Overwatch League Recap: London Spitfire vs. Philadelphia Fusion

Spitfire 1-3 Fusion

Coming into tonight’s match, the London Spitfire boast their championship victory over their opponents, the Philadelphia Fusion. However, London appears to have rested on their laurels during their time off, and the Fusion appear to have practiced their hardest to prevent a repeat of their last matchup.

Ilios – Spitfire 1 – 2 Fusion

Image courtesy of Overwatch

London started the night off strong with an early win on the first control point of the night: Ilios Lighthouse. After flip-flopping the point with the Fusion, the Spitfire manage to pick off Carpe early in two consecutive teamfights to secure the first map.

Unfortunately, Philly kicked into gear for map two, with an early pick on Bdosin leading to a swift first capture on Ruins. London struggled to find their footing for the entirety of the map, ultimately giving Philadelphia the point 100-0.

On Ilios Well, London started off with a unique composition, running Hanzo, McCree, and Orisa while Philadelphia opted for a more traditional triple tank – triple support lineup. While London took the point initially, the Fusion came back and dismantled the Spitfire’s bunker. But even after with the composition swap, London couldn’t retake the point for more than a few seconds. Philly took the point 100-28 to confirm their map win, 2-1.

Hollywood – Spitfire 2 – 3 Fusion

After running 3-3 lineups throughout their first map, Philadelphia came into their first offense with an identical composition. London managed to stagger Philadelphia for the first few pushes, but after losing NUS in the third team fight, Philly picked apart the Spitfire defense and capped the point. London began the streets phase aggressively, which lead to a significant drain on the Fusion timebank, but fought too long off the cart while Carpe escorted it into point B. Thankfully, London found their footing and successfully stalled out Philadelphia before they could complete the map.

In round two, London and Philadelphia again ran identical 3-3 compositions. London appeared disjoint in their first few pushes, but managed to cap point A slightly quicker than the Fusion did. They also began their streets phase strongly, with birdring catching four Fusion players in a graviton surge. But that was the end of London’s good fortune. Philly became quite aggressive in their next pushes, halting the Spitfire in their tracks for over a minute. In overtime, London managed to escort the cart to point B, but it wasn’t enough. A frantic back-and-forth final fight saw Fury get a 3-man self-destruct with the help of a Lucio boop, but London’s ranks were too far thinned to continue escorting the cart. Philadelphia took the map 3-2.

Volskaya Industries – Spitfire 5 – 4 Fusion

Volskaya Industries. Courtesy of Blizzard

London had a unique style of attack on Volskaya, opting for various compositions containing 4 DPS players. Philadelphia on the other hand, stuck with traditional 3-3 lineups that were thoroughly picked apart by London’s offenses. After six grueling rounds of 2CP action, the Spitfire managed to secure the win over the Fusion 5-4.

Rialto – Spitfire 0 – 1 Fusion

Rialto was London’s last hope at a reverse sweep, but they sure didn’t act like it. Push after push of staggered deaths, questionable support ults, and getting caught in Carpe’s gravitons led to the Spitfire barely pushing the payload beyond the first choke. Philadelphia quickly put London out of their misery on their attack round and won the map 0-1 to secure the match win.

Conclusion

Throughout this match, London looked their strongest when they were able to displace the Fusion’s positioning. But too often, Gesture or Bdosin would be the first ones to fall in a fight, leaving the rest of the team vulnerable until they reset. In order to perform better in their next matches, London will need to play more decisively and capitalize on enemy positioning errors.