Sparks Fly In Round 1 of the OWL Stage 2 Playoffs

The first round of the Overwatch League’s Stage 2 Playoffs are officially behind us and only one real crazy story to come out of it. The rest, well it all played out like everyone expected it.

Eight of the best teams in the Overwatch League received tickets to the post-seaons, where three rounds of elimination tournament would be played in order to determine who would win the Stage 2 Championship and their share of a half-a-million dollars worth of performance bonuses. 

How did the first round play out? Let’s take a look. 

Round 1 - Quarterfinals

Shanghai Dragons 1 - 3 San Francisco Shock

In their first-ever playoff appearance in franchise history, the Dragons were up against it. The Shock entered the postseason on a 28-map win streak and a complete undefeated stage. 

The Stage 2 Playoffs began with some fireworks when the underdog Dragons immediately ended the Shock’s map winning streak, stealing the first map in short order. Unfortunately for those Shanghai fans who have been on this emotional roller coaster, it ended early when the Shock turned everything around and leapt back to their winning ways. 

Hangzhou Spark 3 - 1 London Spitfire

For the first time since they won the 2018 Overwatch League Grand Finals, London Spitfire fans had a whole lot of hope for their team as the team entered the playoffs in the 2nd Overall seed. 

The boys in pink, the Hangzhou Spark, were on such a crazy rip when they landed on the Blizzard Arena stage and they truly showed the world how flat the Spitfire are. Map 1 is the only one that London managed to take and even that Map could have gone the other way. The Spark look strong moving into the second round, but they will have to make their way through the San Francisco Shock on their way to the Finals. 

New York Excelsior 3 - 0 Los Angeles Gladiators

A Gladiators team that only lost a single match in the entire Stage 2 regular season could have easily skipped past their first-round opponent, if it weren’t for that matchup being against the New York Excelsior. Sure, the NYXL team dropped two (yes, two) games to the Atlanta Reign, a team that doesn’t have a whole lot of wins right now. Yes, they got eliminated in the first round of the Stage 1 playoffs.

Luckily though, the “real” New York Excelsior showed up on Friday, and they barely sweat a drop in a clean sweep of the Gladiators. 

Dallas Fuel 0 - 3 Vancouver Titans

Plenty of folks looked at this series and hoped that this would be the surprise upset in the first round (sorry Spitfire), but those Vancouver Titans aren’t about to be slowed down by just anybody. It has to be handed to the Dallas Fuel though, they didn’t get walked all over, at the start. 

Maybe it was the Titans warming up a bit, or the Fuel shutting down, but the dominance on display by Vancouver was impressively heavy. With the win, the Overwatch world will finally get the NYXL versus Titans matchup it deserves. 

Round 2 - Semifinals

Starting tomorrow, May 11th, the final four teams will fight it out to see which two will play in the Stage 2 Grand Finals. 

You can catch the Overwatch League Semifinals action live from the Blizzard Arena on Saturday, May 11th, beginning at 12:00 PM Pacific Time.

Who do you think is going to punch their ticket to the Grand Finals?