Stage 2 of the Overwatch League 2019 Season is finally here. Week 1 brought with it a massive new balance patch and a new hero, Baptiste. With such massive changes in the game itself, there is no wonder this week’s top plays look quite a bit different than usual. With not one, not two, but three Bastion-centered top plays, this week was nothing like Overwatch League fans have seen before.
Barely squeaking into this week’s top 10 is the nasty nano-blade from Hyojong “Haksal” Kim of the Vancouver Titans. This was a marvelous play from the Titans, however, the Spark’s Zarya player, Kyeong-bo “GodsB” Kim prevents this from being an even better play. In the end, this is one for the longtime Haksal fans. Long reign Haksal’s Genji.
The first, but certainly not the last Bastion play of the week comes from Lane “Surefour” Roberts of the Los Angeles Gladiators. While Surefour’s POV is featured here, this is really more of a complete team play from the Glads. This is visible, if by nothing else, by looking at their ultimates before and after the fight. They poured everything into keeping Surefour up here and it paid off.
Only just recently acquired from the Uprising, Richard “rCk” Kanerva is already making his presence known. In this play, rCk has the instinct to go with the EMP use as soon as he earns it. This catches the Defiant off guard and sets up the Uprising to clean up the team fight and eventually complete the reverse sweep.
Jung-woo “Happy” Lee is certainly a fan of the new balance patches mentioned at the outset of the article. Now dealing even more damage, McCree’s ultimate tears through two tanks on the Paris Eternal side and sets the Charge up for an easy fight win.
Luo “Elsa” Wenjie and the rest of the Chengdu Hunters may have just executed the best use of Symmetra the OWL has ever seen in this one. This gives a unique perspective on how to get around the new bunker-style compositions being featured in the league, however, it also gives hope to the Symmetra one-tricks playing at home. Truly a blessing and a curse from Chengdu.
In what looked to be every bit of a fight going Washington’s way, Tae-hong “MekO” Kim throws in a beautiful D.Va bomb from long-range. This is the kind of moment that keeps teams scratching their heads on how to beat MekO and the NYXL. When every player can make plays like these, teams have to be perfect to beat them.
Corey “Corey” Nigra is a player who was under a lot of duress after Stage 1 due to his performance issues on Zarya. Seems like he got tired of hearing about all that. Unfortunate for Chengdu that they had to be the ones on the defending end of this one. Although, it’s a safe bet that they certainly won’t be the last.
In the third Bastion top play of the week, Surefour returns to center stage. After a stellar six-player EMP from Gui-un “Decay” Jang, Surefour is free to do the rest. The first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, Surefour reigns as king of the Bastion’s in Stage 2, Week 1.
Ever since his departure from the Philadelphia Fusion, fans across the league have been yearning for the return of George “ShaDowBurn” Gushcha. While he was featured in Stage 1, in many ways, he is truly back to his full form in the current meta of Stage 2. With several plays like this on Pharah on both Junkertown and Oasis, the future looks bright for ShaDowBurn.
In a match-fight for the series win, Jun-woo “Void” Kang makes this unbelievably clutch play. After scarfing down the Graviton Surge from Dong-eon “FITS” Kim, Void then baits out the transcendence and throws in his D.Va bomb, netting a crucial triple kill. Without this play, Seoul very well may have won this fight and taken the momentum to win the series. Instead, Void called game in this week’s top play.
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