With both teams vying for a playoff spot, today’s match was among the highest stakes yet this stage. Unfortunately, London simply couldn’t match Seoul’s intimidating playstyle, and lost their shot at making the Stage 1 playoffs. With this win, Seoul has broken their streak of never taking a match over London, while Fissure continued his own of never losing to the Spitfire.
Courtesy of Gamepedia.
Both teams started on Sanctum with a 3-3 team comp, and Junyoung “Profit” Park was picked off by Jehong “ryujehong” Ryu mere moments into the initial push. The next team fight was an ultimate fiesta, with both teams taking extremely aggressive positioning, rushing into each others’ backlines. Unfortunately for London, this playstyle is where Seoul thrives. Seoul ended the map 100-0 without a single death.
London got an early pick onto Seungsoo “Jecse” Lee to help them take first control of Village. They only had control briefly, however, as Seoul piggybacked off a well placed self-destruct from Minhyuk “Michelle” Choi to take the point back. Thankfully, London was ready to rebound. The Spitfire repeatedly dismantled the Seoul support line in back-to-back fights to tie up the map.
Profit was again picked off early on Sanctum, giving Seoul the first point capture. While London took the point on their next push, they couldn’t keep it for long. Repeated aggressive engagements from the Dynasty allowed a swift point retake and a strong defense that London couldn’t dent. Seoul took Nepal 2-1.
Gesture vs. Fissure stats comparison
London started their defense as aggressively as they began on Nepal, but showed much more promise. They drained half of Seoul’s timebank with swift picks, rushing into the Dynasty to set the engagement’s quick pace. London couldn’t keep up the aggression beyond point A, however. Seoul’s fast-paced play overpowered London in the end, and they completed the map in overtime.
London’s point A offensive was one drawn out team fight. A long wrap around into the cafe helped London build up the necessary ultimates to brute force their way to a point capture. Their point B pushes struggled amidst the consistent pressure that Chanhyung “Fissure” Baek placed onto Jaehui “Gesture” Hong. While the Spitfire were able to take point B, they failed to complete the map, losing Hollywood 3-2.
London looked completely unprepared for Seoul’s 4-DPS offense on Anubis, letting Seoul take point A in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, London prevented a full snowball, stabilizing on point B after giving up two ticks. Seoul then swapped to GOATS, which the Spitfire seemed much more capable at countering. They whittled down the entirety of the Dynasty’s six minute timebank before giving up the point in overtime.
Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment
London ran a more standard offense than Seoul, mirroring the defense’s 3-3. Junho “Fury” Kim was instrumental in executing a pincer in their opening push, putting pressure on the Dynasty from all angles. While kills were traded back and forth, the Spitfire ultimately came out on top, finishing point A even faster than Seoul did. Like Seoul, the Spitfire couldn’t snowball point B, but they did manage to finish the map with time in the bank.
With two minutes to take one tick, the pressure was on for London to keep their name in the running for a playoff spot by taking this map and pulling off a reverse sweep. They tried time and again to repeat their pincer formation from the previous round, but Seoul was wise to their games. After three unsuccessful pushes, London ran out of time. They tied the map 2-2, and lost their last opportunity to claim a playoffs spot.
Photo Courtesy of the Overwatch League
The Spitfire came out swinging against the Dynasty on Route 66, winning a surprisingly reckless first push that caught Seoul by surprise. Although they were briefly stalled at Big Earl’s, London had a surprisingly effective point B take with Gesture playing a more passive playstyle. They had a similarly strong point C push, making it to within 5 meters of completing the map before being forced off the payload.
On defense, London never quite hit their stride. A unique first push from Seoul briefly saw Michelle on Symmetra to teleport his team to high ground behind the London defense before he swapped to Sombra. This unique positioning caught London by surprise, and they lost the first fight as a result. From there, London continued to falter. While they had brief moments of stability right after checkpoints were captured, they could not keep up their defense on subsequent pushes. Seoul plowed through point C to take the map 3-2.
In my preview for this week, I noted that Fissure would be a thorn in London’s side if they couldn’t adapt to his breakneck playstyle. While Gesture certainly tried to match his greedy positioning, and was at some points successful, London as a whole looked uncomfortable trying to attack Seoul. Now that London is out of the playoffs, they have time to reflect on their performance this stage and make adjustments to improve in the future.
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