Seoul Dynasty Eliminates Favored NYXL from OWL Stage 1 Playoffs
By Wyatt Fossett ·
We're finally in the elimination portion of the Overwatch League Stage 1, and the playoffs have been nothing shy of a shocking delight only one day in, as the Seoul Dynasty send the favored team packing.
The second season of the Overwatch League has had so many wild moments so far, like the Uprising engineering a reverse sweep to clinch a playoff spot, and Ado getting his first OWL victory in 40+ games, yet we're only in Stage 1! This bodes well for the remaining three stages of play. But first, there are playoffs to be had, with bragging rights and a large portion of half-a-million dollars on the line.
Everyone that’s a fan of Overwatch and the Overwatch League has been frantically waiting for today’s portion of round one to begin. Fan-favorites would kick things off against crazy quick underdogs. Little did the world know, nor were they prepared, for the timeline that would see the fiery team from Seoul absolutely smash the team everyone picked to win it all.
While eyes from all over gathered around their streaming devices, the first matchup of the day would take place between the 2nd seed New York Excelsior and the 7th seed Seoul Dynasty.
TFW your playoff bracket is busted after the first game...
— San Francisco Shock⚡ (@SFShock) March 22, 2019
Press F to pay respect to all the dead @overwatchleague Stage 1 brackets... pic.twitter.com/KWJhVF1Cd9
NYXL Had No Seoul
In the lead up to the playoffs, Overwatch League analysts from all walks (including every analyst in the OWL broadcast team) selected the NYXL to win the entire tournament. On paper, this seems like a fine bet. Their biggest competition, the Vancouver Titans, are pretty aggressive, and no one plays both sides of the game like Jjonak at the Excelsior do.
It was supposed to be an easy Thursday for the reigning Overwatch League MVP and his team, but that fairytale didn’t play out, as the Seoul Dynasty, riding a huge wave of hype, came into day one of the playoffs and absolutely embarrassed the team favored to win the whole thing.
Everything from the top down didn’t work as planned for the NYXL, even though they managed to take map 3 during the head-to-head matchup. In the end, however, less of the fault should land on the Excelsior, and more of the credit should go to the Dynasty for playing up, and beyond the skills of their opponents.
Squashing The Zen Beef
Back in Week 3 of the Overwatch League’s Stage 1 regular season, the much beloved Jjonak spoke of Seoul Dynasty’s flex-support Ryujehong as an “inspiration” but also dropped some bad manners in by stating that he and his team would “never beat them”. Ryujehong and co came ready to prove Jjonak wrong.
While Ryujehong had a few absolutely glorious moments, the head-to-head against the two glorious Zenyatta players was pretty even and wound up going to Ryujehong in the end.
The Dynasty advance to the next round of the play where they (the lowest remaining seed) will play the Vancouver Titans, who (as the #1 seed) beat the Boston Uprising without dropping a map in the matchup immediately following the Dynasty victory.
First-round matchups in the Overwatch League Stage 1 Playoffs will continue tomorrow at 6:00 PM PST when the Atlanta Reign face off against the Philadelphia Fusion.