Yes, that headline is correct. The Florida Mayhem have officially taken down the London Spitfire 3-0 on Saturday, August 3. A day Florida fans will not soon forget. Perhaps more than some fans realize, this is an absolutely historic upset victory for the Mayhem. Now, the hashtag #BrightheMayhem is more relevant than it ever has been
The series started off on Control, a map type that the Spitfire typically struggle on. So, when they went down in convincing fashion 1-0, the players were jovial. It seemed like they almost expected to lose. This mood continued after the Spitfire’s putrid offensive attempt on Volskaya Industries that led them to go down 0-2 in the series. Before going into the locker room, down 0-2 to the worst team in the league, London’s main tank player Jae-hee “Gesture” Hong was laughing and smiling. As if losing those two maps meant nothing to the defending champion.
Image Courtesy of the OWL Stream
With the series on the line on Blizzard World, London showed more resolve than they previously displayed. In a map that they kept close, the Mayhem were still able to dig in and force a draw on London’s timebank attack. Florida’s star player Jung-woo “Sayaplayer” Ha came up big throughout the series and looked especially locked in on this map.
After the map was over and the series had been decided, Jun-soo “Kris” Choi, Florida’s main support player, looked about as relieved as humanly possible. Meanwhile, one would expect to look across the stage to a mentally boomed London Spitfire but, again, they were seen joking and smiling. Less so than before, sure, but the message was clear: The Spitfire players did not seem to care about this loss whatsoever.
The series ended after a Junkertown that seemed to be more of an individual display from London of talent than an actual OWL game. Florida took this map and closed out the series, 3-0.
The 20th place team has just defeated the Inaugural Season champions. #BringtheMayhem pic.twitter.com/LtJ446JAag
— Katrina Weil (@Katrina__Weil) August 3, 2019
As far as upsets go, this is about as tough of one as it gets. London, while not a top team in terms of their season standings, has looked like a top-three team in the new 2-2-2 meta. Many had already picked them to be among the odds on favorites to make a deep playoff run.
Florida, on the other hand, is in the middle of a massive rebuild and have struggled mightily throughout it. In their most recent game, they were defeated by the Washington Justice, the team currently sitting at 19th overall. Without saying too much more here, Florida had essentially become a laughing stock in the league and now, they have defeated the Inaugural Season Champion London Spitfire.
Florida, even if just for a moment, have captured history. The players, staff and fans can all take a moment to celebrate what has just happened and just enjoy it. This is a team that clearly isn’t done yet and could be a dark horse in 2020.
#BringtheMayhem indeed.
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Featured Image Courtesy of the Florida Mayhem
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