced a multi-year partnership that would bring the league and other professional Overwatch competitive events to ESPN, Disney XD, and ABC, starting with the playoffs and throughout all of the following season. [10] The partnership marked the time that a live esports competition had aired on ESPN in prime time and the first time that an esports competition had aired on ABC. [11] Nielsen ratings for the Grand Finals include a 0.18 rating (approximately 218,000 households) for the Friday match airing on ESPN, while the recap of the series airing on ABC on the Sunday after the event had a 0.3 rating (approximately 359,000 households). [12] Blizzard estimated that over a million people were watching the Grand Finals at any time, between broadcast and streaming formats, with a total viewership of over 10.8 million. [13] [14]
Date | Time (EDT) | Event | Network(s) |
---|---|---|---|
Wed, July 11 | 8:00 p.m. | Day 1 of Quarterfinals | Disney XD, ESPN3 |
Fri, July 13 | 8:00 p.m. | Day 2 of Quarterfinals | Disney XD, ESPN3 |
Sat, July 14 | 4:00 p.m. | Day 3 of Quarterfinals | Disney XD, ESPN3 |
Wed, July 18 | 8:00 p.m. | Day 1 of Semifinals | Disney XD, ESPN3 |
Fri, July 20 | 7:00 p.m. | Day 2 of Semifinals | ESPNEWS |
Sat, July 21 | 7:00 p.m. | Day 3 of Semifinals | ESPN2 |
Fri, July 27 | 7:00 p.m. | Day 1 of Grand Finals | ESPN |
Sat, July 28 | 4:30 p.m. | Day 2 of Grand Finals | Disney XD, ESPN3 |
Sat, July 28 | 9:00 p.m. | Day 2 of Grand Finals | ESPN2 (re-air) |
Sun, July 29 | 3:00 p.m. | Highlights Recap | ABC, ESPN3 |
The Los Angeles Gladiators are an American professional Overwatch esports team based in Los Angeles, California. The Gladiators compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2017, the Los Angeles Gladiators are one of twelve founding members of the OWL and are one of two professional Overwatch teams based in Los Angeles. The team is owned by Stan Kroenke and Josh Kroenke of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, who also owns Gladiators Legion, an academy team for Los Angeles that competed in Overwatch Contenders.
The New York Excelsior is an American professional Overwatch esports team based in New York City, New York. The Excelsior compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2017, the team is one of twelve founding members of the Overwatch League and is the first professional esports team to represent the city of New York. The franchise is owned by NYXL, which was founded under the name Andbox by venture capital fund Sterling.VC, supported by Sterling Equities. They also own NYXL Academy, an academy team for NYXL that competed in Overwatch Contenders.
Los Angeles Valiant is an American professional Overwatch esports team representing the city of Los Angeles, California. Valiant compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2017, Los Angeles Valiant is one of twelve founding members of the OWL and one of two professional Overwatch teams based in Los Angeles.
The San Francisco Shock are an American professional Overwatch esports team based in San Francisco, California. The Shock compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2017, the San Francisco Shock is one of the twelve founding members of the OWL and is one of three professional Overwatch teams in California. The team is owned by Andy Miller, co-owner of the Sacramento Kings and NRG Esports. The Shock have won three midseason tournament titles, qualified for three season playoffs, and won back-to-back OWL Grand Finals, making them one of the most accomplished franchises in OWL history.
Seoul Dynasty is a South Korean professional Overwatch esports team based in Seoul, South Korea. The Dynasty compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's East region. Founded in 2017, Seoul Dynasty is one of the league's twelve founding members and one of two professional Overwatch teams based in South Korea. The team is owned by Kevin Chou of Generation Gaming, who also own and operate an academy team for the Dynasty that compete in Overwatch Contenders (OWC) under the moniker Gen.G Esports.
London Spitfire is a professional Overwatch team representing the city of London, United Kingdom. The Spitfire compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2017, London Spitfire is one of the league's twelve founding members and is the only professional Overwatch team representing a European city. The team is owned by Jack Etienne and the esports organization Cloud9, who also own British Hurricane, an academy team for the Spitfire that competed in Overwatch Contenders (OWC).
Seoul Infernal is a professional Overwatch esports team based in Seoul, South Korea. The Infernal compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's East region. Founded in 2017 as the Philadelphia Fusion, it is one of the league's twelve founding members and was the first professional esports team based in Pennsylvania. The team is owned by Comcast Spectacor, who also own the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL). It also manages Fusion University and T1, academy teams for the Infernal that compete in Overwatch Contenders.
The 2018 Overwatch League season was the inaugural season for the Overwatch League, an esports league based on the video game Overwatch which began on January 10, 2018. Regular season play continued through June 16, 2018, while post-season play ran from July 11–28, 2018. The London Spitfire won the Grand Finals over the Philadelphia Fusion to become the League champions, with the Spitfire's Park "Profit" Jun-young named the Finals MVP. An All-Star Weekend was held following the post-season from August 25–26, 2018.
The 2018 New York Excelsior season was the first season of New York Excelsior's existence in the Overwatch League. The team finished the league-leading regular season record of 34–6.
The 2018 Los Angeles Valiant season was the first season of Los Angeles Valiant's existence in the Overwatch League. The team finished with a regular season record of 27–13 – the second best in the Overwatch League.
The 2018 Los Angeles Gladiators was the first season of the Los Angeles Gladiators's existence in the Overwatch League. The team finished with a regular season record of 25–15 – the fourth best in the Overwatch League.
The 2018 London Spitfire season was the first season of the London Spitfire's existence in the Overwatch League. The team finished with a regular season record of 24–16, which was the fifth best in the Overwatch League.
The 2018 Philadelphia Fusion season was the first season of the Philadelphia Fusion's existence in the Overwatch League. The team finished with a regular season record of 24–16, which was the fifth best in the Overwatch League. Philadelphia had the same record as the London Spitfire, but London held the tiebreaker by map differential. Philadelphia qualified for the Stage 2 playoffs, in which they lost in the finals against the New York Excelsior. The team also qualified for the Season Playoffs, in which they lost in the Grand Finals against the London Spitfire.
The 2018 Dallas Fuel season was the first season of the Dallas Fuel's existence in the Overwatch League (OWL). After Envy Gaming acquired the Dallas franchise slot for the OWL on October 5, 2017, the roster and staff of Team EnVyUs was transferred to the Dallas Fuel. The Fuel struggled throughout the first three quarters of the season, winning only six games, largely due to the instability of their roster. The team also went through a head coaching change, releasing Kyle "KyKy" Souder and signing Aaron "Aero" Atkins. Dallas had their most successful stage in Stage 4 and qualified for the Stage 4 playoffs. However, they lost in the semifinals to the New York Excelsior. The team finished with a regular season record of 12–28 placing them tenth overall and did not qualify for the season playoffs.
The 2019 London Spitfire season was the second season of the London Spitfire's existence in the Overwatch League. The Spitfire entered the season as the defending Overwatch League champions after winning the 2018 Grand Finals.
The 2019 New York Excelsior season was the second season of New York Excelsior's (NYXL) existence in the Overwatch League. The season saw NYXL looking to bounce back from a disappointing loss to the Fusion in the semifinals of the 2018 playoffs after the team finished with the best regular season record, 34–6, of the 2018 season.
The 2018 Overwatch League Grand Finals was the first championship series of the Overwatch League (OWL), which took place July 27–28, 2018. The series was the conclusion of the 2018 Overwatch League playoffs and was played between the London Spitfire and the Philadelphia Fusion at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The 2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals was the second championship series of the Overwatch League (OWL), which took place on September 29, 2019. The series was the conclusion of the 2019 Overwatch League playoffs and was played between the Vancouver Titans and San Francisco Shock at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Lee Jae-hyeok, better known as Carpe, is a South Korean former professional Overwatch player, and current professional Valorant player for T1. He began his esports career playing Overwatch for teams such as BK Stars, Selfless Gaming, and FaZe Clan. Lee then signed with the Philadelphia Fusion of the Overwatch League in the league's inaugural season, where he played for five years. Following the OWL's 2022 season, Lee left competitive Overwatch and began his Valorant career.
Kim Ji-hyeok (Korean: 김지혁), better known by his online alias Birdring, is a South Korean professional Overwatch player who played for several teams in the Overwatch League (OWL). He is best known for playing hitscan damage heroes, such as the sniper Widowmaker and highly-mobile Tracer. Prior to the OWL's inception, he played for KongDoo Uncia, KongDoo Panthera, and Cloud9 KongDoo. Birdring signed with the London Spitfire of the OWL in the league's inaugural season wherein he was selected to play in the All-Star Game and won the league's first Grand Finals, after the Spitfire defeated the Philadelphia Fusion. After two seasons with the Spitfire, Birdring signed with the Los Angeles Gladiators. After two seasons with the Gladiators, Birdring retired from professional Overwatch. He came out of retirement a year later and joined the Boston Uprising.