RESULTS: Philadelphia Fusion Continue Impressive Play Against Florida Mayhem

The Philadelphia Fusion came into the match sitting at 6th place in the league with a record of 7-4, while the Florida Mayhem sat at 11th place with a record of 1-10. The Fusion grabbed a very impressive 4-0 victory over the Boston Uprising earlier this week, with Josue  "Eqo" Corona putting together a very impressive performance in his first official match with the team. Florida was handed a 3-1 loss from the New York Excelsior earlier in the week, but played the talented Excelsior very tough and looked much improved from Stage 1. Both teams were looking to end the first week of Stage 2 with a win. Here is a short breakdown of how the match went.

Hanamura was up first and saw Philadelphia execute a strong attack round to capture both control points. This would give the Fusion a 2-0 lead. The DPS duo of Jae-Hyeok "Carpe" and Eqo would prove to be too much for the Florida Mayhem to handle, as the two talented players combined for 47 eliminations and zero deaths. This offensive onslaught from the Fusion would prevent the Mayhem from securing one point, leading the way for Philadelphia to take the 2-0 map victory and a 1-0 lead in the match.

Nepal was the following match, and saw the Fusion capture the first two hills to take the 2-0 map victory. It was not a easy victory for the Fusion, as the Mayhem put up a strong fight that made Philadelphia earn every percentage point they got. Helping to lead the way for the Fusion was Gael "Poko" Gouzerch and his performance with D.Va (17 eliminations and 11,808 damage done to only five deaths). This win gave the Philadelphia Fusion a 2-0 match lead going into the halftime break.

Hollywood played host to the third map of the match. Philadelphia got off to a hot start by pushing Florida's defense all of the way to the end, resulting in the Fusion completing the map to take a 3-0 lead. Utilizing a near perfect defensive effort, the Fusion were able to hold the Florida Mayhem scoreless for the third map in a row. Poko turned in a second straight monster performance with 36 eliminations, 12,200 damage done and only one death. This resulted in a 3-0 map victory and a guaranteed match victory with the score at 3-0. But as we saw in Stage 1, map count can be the difference between making the playoffs or not, which meant that map four still had significance for both teams.

Watchpoint: Gibraltar would be the match's final map, and had the Philadelphia Fusion looking for a clean 4-0 sweep over the Florida Mayhem. In similiar fashion of the first three maps, the Fusion were able to jump out to a large lead with a excellent attack round. Down 3-0, the Mayhem needed to complete the map to have a chance of victory. Scoring their first point of the match, the Mayhem were able to cut the lead to 1-3. That would be the closest they would reach, as Eqo would put together another excellent performance with Genji (42 eliminations, 22 final blows and only 6 deaths) to prevent Florida from getting another point. Philadelphia would win the map 3-1 and complete the 4-0 sweep over the Florida Mayhem. 

With the win, the Philadelphia Fusion improved to a record of 8-4. The loss dropped the Florida Mayhem to a record of 1-11. Carpe and Eqo were both named players of the match, as Philadelphia's star DPS duo combined for 220 eliminations and only 28 deaths.

Interested in more Overwatch League news? Check out our recap of Friday's matches.