As many predicted, today’s match was rather one sided in favor of the New York Excelsior. New York’s dominance at GOATS compositions allows them to outclass underperforming teams with ease, and today was no exception. While Florida performed stronger after halftime, they were still undeniably outdone by New York’s sheer level of talent.
Image courtesy of New York Excelsior
Despite not getting first control of the point, NYXL looked dominant on City Center. After recovering from Jun-soo “Kris” Choi’s double environmental kill, New York regrouped to easily take the point back from Florida. The Excelsior continued targeting Florida’s supports in subsequent engagements, winning three team fights in a row to take the map 100-40.
Gardens was a total shutout for New York, who took the map 100-0. Seong-hyun “JJoNak” Bang’s smart Ana play allowed him to hit critical sleep darts and grenades to prevent the Mayhem from engaging at their highest potential. Fight after fight, NYXL were able to secure the first kill to swing the fight in their favor. The map was over quickly, earning New York a 2-0 win on map 1.
On Paris, Jung-woo “Sayaplayer” Ha’s renowned precision on Widowmaker allowed Florida to stave off NYXL’s initial attacks. But once Dong-gyu “Mano” Kim cornered him on Winston, Florida’s point A defense crumbled. New York was able to keep the ball rolling into point B, with Mano’s Primal Rage segmenting the opposition. After picking off the Mayhem supports, the Excelsior completed the map with 5:23 in the time bank.
2018-03-25 / Photo: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment
New York’s 3-3 defense was initially effective, whittling down half of Florida’s time bank before giving up the point. The NYXL successfully prevented the Mayhem from snowballing point B, breaking up Florida’s momentum. Once the Mayhem were stopped once, they couldn’t find their stride again. Graviton eats and self-destructs from Tae-hong “MekO” Kim helped the Excelsior keep the point locked down for the remainder of Florida’s time bank. After focusing down Florida’s main tank Seong-won “Swon” Yoon, New York’s point B hold became all but inevitable; they took the map 2-1.
2019-04-11 – Overwatch League 2019 / Photo: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment
Florida’s quick rotation of their bunker to low ground on defense allowed New York to steamroll through their team with minimal effort. Their streets phase was even smoother, entering point B with over five minutes in the bank. Florida delayed the Excelsior onslaught for almost two minutes just before point C, but New York ultimately had no trouble completing the map.
New York’s defense started just as strong as their offense, often ending Florida pushes with early picks. Once Florida swapped from triple DPS to GOATS, Florida managed to take point A in overtime. This repeated on point B, where another early pick onto Mano gave the Mayhem the opportunity to swing the fight in their favor. However, they were unable to push the cart to point C, giving New York a 3-2 map win.
NYXL DPS: Hae-seong “Libero” Kim
New York opened Junkertown with an interesting triple tank composition, running Hae-seong “Libero” Kim on Genji into Florida’s double sniper setup. While initial pushes were lackluster, Libero used his Dragonblade to eliminate Sang-bum “BQB” Lee and give New York the edge to take point A. Swapping to GOATS, the Excelsior took point B handily, but had a harder time on point C. Florida was able to briefly stabilize near the end of the map, but couldn’t hold off New York entirely. The Excelsior finished the map with 34 seconds in the bank.
New York looked unprepared for Florida’s offensive Bastion bunker. BQB’s Symmetra allowed Hyeon-woo “HaGoPeun” Jo’s Bastion to take high ground behind the Excelsior’s defense, catching New York off guard. Though they held off Florida before point A until overtime, the NYXL failed to secure the map. They also allowed the Mayhem to capture point B, but had a resurgence in the final phase of the map. New York whittled down Florida’s time bank to prevent a point C take, winning them the map 3-2.
The results of this match are by no means surprising given the win/loss records of these teams. Florida are still struggling to perform, even with their decision to run an all-Korean roster. While the post-halftime maps looked more promising for Florida, New York’s dominance at 3-3 compositions is enough for them to outclass lower caliber teams. With a match against the previously 4-0’d Philadelphia and two matches against Atlanta coming up, it looks possible that everyone may see New York go undefeated this stage again.
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